Is there such a thing as effective ways to take breaks from work? Indeed, there is! I know our work demands sometimes make us resist taking a break, especially if we find it difficult to return to work after break time. I want to help you overcome this problem. Let us explore four simple yet effective ways to take breaks from work. Specifically, we will focus on how wisely choosing our break activities, avoiding addictive activities during our break time, always monitoring our breaks, and being flexible are effective ways to take breaks from work.
Wisely Choose Our Break Activities
It is easy for our work breaks to go from effective to ineffective. The first step towards making our breaks effective is when we wisely choose our break activities. We all know that some activities are better suited for extended hours instead of doing them during our break time. For example, responding to menial emails or even making bill payments. Therefore, we have to learn to identify what is more appropriate for the short time we take away from work and other tasks.
Three simple questions to ask ourselves as we wisely choose our break tasks:
- Will this distract me from returning to work?
- Can I finish this task within my brief break time?
- Does this activity make me feel relaxed, rejuvenated, or motivated to complete my work?
Once we answer yes to all three questions, we are on the right track.
Avoid Addictive Activities During Breaks
At some point in time, we have all gotten lost in the addiction of browsing YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter. Other times it may be a phone conversation with a friend that was so enjoyable we lost track of time. Whatever the case may be, we know that doing an addictive task is an ineffective way to break from work. Therefore, we must wisely avoid addictive activities during our break time.
Even though our excuse can be that it is relaxing, that’s not quite true. Let us be honest with ourselves. Its addictive nature pulls us away from returning to productive tasks. Furthermore, the pull to keep playing a game, browsing social media, or watching more of that drama series reduces our focus on completing important tasks. It also increases our desire to procrastinate. The simple solution is to avoid addictive activities during our break time.
Always Monitor Our Breaks
Haven’t we all lost track of our time break time? I know that I have. Whether we get too caught up in what we are doing or start something unplanned, we can easily lose track of time. To take more effective breaks from work let us always monitor our breaks.
So the next time we are taking a break from working let us track our time. We can use a stopwatch or even set an alarm reminder to make this easier. If we do not find an effective way to monitor our breaks we will always have to adjust our schedule because we went over our time limits.
Be Flexible
Whenever we are scheduling we must always be flexible. The reality in life is that things do not always go the way we plan. Whenever our breaks get interrupted, delayed, or even unavoidably extended, we have to learn to adjust accordingly. Hence we have to be flexible and leave room in our schedules for unexpected changes.
Whether it is a fast-approaching minute deadline, rushing to the doctor even a nap that went longer than you planned, be calm and readjust. Nothing good comes out of being anxious, panicked, or hard on ourselves for “not getting it right”. Whenever these moments occur let us look at our schedule and see how best we can shift our time. Sometimes we can even take the opportunity to still do a break activity during our unexpected changes. For example, we could pause to do quick stretches during the long work hours, tackle a priority task more efficiently with our rested brain, or tune into relaxing music on the car journey. Indeed, we can be flexible!
thanks for checking out these tips!
Now that we have explored four effective ways to break from work you need to put them into action. Whether you need to try wisely choosing your break activities, avoiding addictive activities during your break time, always monitoring your breaks, or try being flexible, test them out and let me know the outcome in the comment section. Whatever you do, take the time to see how you can improve your daily efficiency and productivity. You can do it!
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