What is Effective Breaktime and How Does it Increase Your Team Productivity

Autonomous|Mar 16, 2021

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Working for hours on end is never a good thing and can have an extremely negative effect on the productivity of employees. This brings about the idea of having breaks in between working hours. However, when considering break time, it is important to consider effective break time. What this relates to is finding a time period that manages to maximize productivity by giving employees sufficient rest between working hours.

Having break time that is too long or too short can have negative impacts on productivity. When employees do not have enough break time, they may become burnt out or exhausted, whereas too much break time can result in staff becoming lazy or complacent.

What is Effective Breaktime?

Effective breaktime relates to taking breaks that manage to maximize one’s productivity. The human body naturally goes through an ebb and flow of high and low energy. By taking effective breaks, one aims to take advantage of this, managing to improve their productivity in the process.

There are many different types of breaks, all of which can be implemented into one’s routine to maximize productivity. Some types of breaks include lunch breaks, an afternoon break, and also five-minute breaks. You should be impressed with how lunch breaks boost productivity and improve your work performance.

All of these breaks can be effective, as they can be applied at different points throughout the day. The importance of taking breaks cannot be stressed enough, as working without them severely impacts one’s efficiency. Knowing when to take breaks is equally as important as taking them. Having too many breaks close together or spreading them too far apart defeats the purpose of taking them in the first place. Although taking breaks at work increases productivity, taking breaks that are not properly organized can be detrimental.

Mechanisms of Action and Rest of the Brain and Body

The brain and body are linked, meaning that one has an effect on the other. Working for long hours requires large amounts of cognitive capacity, which is draining on the brain. This often causes exhaustion, leading to decreased productivity levels. After long periods of cognitive application, the brain often becomes exhausted. Not only does this result in your brain not functioning at optimum capacity, but also has an effect on the way you feel and your body.

When you work for long hours, you can often feel your body becoming tired even though you have not been doing any physical exercise. This is because your nervous system becomes exhausted and has an effect on your body. This results in you not being able to complete work as efficiently both mentally and physically. By not giving yourself a break, you can burn out your central nervous system. It goes without saying that this is not healthy for anyone and can have some dire health consequences further down the line.

Rest is one way to combat this. Rest can have great effects on the human body, recharging your energy levels and also giving the nervous system the break that it needs. Recharging your energy levels allows you to get back to working at your full potential. This can have great effects on things other than productivity. It can improve your happiness levels as well as the quality of life that you enjoy.

For this reason, it is important that you integrate effective breaktime into your schedule, especially work from home schedules for hybrid workers.. Doing so can make you feel much better both physically and emotionally. People who do not take breaks often enough often experience burnout syndrome and are also more prone to other mental health issues such as depression and anxiety. By implementing some breaks into your routine, you can improve in so many areas of your life. Taking breaks can result in you having much more energy at the end of the day, rather than feeling extremely tired after getting home from work.

Benefits of Taking Effective Breaks

Taking effective breaktime can have a host of benefits for anyone. These benefits are all related to the way you feel as well as how productive you are. It is important to note that these benefits are only when observed when you take effective breaktime. Taking breaks that are not properly organized does not have these effects as they do not provide you with the right amount of time to properly recover from the pressure you have exerted onto your nervous system.

Some of the benefits of taking effective breaks are:

Effective breaks can result in improved performance. By giving your body sufficient rest, you are able to work at a much better performance rate than if they didn’t.
Taking breaks can restore your energy as well as your mental resources. This means that you feel better and also have more cognitive capacity than those who do not take breaks.
They can also decrease your workplace fatigue throughout the day. Not taking breaks can result in you feeling exhausted and burnt out, whereas implementing them into your schedule can prevent this from happening.
Sleep Disorders can also be cured by implementing breaks into your routine.
Those who suffer from cardiovascular diseases can also gain some benefits from taking breaks.

Now, here are some disadvantages when it comes to taking too many breaks:

You can lose track of time and focus.
It can be difficult to get back in the swing of things when you come off your break.
Taking too long of a break can have a negative impact on your productivity.

Recommendations for Taking Effective Breaks

There are some recommendations for taking effective breaks. By implementing these recommendations into your routine, you can reap the rewards of the benefits offered by taking effective breaktime.

The first recommendation for taking breaks relates to short breaks. You should take a break of five to 15 minutes every hour. These short breaks prevent you from burning yourself out while working. By taking these short breaks you can keep longing for much longer than if you chose not to.

You should also take longer breaks of at least 30 minutes every two to four hours. These longer breaks are usually your lunch breaks and afternoon breaks. You can de-stress during lunch break by having good lunch and chit chat with your friend. Everyone should take these breaks because they have a great effect on allowing you to recharge.

Meditation at desk through breaktime is also a great way to de-stress and relax. You can use this technique to relax during your short breaks.

The Bottom Line

Effective breaktime has a host of benefits. You can implement them into your schedule to enjoy a much better life.

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