Shhhhhhhh…I’m whispering this secret to you. It may seem counter-productive, but the greatest performance is when you take a break.
Yes, that is correct. The best productivity and performance is when people take breaks. Daily breaks, monthly breaks, quarterly breaks. Whatever works best for you. Taking breaks means you re-fuel your energy., and having energy may even be more important than intelligence.
Energy is so important because you need to feel good to do good work. When you have energy you make better decisions and better decisions can lead to better productivity.
Daily Breaks
It is important to take time for yourself each day. I suggest early mornings, as you are less likely to be interrupted and can focus more easily without distractions. However, depending on what type of day you have, you can take breaks where it suits you. Perhaps you feel good when you meditate over your lunch break. Some people prefer to work out in the afternoon, and feel re-juvenated afterwards to get more work done. When you look at your schedule, make sure you have some breaks built into your day. You will feel depleted if all you do is take care of other people or work all day long. And if you feel depleted, you will most likely be grouchy, and that does not help anyone, including yourself.
Monthly Breaks
I have heard of a few people in various businesses, who work for three weeks, and then take a week off, every month! This may or may not work for you; however, when I talk to these individuals, they are super productive and focused for the three weeks a month they do work. When they take a week off they are enjoying time with family, doing creative things such as painting or photography, some are on vacation, and still others dedicate their time to sports for a week. I have a colleague who works in Hawaii. He works three weeks a month and the final week of each month, he goes surfing. When he returns to work, he feels “refreshed” – his words, (no pun with surfing intended), and he gets more work done in three weeks then I see other people do in six to eight weeks, or even a quarter!
Quarterly Breaks
If you are a super productive person, you want to avoid burn-out. Burn-out comes from doing something you do not enjoy, ie. Lack any passion for, and/or you have not taken any breaks.
To avoid this, do something you love. If you are an employee, do your values align with the companies; do you feel fulfilled in the role you have? If you do, you will feel happier and less likely to burn-out. But, remember that you need to take breaks regardless. No one can work all the time. (And yes, there are people out there that try that, but ask them how they feel or what happens after a few years or decades.)
When you take a break, go do something you love. Go on vacation, visit a friend, enjoy a hobby or read a book and relax. Make sure it is something you love to do, it will re-energize you.
It is important to recognize this cycle, the productive-rest cycle. And find out what works best for you.
When I first started my company six years ago, I hit burn-out in the first year and then again around the third to fourth years. Yes, it took me some convincing that this cycle does work! I guess you could say I did all the wrong things and somehow still made it out the other end.
I would never recommend what I did to begin a company, but I learned a lot along the way. Such as faith, and prayer, I did a lot of that. Also, I learned when to take breaks!
I deal with people on a daily basis. I am sure a lot of people do in the business world, because business is about people! I realized that I need to take a break every six weeks, or I feel exhausted. So every six weeks I take a long weekend. Then every quarter I take a longer week or ten day vacation and spend time with my husband and family.
Comparing months to years at my business, I realized I generated more income monthly with my breaks. The productive-rest cycle I came up with, seems to work for me. I have had six years to test it and it seems to be doing pretty well now for my energy levels.
The question becomes, what works best for you?!
