TFF #4: Take a Break
Hi friend,
If you’re familiar with the Broadway musical Hamilton…
(Wait, stick with me. I promise I’m not going to totally nerd out on you.)
...you’d know the song “Take a Break.”
During the number, Eliza Hamilton pleads with her husband to spend the summer upstate with their family.
Instead, he insists on remaining in New York City and continuing his work.
Without spoiling too much, let’s just say that decision causes bad things to ensue.
Things would have been better if he had just taken a break.
And there’s a lesson in here for all of us.
“Wait a minute,” you might say. “I can’t afford to take a break.”
Actually, you can’t afford not to.
Because when you don’t take regular breaks, you’re less productive, make poor decisions, and can even tank your health.
So not taking breaks actually costs you time (and money).
In this edition of The Fearless Five, let’s walk through the importance of breaks & how to take them successfully.
1. What happens when you rest your brain?
So what happens when you put the phone away and allow your brain to rest?
Well, first of all, the brain doesn’t really experience a decrease in activity.
Instead, all of that activity shifts to different areas, known collectively as your Default Mode Network (DMN).
Essentially, while the prefrontal cortex is engaged, the brain looks for linear, logical solutions to problems.
But while at rest, the DMN is activated, and it looks for more intuitive or non-linear associations.
Have you ever had an idea just “come to you” out of nowhere?
That’s the DMN making connections & bringing them to the attention of your conscious mind.
But unless you allow yourself to rest, and I mean really rest…
...your DMN will never have a chance to do its magic.
But wait, there’s more.
According to research from the University of Southern California, DMN activity is highly correlated with:
Intelligence
Empathy
Emotional judgment
Overall mental health
So if you want to be healthy, productive, and more creative -- rest is a no-brainer.
2. How to take better breaks.
Now we know WHY it’s important to take breaks. So let’s look at the HOW.
If you actually to take breaks that activate the DMN, you need three things:
Detachment
Positivity
Consistency
Let’s walk through each of these in turn.
According to research from two German scholars (Sonnentag & Fritz, 2007), psychological detachment is key to an effective break.
Given what we just learned about the DMN, that’s not surprising.
When you take a “break” but are still plugged into work, you’re going to be distracted.
And distractions keep the DMN from activating.
So if you want the break to be completely effective, detachment is key.
There’s also evidence to suggest that experiencing positive emotions during breaks is also important.
By engaging in positive emotions, this increases blood flow to the areas in the brain that we use to focus (Lee et al., 2015).
Not only that, but they reverse the negative effects of work tasks (Trougakos et al, 2008).
In a sense, positivity directs your energy to where it’s needed most.
Finally, you need to be consistent.
One report from a team of Scandinavian scholars (Korpela, Kinnunen, Geurts, de Bloom and Sianoja, 2016) indicates that rest has a cumulative effect.
So just like you workout every day to improve your physical health, you need to dedicate time every day to rest so you can improve your mental health.
It may seem tempting to skip on certain days, especially when the to-do list is piling up.
But, again, it’s only by taking breaks that you become capable of tackling all of those tasks.
It’s counterintuitive, I know.
But most truths in life are.
3. Rest for productivity vs. rest for wellness.
Throughout this newsletter, I’ve framed the conversation around breaks in a particular way.
Essentially: that breaks are good because they make us more productive & successful.
While that’s certainly true, I recently came across an article that challenged that framing.
Essentially, the author argued when it comes to a choice between work & rest…
...we almost always choose work.
So in an attempt to justify rest, we say it will make us better at our work.
Or, that we’ve done enough work that we can rest guilt-free.
The author argues that this is the wrong way to think about it.
Instead, they say:
We all need rest, not because it makes us more productive at our jobs, but because it makes us happier, healthier, more well-rounded people.
This is certainly an idea worth considering.
Work is important.
But ultimately, our goal shouldn’t be to work for work’s sake.
Work should move us toward a particular goal (e.g. financial stability, new challenges, personal growth, etc.).
And rest, on its own merit, can help us reach an important goal: being happier, healthier people.
Perhaps this is a better way of thinking about it.
I’d love to know what you think.
Check out the full article here.
4. Daily Challenge: Find a break routine that works for you.
This edition’s Daily Challenge is probably obvious.
In fact, to me, it seemed a little too obvious.
So rather than just saying, “take a break every day this week”...
...I decided to take it to the next level.
Because I don’t just want you to do this for a week.
I want it to become a habit.
Which means that you have to find a way to make it work for you and your life.
So the challenge is two-fold:
Find a “break routine” that works for you and your life
Evaluate how those breaks impact your mental state
Establishing a “break routine” could mean different things to different people:
Meditation & mindfulness
Physical activity
Reading (both fiction & non-fiction)
Daydreaming
It doesn’t matter exactly which option you take (or if you choose something not on the list).
You just need to pick one.
At the same time, take note of any positive benefits you start to see as you implement this practice:
Increased mental sharpness
More creative ideas
Higher productivity
Better decision-making
Improved overall health
You may not notice the effects after just one week. That’s fine.
But if you do notice something, even if it’s a micro-shift, take note.
If you continue this every day, you’ll likely see the effects compound over time.
5. Weekly resource: The Pomodoro Timer
Have you heard of the Pomodoro Technique?
Essentially, it’s a time management system that helps you stay focused as you work.
You set a timer for 25 minutes. During that time, it’s “nose to the grindstone.”
Then, you take a 5-minute break.
Rinse, lather, and repeat.
After about five of these “pomodoros,” you take a 15-20 minute break.
If you’ve got an endless supply of to-do items, this method is perfect for knocking out those items while balancing your need for rest.
So this week’s resource is: a Pomodoro Timer.
Here are a couple of different options on Amazon.
Some are more advanced than others.
Me, I’m partial to the classic tomato.
(If you’d rather go digital, just enter “Pomodoro Timer” into your app store of choice.)
Let’s have a productive (& restful) week!
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There’s no time like the present!
Until next time,
Timothy