You need a break

How often do you take breaks from work?

This month, I'm teaching a course on Strategic Approaches to Managing Your Workload at Library Juice Academy. The focus this week is on tools and strategies to improve your productivity - task and project management apps, pomodoro method, body doubling, etc.

We only spend one week on these tools because, frankly, the best productivity strategy is maintaining a reasonable workload. That's incredibly difficult in libraries, where "do more with less" has been a cliche since before I got into the field a dozen years ago.

We started off with getting a handle on just how much you're doing, adapting the work breakdown structure concept from project management to map out just how much goes into the various projects each participant is working on. And then we did some work on making sure everyone is clear on the goals they're working toward (which are easy to lose sight of in the day-to-day rush) and prioritizing tasks in relation to those goals. So now we turn to exploring ways to streamline the priority work.

Because there are so many options out there, and there's no right option that will click for everyone, the assignment this week was to spend a couple of hours trying something they hadn't tried before. I gave an overview of a range of options in the weekly lecture and some links to get started, without limiting participants to just those options.

One participant opened their reflection by saying they have tried just about ever app out there, and none of them have worked. The only thing on the list that I presented that was new was the idea of taking regular short breaks throughout the day.

So this week, they tried just adding short breaks. They didn't use a timer as you do in Pomodoro. They just worked either until a task was completed or they reached a natural stopping point. And then, instead of shifting right away into a new task, as they normally do, they took just 5 minutes to go look out the window or go get a drink or whatever.

This tiny little change made a huge difference in their ability to "maintain [their] momentum" throughout the day, because it smoothed out the transitions between tasks. By having a clear marker that this task is done, and a chance to clear their mind, they were more able to focus entirely on the next task when their break was over.

There's a ton of research out there to back up the importance of regular breaks, but when you're so busy that you don't allow yourself breaks, you probably don't have time to read those studies. It will be quicker to just try it out for yourself!

This also scales out to longer periods off work. Taking vacations - whether you actually travel or just spend a week at home binging on Netflix and not touching your email - provides the rest that you need to come back refreshed.

So if you're in the U.S. and/or celebrate Thanksgiving, I hope that you're enjoying this time off work!

So how does this relate to kindness at work? So often when we talk about boosting productivity, we focus on task managers and other apps to wring every little ounce of brain power and energy out of us without regard to our own wellbeing. But kinder interventions - like adding in more breaks - can actually have a more significant impact while supporting your wellbeing.

And with that, I have a couple of questions for you to consider:

How can you incorporate more breaks into your own workflow?

And if you're in a leadership position, how can you support your team in trying this approach?