Knowing When To Take A Break
Well I know I started this off, saying I was going to post at least every-other day, but obviously that has not been the case. I have been horribly sick for the past four days, barely able to even work or enjoy the 4th of July. Why was a I sick? Not sure exactly, but probably because I have not taken a break from work in general in about six months.
Why Breaks Are Important
Breaks give you a chance to “re-cycle” your mind and relax and enjoy life. Breaks also help to improve efficiency, especially when you are in the midst of struggling with something that is killing your productivity.
What Breaks Do For You
This obviously varies depending upon the person, but for me, breaks give me a chance to empty my work-related thoughts from my mind and gives me a chance to enjoy life for a bit (not that I do not enjoy working). Breaks give you a chance to drain your stress level, and lessens the strain on your body - because stress strains your body.
When I get stuck on a task, something extremly difficult, or even a task that is super easy, and I find my self spending too much time on it, I take a five minute break, or even a several hour break to let things go, relax a bit, and do something I enjoy at the time, such as cooking.
Working Too Much Destroys Ingenuity, Creativity, and Lessens Efficiency
Everyone who works too much can attest to this. When you over-work yourself, your mind naturally becomes weaker when developing solutions for whatever problem you are trying to tackle, be it a problem at all. I have found that when I get stuck on something, if I walk away and do something relaxing for just fifteen minutes (like running to the store to pick up food) and I come back, I have got a substantially higher chance figuring it out or finding a way of getting around it.
How To Take A Break
I know it is a simple task, but for the longest time I did not know how to take a break. If you are like me and your schedule varies so much during the week (as to what you are doing and where you are at) this can be difficult, but for starters I highly recommend picking a day (such as Thursday for me generally) to where you avoid doing any work, avoid calling any clients, avoid even thinking about your business to get your mind off of things and help facilitate new ideas. Likewise, it is a good idea to set time segments out of your work days to step away from things to reduce the stress buildup that most people incure by the end of the day.
That is it for now…