It’s time for a break: The right amount of rest is key to productivity

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When I start to get distracted, struggle to focus and get sidetracked by trivial matters, it’s a sure sign I am short of sleep. I often slip into coasting, not thinking about what I should be doing.

Some of the other signs that indicate my energy levels are low are the following:

1. Regular task switching; struggling to concentrate
2. Intentions falling by the wayside; becoming more disorganised
3. Completing tasks more slowly; having to re-read a paragraph more often than normal
4. Gravitating towards trivial tasks, such as checking email and social feeds

To overcome this, I have a set of activities to help me take a break from my work. These involve going for a short walk, exercising, or listening to an audiobook or podcast.

Here are some other suggestions that you might also want to try:

• Taking a brisk walk. It’s better if it’s in a green area
• Listening to or reading an enjoyable story
• Chatting with some friends
• Meditating
• Listening to some relaxing music
• Serving others, whether they are family members or people in need
• Spending time on a craft, such as woodwork, painting, or photography

How often you need to take a break will vary on several factors, including what type of person you are: outgoing or more introverted.

The benefits of taking a break

Research (based on a Tork survey) points to significant advantages acquired from taking regular breaks as well as a lunch break.

Improved productivity: Breaks can boost productivity by resetting your focus and energy levels when you step away from work. A lunch break can also help you avoid the afternoon energy slump, so long as you do not overeat.

Increased wellbeing: Taking a break from work can help reduce stress, especially if you combine it with a healthy lunch and a walk.

Surge in creativity: Stepping away from work can bring a fresh perspective. If you are looking at the same thing the whole day, it can become difficult to make progress. A break stimulates more creative thinking.

Healthier habits: Breaks can allow for healthier eating habits, exercise, meditation and self-care.

Here’s what you can do…
If you can build in a 10 to 15-minute break every hour, or a 20 to 30-minute break every 90 minutes, then you will help yourself not become distracted. Our energy levels, much like REM sleep, operate in 90-minute intervals, and taking a break after this period aligns with our bodily rhythms.

Along with ensuring you are getting sufficient sleep every night and are maintaining the right energy levels throughout the day, there are a couple of other things you can pay attention to that will help you become less distracted. These are related to what you eat, what you drink and how much exercise you do.

Eat more unprocessed food: It takes longer for the body to digest unprocessed food. The body converts whatever we eat into glucose – a sugar our body and brain burn for energy.
Unprocessed food takes longer to digest as our body switches it to glucose at a much slower rate, giving us a steady drip of energy throughout the day. Processed food gets converted into glucose quickly, but it does not provide us with as much energy over a longer period of time.

Caffeine and water: Caffeine prevents your brain from absorbing a chemical called adenosine, which normally tells your body it’s tired. It takes about 8-14 hours after consuming caffeine for your body to metabolise it out of your system. Whilst travelling overseas on business trips, I’ve often drunk coffee mid-morning when I have a night-time flight, so that as the effect starts to wear off, I’m ready to sleep on the airplane. Or if I’ve taken an overnight flight and landed the next day and had to go to work, I’ve taken a coffee shortly after landing so that my body can last till early evening, when I head straight to bed and crash for a long night’s sleep. I would also suggest that you drink water first thing in the morning. There are a number of studies on the benefits of drinking water. Some suggest that it fires up our metabolism in the morning.

Another study found that people who drank water before meals lost weight because water partly fills the stomach.
Water also helps us think more clearly and reduces the risk of certain diseases and ailments.

Exercise: When we work out, especially with aerobic exercise, our brain releases a number of chemicals that allow us to fight stress. We also increase the blood flow to the brain, which is positive for our mental performance – we feel less tired and have more focus.

When we exercise, our brain releases BDNF (brain-derived neurotrophic factor), a chemical that helps create new brain cells – a lot of this growth happens in the hippocampus, the part of your brain responsible for memory. Exercise can even boost mood and build cells in brain regions damaged by depression.
There are several measures we can take to prevent ourselves from becoming distracted. All of these are well within our capacity to perform but we will only do it if we assign importance to it.

The writer is an author and the founder and CEO of Improve Executive Focus