Have you ever thought, I’m almost done? I’m going to quickly finish this, and then I’ll…(eat, return the call, or go home). Before you know it, “quickly” finishing turns into another hour…or two.
Then you’re frustrated that it took longer than you wanted or expected.
Whether it’s a task, meeting, or project, if you’re like most people, you just power through. You do it and continue to do it until it gets done.
This tactic actually hurts you. It leads to decreased performance, focus, and productivity and increases distractions, errors, and stress. The longer it takes you to complete something over the time you thought it would take, the less motivated you are to finish it.
One of the worst habits you can get into is powering through, especially when it comes to thinking you should power through lunch or have a working lunch. You think it’s saving you time, because you’re eating lunch while you’re working, but you’re actually pushing your brain to do more and be more.
What happens when you feel this way? When you feel like you have to do more or be more?
You probably feel overwhelmed and shut down. The same thing happens with your brain. Your brain feels overwhelmed and shuts down.
Which is why at the end of a long day, meeting, or conference, you feel exhausted. Because you’re pushing your brain to do and be too much. Give your brain (and yourself) a break.
Just like your body gets tired, so does your brain. It needs time to relax and unwind.
It needs to shut down. Not once a month or once a year. It needs these brain breaks many times a day.
If you want to increase performance, every hour you work, give yourself a 10 minute brain break to replenish, rejuvenate, and re-energize yourself. These brain breaks are also vital in alleviating burnout.
What is a brain break?
A brain break is a short time you give yourself to step away from things to rest your brain from over thinking, over-analyzing, and overworking.
Think of your brain like electric wires. When you’re brain works too much for too long, it gets fried, which also leads to burnout, not just for the day, but burnout over extended periods of time.
Brain break ideas:
1. You can put on your favorite song and dance the time away. If this doesn’t energize or rejuvenate you, you need to find a new favorite song
2. Walk around the block
3. Put your head back and rest your eyes (just don’t fall asleep for an hour )
What a brain break is not:
1. Going on social media
2. Watching videos on your computer
3. Getting out your phone and texting non-stop
A brain break will motivate, energize, and empower you! It’s only ten minutes. And it’s a powerful ten minutes, if you use those minutes to rest your brain, allow it to get back to its natural state, and then release it on your project, meeting, or task and you’ll increase productivity.
What you’ll find is that you’ll finish things faster, be more articulate in communicating, and lead with more clarity.
And that’s just the beginning. Do this over the course of time and it compounds. Now, that’s powerful!
Brain breaks should be your new best friend. When is your next brain break? And how will you use it to help you better perform, lead, and communicate?
