Wait 5 before you take 5

Make sure you're taking intentional, rejuvenating breaks

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning,
This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's
tip is that while real breaks are wonderful and rejuvenating things,
when you feel the first urge to take a break,

(00:25):
consider whether you can work just a little bit longer.
First five more minutes here and there can add up
and make a real difference in your productivity. When you
are feeling stuck or bored or overwhelmed by a work task,
it is tempting to go get another cup of coffee,

(00:47):
or go to the restroom, or wander around the halls
at work, or move the laundry to the dryer. If
you are working from home, and it is possible that
you do need a break sometime soon. But if you
give in to the urge to take a break right
away at the first moment your attention wanders, you may

(01:09):
be undermining your productivity. You might not be at a
good stopping point. You might also be trying to do
something easy to avoid something hard. Taking a break right
then will mean time away from your desk and then
time to get back focused and fully on track. So
before you stop, consider if maybe you can push through

(01:32):
to a good stopping point or through the tough work
and then stop. Just wait five before you take five,
and your brakes will help your productivity rather than undermine it.
Because here's the thing, well timed rejuvenating breaks can make
your workday more productive and more satisfying. I suggest that

(01:56):
people take a real break mid morning for lunch, and
then mid afternoon. Ideally, you think about what you'd like
to do and consciously build in those rejuvenating activities during
that time. Often people tell me that they don't really
take breaks, but if you look at how you are
spending their days, they are in fact taking breaks all

(02:19):
the time. They're working on a project, but then get
a little bored and decide to check email. They read
two non urgent work emails and see a breaking news
headline and click over to read that, and wind up
spending ten minutes or more reading the news before realizing
it's time to get back to work. It didn't register

(02:40):
as a break, and it wasn't all that rejuvenating, but
it was time away from work, so it was a break.
Those fake breaks can add up over the course of
a day, since none of those emails actually needed to
be dealt with. Anytime soon, This was all a waste
of time. Time really better to push through that boredom

(03:03):
to a natural stopping point, or to the time when
you agreed to meet a colleague for coffee and then
enjoy this real break. Now again, it may be the
case that you are tired, or hungry, or need the bathroom,
but all of those things can generally wait at least
a minute or two. So when you start feeling the

(03:26):
need to leave what you are doing, check in and
see if this is truly what you need or whether
with a few more minutes you could really get something done.
I love breaks, but I want them to be worthwhile.
If you wait five before you take five, that is

(03:48):
more likely to be the case. In the meantime, this
is Laura. Thanks for listening, and here's to making the
most of our time. Thanks for listening to Before Breakfast.

(04:09):
If you've got questions, ideas, or feedback, you can reach
me at Laura at Laura vandercam dot com. Before Breakfast
is a production of iHeartMedia. For more podcasts from iHeartMedia,
please visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you

(04:31):
listen to your favorite shows.