I have to get something off of my chest: I work from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday. But I don’t work from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday. There are pockets of downtime in between completed tasks that I use to stay up on TV blogs, take a walk and or reboot my mind.
There are a slew of articles and research that show taking a break is good for you. And frankly, most of us don’t need an article or a researcher to tell us that. If something’s stressing you out, if your brain is pumping out ideas and great work at a steady clip, a break is not only totally appropriate, but arguably necessary for your mental health! If your trusty laptop could use a reboot every once in a while, your brain can too.
I tend to categorize my breaks into three tiers:
1. I need to browse
These are typically tiny little breathers in between tasks or projects at work. I have a Feedly (RIP Google Reader) account chock full of blogs I like that I can sift through when I need a little brain stimulation. Blogs range from the random (one about bicycle culture and infrastructure) to the relevant (the latest creative ad campaigns) to the just plain old fun (Coudal posts tons of gems). My Feedly is set up so that everything is in the mix, so a campaign that might inform my next creative client project might follow right behind an analysis of who could be in season two of True Detective. Having that variety keeps my mind fresh. Here are the latest things I’ve bookmarked if you have a minute for a fun break:
And my favorite:
2. I need to move
You’re finally finished with that maybe tedious but necessary six-hour task. You really deserve a beer, but it’s only three in the afternoon so let’s wait for that. Checking your Facebook isn’t going to give you the brain reboot you need (and neither is Patatap). You need to walk. Get your blood flowing again. Walk to the water cooler at least! Even better: Walk around the block. Go further: walk to a park, find a different way to get somewhere.
Your break doesn’t have to be solo and doesn’t technically need to be a break. Take a brainstorm or a team meeting outside, to the roof or a park to give your minds some space to breathe.
3. I need to disappear completely
While tiny breaks or one day off here or there will get you by for a little while, we all deserve a week to get off the grid and lay on the beach or explore a new city. This is the break for which you save, prepare and make sure everything at work is covered so you can leave it in the dust for a week.
I’m guilty of not taking enough of this kind of break. At one point I was fearful that I’d have to take a day off every two weeks or I would max out my leave (Joe reassured me that’s not the case). I’m not alone: U.S. workers left an estimated average of 9.2 vacation days unused in 2012, with six in 10 Americans saying that they worked through their vacation (via).
One word of (obvious, I think) advice for any of these workplace getaways: cover your bases. Don’t be gawking at Japanese manhole covers if you have a hard deadline in an hour that you’re still working towards. Don’t go for a walk if you have a meeting in five minutes or there’s a client fire drill and you just can’t deal. Be nice to your peers and clients if you’re going to be out for a week. Prepare the week ahead of time so you can seriously and totally be off the grid.
Ready? Break.
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