Why You Need to Take Breaks
Posted October 27th, 2014
Some days you feel like you are on a roll. You get to the office and dive into your work, and you make real headway, knocking off your tasks without encountering a lot of problems.
When you are in a groove like this, stopping to take a break is not something you are likely to consider. When things are going well, the natural impulse is to continue, to take advantage of the momentum that you have.
But studies have shown it would be unwise to not take a break. No matter how well it seems things are going, our minds cannot focus intensely on something forever. We may not realize it, because we cannot easily spot what is going on, but our minds will be begin to wind down. We will become distracted more easily.
You can see this by looking at the trajectory a typical day takes. In the morning, we are the freshest and most energetic, and so the most focused. By as the day wears on, we tend to stray a little more from our work, sometimes by going back to our email a little more often than we need to, or surfing the web, or spending time on social media.
This is why taking breaks is so important during the workday. Taking occasional breaks can help to boost energy, help with self-discipline, and making decisions. It also helps you to focus better and to think more creatively.
Another advantage of taking breaks is that it helps us to reorient ourselves toward our goals. By stepping away, we get a chance to gain some distance from our work, to gain a little perspective, and to reconsider our progress toward our goals.
If you have trouble finding the time to get away from your desk, one technique that might help is planning ahead, blocking out ten to fifteen minute slots where you take a break during the day.
And taking a break means just that, removing yourself from your desk and allowing your mind to relax and reboot. That means you should not be surfing the web or looking at Facebook, but getting up and walking around or stretching.
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