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When I get stuck on a problem, I have this mental space/process I engage where I tell myself I'm going to let my subconscious work it out while I focus on other things. Often I do this before a nap or bed. I still do this, and have been doing it for as long as I can remember. It works more often than not.

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The hardest thing for me is remembering this and not just sitting there fruitlessly banging my head against a problem.

It's really hard to step away because feels like you're quitting. But the time that you "lose" taking a break for your brain it will be rewarded when you get back to it. I struggled with that for so many years, now I finally accepted that I'm just doing this to be in a better place when I return to the problem.

You might be increasing the resources affected to the background thread or its priority. I too try to run as many background loops all the time, to be prompted by insights at the weirdest fun times and banging my head against problems seem to increase the number and insighfulness of these prompts. Frustration, more context, spite... Who knows.

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