The need for breaks before you break

Photo credit: Kaspars Grinvalds

Common sense tells us that we need a break between intense bouts of physical and mental work. 

When we don’t listen to our common sense, our body tells us. 

When we don’t listen to our body, the message gets louder, until our body sends us a message we can’t ignore. 

I often remind my clients that a Hospital Emergency Department is not a meeting room. 

To be at our peak at work and at play, we need to care for our brain as well as our body. 

And now we have research from Microsoft’s Human Factors Lab that proves what many of us know: 

Your Brain Needs Breaks. 

The important question is: Will we listen? Will we act?

The past 2 years of pandemic working eroded many of our well-being habits and practices. These were replaced by habits that negatively impact our health and well-being.  

Kez knew that back-to-back Teams meetings were causing exhaustion, impacting his health, productivity and mindset.  During his coaching session, we created a plan to remedy this.  

One of the simple yet impactful changes was to utilise time blocking to ensure that meetings and tasks were arranged in a way to disrupt the back-to-back flow of video calls. This has made a positive impact on his productivity, energy levels and how he feels about his week. 

On work-from-home days, Kez now starts the day walking his dog and stopping to grab a coffee at his local cafe. 

This new commute to his home office completely changed the flow of Kez’s day.  So much so that he repeated this as a commute home from work practice. 

As a result,  he arrives back home having processed his day and is ready to be fully present with his family. 

‘Your brain works differently when you take breaks. Taking time out between video calls prevents stress from building up’. Microsoft Human Factors labs

The most effective remedies are often the simplest, we just need to schedule them into our day. 

High performance requires high-performance habits. 

What are some simple changes that you can make today to make tomorrow better?