Take breaks to renew your energy during the day

Many people move their noses in disgust when the subject of breaks is mentioned (I know, because I used to be one of those people). They see themselves as a furnace of continuous activity 🔥, which doesn't need any breaks, because, don't you know, they are very energetic.

The same people generally can end up taking many secret breaks throughout the day. And by secret breaks what I mean is not that they are hiding their breaks from their co-workers - I mean they are hiding their breaks from themselves.

Thus, they end up dwelling on projects that they should not be dwelling on, they end up following various links that are somewhat project-related (at least to start with) on the internet 💻, but the digging into is unnecessary from the project's perspective. Of course, I will not say that one shouldn't indulge their curiosity. All that I'm saying is that from the perspective of the project, those kinds of activities are, truly, breaks.

Or they will end up spending more time than necessary discussing trivia with a colleague they originally engaged because they had to discuss a common task on a project with. People sometimes latch onto these activities because they have this mentality that they don't need or can't afford breaks. Their mind then proceeds to take breaks anyway, without their approval. This is similar to when you don't sleep enough, and your brain zones out and steals a few seconds of sleep every once in a while.

You need breaks ☕. We all do. It might just be that you are not aware of the form in which you are taking them.

Accepting the need for breaks means getting in control about how we take them, thus managing the breathing cycle of our energy. We can thus choose to take those breaks between tasks, rather than in the middle of tasks, cutting down on the costs of re-engaging ourselves in a task in which we were already engaged in. This addresses also a different point:

Most of the people I know justify not taking breaks by saying that they don't want to interrupt themselves in the middle of a project they are already engaged in. As said before, breaks can be taken at natural points in the project, before starting the writing of a new section, or looking up a new set of data. Even if natural points are hard to find (which is unlikely), your brain will be more resilient to fatigue if you do take breaks. This means you will literally get more focus and energy to spend on the said project. Especially if it is a long project, this is important.

Some people are afraid that if they take a break, they won't come back to the same task they were doing when they took the break. That is, they might come back to their workspace, but before restarting the activity where they left off, they with get distracted or deal with other things.

This can be helped if you leave the files open on your desk or desktop exactly to the point of what you were working, and pay attention to cultivate a habit of coming back to exactly what it was that you were doing.

Experiment with observing your energy levels 🔋, and taking breaks throughout the day to clear your head. See if this helps you be focused and more productive longer.