Give Yourself a Break

Common in workaholics and perfectionists, is a tendency to keep working when the mind and body are screaming out signs designed to get you to STOP, and have a break. If you have a break, you actually work better than if you continue for long periods of time without resting.

1. Your concentration is only at its peak for so long – depending upon the individual, most people can concentrate optimally for half an hour to fifty minutes at one time.

2. Your motivation can improve after being away from the desk for a while can renew your inspiration to continue working.

3. You need to take frequent breaks to either have enough food, water, go to the toilet. This is because ignoring these needs will lead to physical discomfort. It’s easiest to work optimally when your physical needs are taken care of. Otherwise it can be distracting. .When you keep working without rest, you actual performance can decline due to fatigue, poor concentration and low blood sugar.

4, When working relentlessly, you only tend to see the facts, and become a little less creative in your thinking. Relaxation is necessary for a mind that can think outside the square. Also after you have a break, you can go back to work and see problems from a different angle or perspective. This may be the precursor for creative, original work. Even for work that is logical in nature, mistakes can be made if you don’t give yourself a rest.

5.. For those people missing sleep, there are profound repercussions for concentration, and can cause increase in errors, for example. Sleep deprivation has been cited to cause more road accidents that having an alcohol limit above .05. If you extrapolate those findings to the effect it has on your work performance, it can only seem logical that it would be deleterious.

6. Complex carbohydrates and those with a low GI index (which will be written on the food label) will keep you satisfied longer and with the brain using a quarter of your energy intake, you’ll want to eat a lot of pasta, rice, breads and cereals. Protein is the end result of a chain of amino acids, and glutamine and tyrosine are just a few of these building blocks that make up brain tissue and help regulate neurotransmittera, necessary for brain function.

7. Mood problems such as feeling irritable or depressed can result if you don’t give yourself a break now and then. You focus may become narrow and life seem out of perspective when you only are thinking of achieving more work, without time in between for a chat, laugh or just relax.

8. There is more to life than work. If you find it hard to draw yourself away from the desk, ask yourself is your life a little one-tracked? Are you having enough time for exercise, family, friends, and socialising?

9.. Too much stress over a long period of time is also linked to negative health outcomes, such as heart attacks, obesity (due to long periods of sitting), in particular, raised cortisol levels leading to weight particularly being put on around the stomach, high blood pressure, stroke.

10. Would you rather have a commendable quantity of work done at a lower standard than you're capable of, or a little less but quality work that reflects your ability? If the answer is the latter:

Give yourself a break, and have frequent breaks!
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