The Power of Taking Breaks
These days, our apartments and houses have become the main locations where we spend our time. Working from home, at first, seems like a luxury that leads to much more free time and the ability to spend more time relaxing. In reality, it becomes more and more difficult to stop doing work when your office or classroom is at home. The boundaries blur between work and leisure as we begin to convince ourselves that doing a half hour or an hour more of work will be good for us in the long run.
After months of this cycle, I have begun to realize that I haven’t taken proper breaks during the day for myself or my mental health. The idea that if I work straight through the day I’ll get more done and have more free time in the evening is ingrained in my mind when, in all actuality, I just continue working in the evening because there’s nothing else going on. (Thanks, COVID-19.)
Since realizing I’m in this cycle, I’ve started working on breaking it. So, below is a list of activities and ideas that make it easier to convince myself that breaks are good and that help me celebrate taking breaks.
Why Take Breaks?
First, I want to quickly give an example of why breaks are important. In 2011, psychology professor Alejandro Lleras of University of Illinois led a study to determine the effectiveness of people who work or study for long periods without breaks. Lleras found that test subjects who received two brief breaks in the middle of working on a project remained focused during the entirety of the project. For the other test subjects who did not receive breaks, their performance declined continually until the fifty-minute mark of the project. Like this study shows, breaks ultimately increase our potential for success by lowering stress levels and helping our brains recharge and better retain information.
Tips and Tricks
So, here are some of my favorite ways to effectively take a break:
Take a nap. A 10-20 minute nap can significantly improve your productivity and focus.
Get some exercise. Studies show that doing 30 minutes of exercise 4 days a week significantly reduces stress levels.
Meditate. Studies also show that meditating for a couple minutes every day reduces fatigue, stress, high blood pressure, and insomnia.
A Couple of Things to Note
First, do not go on your phone while you take a break. The studies linked above show that engaging on social media while trying to take a break greatly increases stress and reduces people’s abilities to focus and effectively learn or work. Second, it’s good to make a schedule when trying to figure out when to take breaks. Some of the best times of day to take breaks or destress are right away in the morning, midday, at the end of the work day, or whenever you feel stressed.