5 Research-based Ways To Increase Your Productivity At Work

The research-based secret to high performance that few people speak about but you will love.

We all know that hard work gets things done and that's usually how success manifests itself. However, fewer talk about another ingredient, just as important for not only short-term but also long-term performance.

SHORT BREAKS!?

Here’s how NOT taking a break affects your body and mind:

• Your back muscles face fatigue, leading to pain and stiffness
• Your eyesight gets compromised by staring at the screen continuously for hours
• Your creativity takes a dip; irritability and anxiety levels start to rise
• The psychological exhaustion of overworking affects your ability to make strong decisions

Honestly, the list goes on. But you get the point, don’t you??

DON’T FALL INTO THE NO BREAKS HERO TRAP from the 90s. We know better now. ?Take some time off, for your own and your team’s sake. Now to some more research-based facts to support my statement:?

A study by the University of Illinois claims that “brief diversions amidst tedious work is proven to increase focus”. As in, taking short breaks between shifts naturally increases the employee’s productivity.

So, how do you start? Well, here are 5 of my favorite ways to take breaks in-between work shifts to keep your productivity levels intact throughout the day (backed by science-based research):

1. Take some time to practice breathwork

Breathwork is becoming one of the hottest buzzwords in the health space for good reasons, including its ability to combat stress. Here’s a detailed WebMD study that highlights why:

?? The human body needs a constant supply of oxygen to thrive through deep and slow breathing.?

?? When stressed, you start taking fast and shallow breaths that restrict the oxygen inflow into your bloodstream.?

?? When this happens, your brain immediately starts emitting threat signals, and your body responds in fight or flight.?

Take some time to learn proper breathwork. Because in times of heavy anxiety and stress, you NEED to assure your brain that everything is OK for it to function optimally.?

• Taking deep and slow breaths will instantly calm down your brain and elevate your mood, as it positively impacts your central nervous system.?
• A blog by Harvard Medical School also claims that breathing deeply from your abdomen helps balance your blood pressure levels.?

Remember: the key here is to divert your body from the “fight or flight” mode to boost productivity so that you utilize your work hours to the maximum.

2. Create distractions to rebuild your focus

Are distractions bad for you? Here’s some evidence that says otherwise:

• A recent study published in the journal Cognition challenges a decades-old idea about the nature of attention and shows that even momentary distractions from a task can improve one's ability to focus on that activity for extended durations. (Find the full study here: https://bit.ly/3MOCjqm )

Here’s a great advice: Stop hyper-focusing; it wouldn’t help you crack the code but ruin your focus in the long run, instead. However, creating small distractions to divert your attention from the problem at hand for some time, preferably between every 25-55 minutes, will help you return with a freshened-up attitude and clear head.

3. Spend some quality time outdoors

Here’s a common misconception: whenever I mention outdoors in my workshops, people usually confuse it with working in cafes and such.?

No, I’m talking specifically outdoors, “out in nature”. You need to escape your artificially lit, stuffy workstation for a few minutes every day to bathe in the sunlight and breathe in the fresh breeze flowing around. Even if there isn’t sufficient greenery around where you live, just go outside, listen to your favorite tunes and walk around for a while. It helps.

• As per research , spending some quality time in nature/outside is proven to help restore our scrambled minds and release pent-up fatigue.?
• Here’s another interesting study by renowned athlete/science writer Christopher Bergland that states how “workers who had a higher exposure to natural light throughout the day observed an improved sleeping time by 46 minutes more every night.”

Here’s how it all connects ― more exposure to fresh air and sunlight also improves your sleep and in turn, increases your productivity levels. Because the better you sleep at night, the happier you remain through the daytime.

4. Exercise your eyes for a while

Did you know that the average employee spends 6-9 hours a day using digital gadgets? 28% of all employees end up locking their eyes on a screen for 10 hours. (sigh, sounds exhausting!)

However, do you know how long it takes till your eyes start to feel strained? Only TWO hours.

• An interesting report I’ve found by WebMD.org about “Computer Vision Syndrome” states that your eye muscles are strained with time by constantly moving and reacting to images, texts, glare, flicker, and contrast on the screen.?
• As we're blinking less while continuously locking our eyes to the digital screen, it damages and blurs our eyesight in the long run.?

However, you can try a technique called the “20-20-20” exercise to protect your vision while working. Here’s what you’ve gotta do: after every 20 minutes of looking at your PC/laptop/mobile screen, divert your focus towards an item at least 20 feet away, for exactly twenty seconds.?

Besides, I recommend these extra tips to help avoid straining your eye muscles:

1. Dim your lights while working, so that you’re not in the presence of brighter light than your computer screen.
2. Install an anti-glare coating on your laptop screen to avoid any added strain
3. Fix your workspace ergonomics, so that you’re not staring up or down, but maintain an eye level with your screen

5. Simply sit and let your mind wander

Well, what about those who don’t want to perform any task/exercise while taking a short work break??

Here’s my answer: don’t do anything. Really, you don’t have to!

Just lay back and let your mind wander freely. You don’t even need to meditate; just sit, daydream and zone out. You’ll still replenish your energy levels and return to work feeling more focused and energetic. Here’s why:

• A report by Greater Good Magazine claims that mind-wandering helps delay gratification and “engages processes associated with the successful management of long-term goals.”
• A 2021 Forbes report highlights a UC Berkeley study that claims that mind-wandering is a necessary cognitive procedure that leads to innovations and helps bring in fresh, new ideas by channeling inside our unconscious brain.
• A report by Science magazine found that mind-wandering or zoning out has similar benefits to mindfulness meditation.

So why not just do anything? Sounds pretty fun and productive.

Here’s what my final thoughts are: it’s high time we stop perceiving the idea of taking short breaks between your work hours as lazy, unproductive, or a waste of time. Our body constantly needs refueling to maintain its productivity. And these few minutes a day is the perfect way to make sure that happens.

If you’ve liked this article or found it insightful, please like the post so that it reaches and educates more people. And if you want more info like this, make sure to follow me as I’ll be sharing more concrete research-based tools for better productivity, happiness, and health.?

‘Till next time!