Defeatist, that is, in that the only solution is to give up and do something else. *Not* “do some lateral thinking and that could help” . Or simply “why don ‘t you take a break, and get refreshed”?
But then again, it could be trying to get a little meta, with “the box” also meaning the borders of the cartoon strip panels. But projected back to the realism layer, that means … what? The cartoonist will yank you from your toils?
Comics I Don't Understand 
I think the hint of “meta” was definitely intentional.
P.S. Back in college it was a well-known fact that the sooner one fell behind with homework, the more time there would be left to catch up. For example, if you are two weeks behind with eight weeks to go, that’s much better than if you only have one week to go. The moral was to get behind early, and avoid the wait.
As an office rat, “think outside the box” to me means thinking outside the cubicle. I often get my best ideas when I am going somewhere else rather than sitting in front of my monitor.
@Mark H.,
Agreed. I often solve math puzzles while I’m driving (usually while waiting for a light). Changing your environment can really help the thought processes. Particularly (in math) when you don’t have paper and pencil.
I saw it as, stay late and finish this stuff or come in tomorrow (refreshed, presumably) and do it then. Office work always expands to over-fill the available time… So not defeatist at all. Sort of quiet quitting, even – don’t tie yourself down to the office just to finish this stuff, go home and live real life. Better work/life balance.
Procrastination is an under-appreciated technique for prioritizing tasks.
I was meaning to procrastinate today, but somehow I didn’t get around to doing so.
@Mark H: they actually keep you in the cubicle all the time? Every cube job I personally encounter these days is either pure work-from-home now, or hybrid.
My last years at Megacorp had already started that trend. I never bothered getting the laptop to do that.
I have always been a procrastinator – like Charlie Brown.
Robert is not like this and gets upset that I will not get things done on time – but it always seems to work out, even if it does mean that there will be last minute runs to the 24 hour post office on April 15 at night (this year April 18) with extensions for clients and/or us.