Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning,
Speaker 1: This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's
Speaker 1: tip is that while real breaks are wonderful and rejuvenating things,
Speaker 1: when you feel the first urge to take a break,
Speaker 1: consider whether you can work just a little bit longer.
Speaker 1: First five more minutes here and there can add up
Speaker 1: and make a real difference in your productivity. When you
Speaker 1: are feeling stuck or bored or overwhelmed by a work task,
Speaker 1: it is tempting to go get another cup of coffee,
Speaker 1: or go to the restroom, or wander around the halls
Speaker 1: at work, or move the laundry to the dryer. If
Speaker 1: you are working from home, and it is possible that
Speaker 1: you do need a break sometime soon. But if you
Speaker 1: give in to the urge to take a break right
Speaker 1: away at the first moment your attention wanders, you may
Speaker 1: be undermining your productivity. You might not be at a
Speaker 1: good stopping point. You might also be trying to do
Speaker 1: something easy to avoid something hard. Taking a break right
Speaker 1: then will mean time away from your desk and then
Speaker 1: time to get back focused and fully on track. So
Speaker 1: before you stop, consider if maybe you can push through
Speaker 1: to a good stopping point or through the tough work
Speaker 1: and then stop. Just wait five before you take five,
Speaker 1: and your brakes will help your productivity rather than undermine it.
Speaker 1: Because here's the thing, well timed rejuvenating breaks can make
Speaker 1: your workday more productive and more satisfying. I suggest that
Speaker 1: people take a real break mid morning for lunch, and
Speaker 1: then mid afternoon. Ideally, you think about what you'd like
Speaker 1: to do and consciously build in those rejuvenating activities during
Speaker 1: that time. Often people tell me that they don't really
Speaker 1: take breaks, but if you look at how you are
Speaker 1: spending their days, they are in fact taking breaks all
Speaker 1: the time. They're working on a project, but then get
Speaker 1: a little bored and decide to check email. They read
Speaker 1: two non urgent work emails and see a breaking news
Speaker 1: headline and click over to read that, and wind up
Speaker 1: spending ten minutes or more reading the news before realizing
Speaker 1: it's time to get back to work. It didn't register
Speaker 1: as a break, and it wasn't all that rejuvenating, but
Speaker 1: it was time away from work, so it was a break.
Speaker 1: Those fake breaks can add up over the course of
Speaker 1: a day, since none of those emails actually needed to
Speaker 1: be dealt with. Anytime soon, This was all a waste
Speaker 1: of time. Time really better to push through that boredom
Speaker 1: to a natural stopping point, or to the time when
Speaker 1: you agreed to meet a colleague for coffee and then
Speaker 1: enjoy this real break. Now again, it may be the
Speaker 1: case that you are tired, or hungry, or need the bathroom,
Speaker 1: but all of those things can generally wait at least
Speaker 1: a minute or two. So when you start feeling the
Speaker 1: need to leave what you are doing, check in and
Speaker 1: see if this is truly what you need or whether
Speaker 1: with a few more minutes you could really get something done.
Speaker 1: I love breaks, but I want them to be worthwhile.
Speaker 1: If you wait five before you take five, that is
Speaker 1: more likely to be the case. In the meantime, this
Speaker 1: is Laura. Thanks for listening, and here's to making the
Speaker 1: most of our time. Thanks for listening to Before Breakfast.
Speaker 1: If you've got questions, ideas, or feedback, you can reach
Speaker 1: me at Laura at Laura vandercam dot com. Before Breakfast
Speaker 1: is a production of iHeartMedia. For more podcasts from iHeartMedia,
Speaker 1: please visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you
Speaker 1: listen to your favorite shows.