How many breaks do you take every day? Chances are, it’s not as many as you need. Researchers have found that pausing a task for just ten minutes relieves mental and physical stress, improves outlook and improves productivity. Last month, the Journal Plus One published an analysis of 22 studies on the benefits of micro-breaks. Here’s a few of the things they have learned:
First, what you do on the break has a significant influence on how you feel at the end. Taking a break to help a co-worker do something job related or doing something job-related yourself will lead to negative feelings about the break. You might call this the “changing treadmills effect.” Yes, it was a break. No, you don’t feel refreshed.
Second, physical activity, such as stretching and walking, were associated with positive emotions. The same can be said for doing a bit of escape reading or chatting with someone about something totally non-job-related. Catching up on social media, however, is not one of these activities.
Third, don’t wait until what you’re working on is completely finished. Most tasks take longer than we expect and if we fall behind, we think we don’t have time to take a break before the next activity. As a result, we continue to feel overwhelmed or burned out. Take a break when it feels right.
Fourth, plan your breaks. There is no set standard for this, like 10 minutes out of every hour. It also depends on the nature of the job you’re doing. Intense activity, such as working the customer complaint counter is going to require more breaks than writing a report or designing a promotion.
Finally, if you supervise others, encourage them to take breaks, or not take breaks, without feeling guilty. Taking a break should be viewed as being a positive, therapeutic thing to do. But if someone is on a roll and getting energy from the task, compelling them to take a break will break the momentum and even create resentment. Let people choose the times to take their breaks. This control, by itself, will relieve some of the stress many of us feel these days.
This all might seem like common sense. But then the question is why you haven’t been doing it. So, take a break and think about what I just said.