Lion cubs find it fun to play fight on the savannah, but an evolutionary biologist would tell you that there's more at work here: the impulse to play aids in their survival. They learn what works and what doesn't, social rules of thumb, and a chance to try out new moves.

Maybe play is the same for us. Maybe our uniquely human impulse to make and engage with art of all types is, as Steven Johnson puts it, "nature's way of helping us develop the ability to recognize a signal in all the noise - find patterns that were previously a series of random dots."

When we're busy, play time is probably one of the first to get cut. Let's turn that habit on its ear and make play a priority in 2017. Your ability to stay fresh and moving forward in your career depends on it.