Lately I've been just reading and reading and reading without actually trying any coding. Mainly I've been reading about functional programming, languages I haven't used before, etc. The way I got into programming was through constantly trying to build things, without much formal education. I think once you have a certain amount of real word experience it's important to sometimes take a step back and just try to learn about new things without the distraction or pressure of trying to build something right away. This all depends on a person's point in their career and goals though of course.