Let’s start by understanding what’s the word “Recess” means;
Recess
A suspension of business or procedure often for rest or relaxation. It could also be described as a period in which an organized activity such as study or work is temporarily stopped. It could also be referred to as a “break”.
Science has proven that people are much more productive and creative when they take mental and physical breaks. This is the reason children have recess at school, and why we’ve created this productivity-boosting solution to help companies maximize creation. Recess is the perfect tool in-tune with the new realities of today’s workplace and will help your team members stay focused and improve performance.
Why do we need Recess in workplaces
Breaks are good for your brain and your well-being and a good break has key characteristics you can replicate at home or in an office. When we’re at our best, we’ll not only feel better and be happier, but we’ll perform better, and this is good for us and good for our employers.
Breaks are critical to your function by contributing to healthy boundaries, mood, and well-being. A study in Current Biology even showed breaks improve memory. Those who took breaks while learning found a marked increase in their ability to recall key information and put it to use later
That is why, earlier this week, we announced to the entire team our new “Recess policy”: a time to pause at work. The most important thing is, as told by our boss, not the non-stop hours spent on a project but, the effectiveness of the least minutes spent.
Health officials encourage companies to offer some recess-like activity at work, or something similar, such as walking breaks. Sitting for a long time can adversely affect your health, according to health officials, and so recess breaks are a good way to break up sitting.
Between 5 and 10 percent of the increase in healthcare costs comes from employees who do not engage in enough physical activity, according to health officials. About one-fifth of all cases of heart disease and diabetes come as a result of inactivity.
The adage, “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy,” may seem like a silly childhood chant. Yet, it’s an idea that just may save today’s HR manager from one of the biggest headaches: turnover.
At some companies, recess activities take a more traditional format, workers can jump rope, play basketball, table tennis, or other “schoolyard” games. Other places have a more adult flavor to their recess, offering short exercise routines, ping-pong, or miniature golf. The purpose, however, is the same for each – to pull employees away from their computers for 5 – 15 minutes and help reduce stress on overworked people.
How to take effective breaks (and be more productive)
A Good Work-Rest Routine:
They are all essential for productivity, but many of us have the wrong idea about them. We don’t take enough effective breaks. We think we should focus on a single task for hours at a time. That idea is outdated.
Few of us can focus for even 1 hour without any interruptions, from others or ourselves.
While training our focus and lengthening our attention span are important and useful skills, it’s foolish to expect ourselves to work 1, 2, or 4 hours at a time, totally focused. Our mind has its limits. We aren’t computers. We can’t go at full speed 24/7. We’re humans and we need breaks.
If we want to perform at a high level consistently, breaks are necessary. Elite athletes don’t train all day long without rest. They focus on recovery nearly as much as on their actual performance.
A work-rest routine as thus; 30 minutes of work, 5 minutes of break, or 60 minutes of work, and 10 minutes of break is advisable to help increase focus and efficiency of work time.
So let’s take a look at how we can use good breaks to improve our mental performance.
An effective way to take a break/Recess
We’ll start with bad breaks. reaks that make you feel worse or lead to an unproductive state.
Unproductive breaks:
• Social media use (without effective boundaries in place).
• Reading news articles
• Watching YouTube and Netflix.
• Eating junk food
• Browsing shopping sites aimlessly
If you try to fit these activities into your workday as a break, they often derail it.
You know how your mind feels after checking social media for a while scattered, unfocused, and foggy. That doesn’t help your productivity. The worst-case scenario is that you go down a rabbit hole and waste the rest of the day.
Avoid highly stimulating, addictive activities during your breaks.
Avoid low effort, high dopamine activities like checking social media or playing Candy Crush.
Instead, choose break activities that give your mind a chance to relax.
What’s a good and effective break?
Effective breaks:
• Brew coffee or tea.
• Do a breathing exercise or meditate.
• Stare out of a window.
• Read a page of a book or a blog post: This can be a good substitute for social media checking.
• Tidy up a part of your room.
• Lie down with your eyes closed or nap.
• Stand up and stretch.
• Take a short walk: Studies say that taking a walk through nature boosts your ability to concentrate by as much as 20 % and at the same time reduces your stress levels.
• Have a chat with a roommate or a colleague.
• Call someone.
• Do a quick workout.
• Take a nap.
• Take a shower.
• Eat a healthy snack.
• Doodle: an activity that’s quite easy to carry out. Examples drawing lines, shapes, etc, especially when you’re bored
All of these activities let your mind switch from concentration to relaxation.
Don’t end up operating in a substandard state trying hard to force the brain to work non-stop. Take a break, free the brain.
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