Today we are inundated with at-home entertainment options. In particular, video entertainment options are so vast it’s hard to keep track of them all. With the advent of streaming platforms, the amount of content and ways to view it has grown exponentially in recent years.
With so much content, including high-quality content, it’s no wonder Netflix and Chill became a buzzworthy term. But, even a vast video library gets stale if you’re watching it every single day. So, it’s no surprise that a lot of people are looking for alternatives. Maybe they still want to stay home, but just not sit on the couch watching a TV screen.
Of course, there are plenty of other things you can do at home for entertainment (reading a good book, taking up a hobby like painting, etc.) but there’s one very old-school activity that has gained more popularity over the past two years, with so many people spending more time at home. The jigsaw puzzle.
Jigsaw puzzles have been around since 1767, making it about as old school as you can get.
Benefits of Doing Jigsaw Puzzles
- You actually engage both the left and right brain, simultaneously.
- Short-term memory is exercised and improved.
- Improves visual-spatial reasoning.
- It reduces stress and heart rate.
- It can improve your attention to detail.
- If you’re working with one or more people, it improves collaboration and teamwork.
Jigsaw Puzzle Strategy
The minute you take on your first jigsaw puzzle as an adult, you’ll realize there is some actual strategy required to successfully complete a puzzle. It starts when you dump out the pieces. What do you do next? Your brain will immediately start developing a plan. The strategy will likely evolve during your first puzzle and then continue as you move on to a new one.
A Few Strategic Tips
Pick your Workspace - It goes without saying you need a flat surface big enough for the completed puzzle. But, you really want an even larger space to accommodate all the pieces before they get put together. Also, make sure you have good lighting. Bad lighting makes putting a jigsaw puzzle together a frustrating experience.
Flip the Pieces Face Up - This is a bit of a painstaking process, but putting all the pieces out, face-up is a big part of completing the puzzle. This also means you need a lot of extra space (consider a puzzle table or board, with removable drawers).
Sorting and Grouping Pieces - As you flip the pieces face up, you will likely begin spotting patterns. Edge pieces will stand out and those are the first pieces you should separate from the rest. Next, you may begin noticing common colors, patterns, or contents of the picture on the puzzle (at least if you’re doing a typical jigsaw puzzle). You may find yourself naturally sorting pieces into groups or categories, based on those patterns. This is another great way to help you set up the pieces to make assembling the puzzle easier.
Put the Border Together - Not everyone agrees with this as the next logical step, but it’s hard to argue against it. Building the border helps you get a full spatial understanding of how the puzzle lays out. It will make putting the interior pieces together a bit easier.
Work Section by Section - Next it can make sense to start assembling specific parts of the puzzle where you can easily identify all the relevant pieces. Whether it’s based on color, pattern, or an obvious element of the puzzle picture, pick an area and start gathering the pieces and putting them together. Then move on to the next.
Keep Plugging Away - At some point, you get to a point where all the obvious sections are complete, along with the border. Then comes the harder work of figuring out where all the remaining pieces go.
A Final Sort - Once you get toward the end, I like to organize the pieces by shape. There are likely only a handful of types of shapes, so putting each one together can be very helpful when you know the shape of a piece you are looking for.
As you take on more puzzles, you’ll develop your own style and strategy. My wife does not like doing the final sort by shape, but I swear by it. Good luck puzzling!
