9 alternative ways to take a break
And the three main temptations to avoid
TLDR: Take breaks when you need them; use your break time more imaginatively.
Word count: 452
Read time: 2 min
Breaks and rest are essential but not well utilised.
We work hard. We’re flat out each day with work interspersed with video meetings. We’re constantly on-call thanks to the hardware and software technology that we permanently keep about us.
We only realise that we’re in dire need of a break when our energy is well and truly sapped. In those moments we’re at our most vulnerable, and most susceptible to instantly gratifying temptations such as:
Snacking on food we know is bad for us
Scrolling through media we know is bad for us
Spending money on crap we know is bad for us
We’re then in a negative spiral. Feelings of anxiety, inadequacy, missed opportunity surface. We go back to work in lower spirits even than we left it.
Yet this cycle is so easily broken!
First, decide when you’re going to take a break, well before you get tired. Timebox your breaks explicitly to make sure they happen, and to signal to others that you need this time to recharge. If you end up not needing that break, move it around a little. It’s better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it.
Second, we’re disappointingly unimaginative about how to take breaks. Having little energy to be creative when we finally do take them, we don’t consider some of the less obvious options.
So…here’s a list of obvious and less obvious activities to help you recover mentally, physically, or both.
Close your eyes for a few moments
Stretch your limbs
Splash cold water on your face
Take a short walk
Gaze outside, ideally at nature
Read a chapter of a book
Tidy your desk area
Doodle and let the mind wander
Show gratitude to someone
And as an infographic:
A nice benefit of taking a break at the right time and in the right way is that your diffusive, subconscious mind might just solve a problem your attentive, conscious mind could not. As David Ogilvy deliciously puts it:
Big ideas come from the unconscious. This is true in art, in science and in advertising. But your unconscious has to be well informed, or your idea will be irrelevant. Stuff your conscious mind with information, then unhook your rational thought process. You can help this process by going for a long walk, or taking a hot bath, or drinking half a pint of claret. Suddenly, if the telephone line from your unconscious is open, a big idea wells up within you.
Don’t let your depleted self decide when and how to reinvigorate itself. Have your best self decide that, while fatigue is still far, far away.
Marc
Links you may like
7 days of Timeboxing (the free email micro-course)
Timeboxing, the book (US)
Timeboxing, the book (UK)
Timeboxing, el libro (Español)
Connect with me on LinkedIn (I will say yes!)