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Episode Description:

Last week was all about self-accountability, and this week is all about...giving yourself a break.

A micro-break, to be exact. Beth gets real on her struggles to take breaks and introduces a new way to sustain your energy levels throughout the workday.

Links mentioned in the episode:

Podcast:

The Type A Plus Podcast Instagram

Host:

Beth Lawrence LinkedIn

Beth Lawrence & Company Instagram

Beth will be back each week, delivering bite-sized tips (15-minute episodes or less) on how to optimize your life and work.

Episode Transcript can be found below:

Welcome to the Type A+ podcast with me, Beth Lawrence.

I'm a certified meeting professional, an award-winning event planner, and a classic over-prepared overachiever.

In each episode, I'll deliver bite-sized tips on organizing your business and life, even during your most hectic times.

So, let's get started.

Hello everyone, and welcome back to the Type A+ podcast. I'm your host, Beth Lawrence, and I hope you're enjoying motivation month. Last week, we talked about how to hold yourself accountable, something that I've struggled with in the past. This week, we're going to focus on rest and taking breaks.

When we think of holding ourselves accountable, we usually think of pushing through and making sure all the work gets done. But I want to emphasize the importance of rest and taking breaks, especially when we're feeling burnt out. So, ask yourself, when was the last time you took a big break, a vacation, a day off, or silenced your phone? If you're feeling anxious right now, I totally understand. That's where micro-breaks come in.

According to a study published in August 2022 in the PLOS journal, micro-breaks, which are defined as a break of 10 minutes or less, are all we might need to start feeling better and having more energy throughout the day. This study found that people who take breaks experience a significant shift in their vibrancy and well-being at work. In fact, research indicates that those who took micro-breaks had about 60% better odds of feeling energetic compared to their peers.

That doesn't necessarily mean those who take micro-breaks are more productive or have higher output levels, but they feel more energetic. And energy typically lends itself to motivation. However, for those of us who are Type A+, it can be difficult to push ourselves to actually take breaks. In fact, we usually go the opposite way and push ourselves to get things done, to make it happen before a deadline.

Ironically, sometimes the days that I don't take breaks, I feel more productive. And that, my friends, is not a good sign. Type A+ people tend to be hard on themselves, and the harder we work, the more difficult it can be to take a break because we've become so attached to the projects we're working on that we can't delegate them, and we think that taking a break will take us away from the subject at hand.

The joke's on me for feeling productive during those days because studies suggest that highly productive employees tend to work in relatively short spurts with longer breaks. This study was published by a productivity tracker company called Desk Time. It found that of its most productive employees who use the platform, 52 minutes are spent on average working for every 17 minutes of break.

The study found that this 15 to the 20-minute window is a golden time for productivity. It's long enough for your brain to disengage and leave you feeling refreshed but not so long that you lose focus or derail momentum on what you were doing. This also aligns with recommendations that ergonomic studies have suggested, such as trying to give your eyes a break every 20 minutes to look at something 20 feet away for 20 seconds.

But what does this have to do with motivation? Well, it's easier to motivate yourself to work for 52 minutes or some predetermined block of time than it is to sit down at 8 o'clock in the morning knowing that you really haven't scheduled any time to leave your desk unless you have to. Maybe you're eating lunch while you're working. Bonus to getting motivated and working for those 52 minutes, you'll likely find that you will be less burnt out and tired at the end of a work day.

So, as John P Chicago, an expert on breaks, puts it: the more fatigued you get, the more effort you have to put in to keep performing. So, you actually expend more and more effort and do it less and less efficiently every time. Let alone me, who is sitting here with an empty water bottle and an empty stomach trying to push through and get things done. No wonder it feels like I'm spinning my wheels because, at times, I honestly am. Over time, I found that the ideal block of time for me to work is 90 minutes before taking a break.

That's usually what I schedule on my calendar if I have deep work, and it turns out that our buddy John agrees with that method, at least to some extent. From his research, he's found that it's actually best to stretch every 20 to 30 minutes during a 90-minute session and get up at least once, likely at the halfway point. When you're thinking about taking breaks, it can feel very overwhelming, especially if you have a big to-do list.

But tomorrow or next week, try scheduling your time blocks for 90 minutes and setting an alarm or two for breaks. Of course, making sure that you're organized during this process is always key, whether that's a digital to-do list, a physical to-do list, or a project management system. A bonus tip is to use a to-do list where you can check things off; it gamifies the situation and helps you to check the boxes, thus leading to even more motivation. And if you're sitting here thinking, "What if I lose my train of thought completely?" well, I have more good news for you. It turns out that our brains continue learning activity even when they're at rest.

This is why sometimes in the middle of the night, we get our best ideas or when we're on vacation, we finally have a breakthrough in that problem that we've been trying to solve. In summary, break through that cycle and schedule regular breaks in your day to stay motivated. It helps if you're doing something that you love. Most studies agree that walking, stretching, and getting a glass of water are all great ways to take a break.

I have found that sometimes doing a short meditation, taking a walk, and listening to affirmations can be very rejuvenating in the middle of a long workday. Just getting up, stretching, and leaving all of your screens in one room can also feel very refreshing.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go fill up my water bottle and take a little stretch because I have not done so in a few hours, and it's the end of the day.

See you next week on the Type A+ podcast. Thank you for listening.

The Type A+ Podcast is written and produced by me, Beth Lawrence.

Our music is composed by Dan “Dilemma” Thomas.

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