Ten minute micro-breaks
The world is awash with productivity literature imploring us to find ways we can cut down on the unnecessary activities in our work life, squeeze every ounce out of every second of every day and essentially wanting us to behave a little like machines.
We’re not machines. Even if we were we recognise that the most precious machines in our lives tend not to function without being given regular care and attention. Eventually they too break.
It’s easy and tempting sometimes for us to go without proper sleep, to eat poorly, to skip exercise all to meet a critical project deadline. We promise that we’ll somehow make it up to ourselves but this is rarely true even if it was actually possible.
In today’s article / podcast we’re looking at the concept of micro-breaks, rather than working ourselves to the point of burnout and then trying to restore engine health, how we can built vital ten minutes micro-breaks into our day and really see and use them as a means to improve productivity.
When you were at school did you ever notice that most lessons lasted for 50 minutes. Look at today’s rostering and period times have hardly altered. Can you remember when you were scheduled with a double period especially for me if it was double maths, boy did that second period seem to just drag on forever?
Lots of research on human attention spans and ability to focus supports the notion that our brains are well geared to working in sprint intervals. In today’s roles that tend to be knowledge based and intensive this is ever more true. Our brains perform best for us when they are asked to focus for a relatively short period and then given a break.
When we leave school and enter the workplace what happens to the 50 minute period? It suddenly vanishes and instead we are ruled by the clock. Actually these days we are more likely to be ruled by Outlook or whatever we use to run our calendars. Pick up your 2022 diary and you’ll see it lovingly laid out in 60 minute blocks all ready to be filled. Open Outlook at the end of the Christmas break and once again the default settings lock in at 60 minutes for a meeting. Start on the hour and end on the hour.
And amazingly although we can laugh this off as just a default of computer programming, we respond to the way the machines are configured. The one hour meeting rules the day.
Adam Gazzeley in his book The Distracted Mind points out how strongly we allow the technology to guide and tell us what to do through unconscious choices. In 2004 around 500 people in the United States had to seek medical attention after colliding with either a moving or even stationary body whilst walking and texting. By 2010 this number had increased three-fold. Imagine how high the number might be today. I distinctly remember nearly colliding with at least one lamp-post in my lifetime.
Often what drives this is fear of missing out, which we’ll come to later.
With me so far? Let’s look at some real world evidence around micro-breaks.
In 2013 researchers at the University of Sherbrooke Quebec
undertook a study with surgeons. Surgeons need to operate literally with utmost precision not only demanding high levels of cognitive concentration but also control of delicate ligaments and muscles in their own bodies using or guiding sharp equipment. In a test the surgeons who had microbreaks were seven times more accurate in a task that then tested (I hasten to add here not on real patients) their surgical precision. And they experienced half the back and muscle pain of those who’d not take the micro-break.
Conventional productivity would use metrics and dimensions around operating theatre utilisation rates and downtimes. All very well if these were robots and machines but with human beings involved, accuracy in this case is a life or death situation. High utilisation with outcome failure isn’t likely to curry much favour with hospital administrators.
Even letting your mind wander has been shown to have a positive impact on productivity during the critical ten minutes. A study by Brent Clarke showed short bursts of leisurely internet browsing to have a beneficial effect on productivity in the next and subsequent task. We should caution here the effect tapered off for those who clearly spent too long browsing but the point in this case was letting the mind wander allowed the individual to relax, regenerate and get ready for the next task. Andrew Bennett at Virginia University found that watching a funny video clip during a micro-break was often sufficient to significantly change mood, attitude and motivation to the next period of work. There may yet be a case for TikTok.
And it’s not just our brains but our physical bodies that benefit from the ten minute microbreak. In 2018 nearly half a million workers in the UK were experiencing muscular skeletal issues at work resulting from sitting for too long. In fact sitting for extended periods of time is increasingly of concern in more ways than just a sore back. This issue has increased considerably as the pandemic has driven more of us into working from home. So the micro-break is an essential opportunity to change position, stretch out those limbs and for employers to offset the horrendous cost of workplace based muscular skeletal sickness and absence.
I now have you half convinced yet you’re probably still not going to get into the spirit of micro-breaks. Often the reason why is back to workplace cultural norms and technology driving our behaviours without realising it.
A micro-break is not a micro-break if during the ten minutes you indulge in any of the following:
· Catching up on the news. This is highly likely to expose you to thoughts or emotionally provoking material so far from being rested you’ll likely be more anxious or carrying more thoughts than you did before
· Catching up on your social media. Arguably even worse and in any event your brain will now be going into the next period of work filled with whatever you’ve picked up through a quick delve into facebook
· Dive into your inbox to clear some emails. This is not a break at all. Even trying to file emails is a highly cognitive task of evaluating importance, deciding which category type to file under. This has no beneficial effect on recharging the brain for your next period of work. And the short period of time is likely to result in you sending an email you’re going to regret or going into your next meeting emotionally charged without something you’ve seen and can’t respond to
· Quickly read up on the minutes of the next meeting and figure out what you should have done beforehand. This is a valid thing to do but it’ll not result in any recharge effect
Instead of seeing a micro-break as slacking off when there’s work to be done, recognise its power in helping us be at our maximum alertness and productive selves in the next meeting to come. Why would you want to go into your next period of work being less effective than you were in the last? But it’s what will happen until you harness the micro-break.
Our goal is to recharge the brain we need to be at our most alert and productive in our next meeting so we need to shake up the possibilities a bit. Our goal is to protect golden time where the brain is not taxed on its executive functions but gets space to rest.
So here’s what to do instead.
Sort out your calendar app and make every effort to indicate to people that one hour meetings are a thing of the past and instead they’ll last for 50 minutes. That 50 minutes by the way is not “over-run” time to make up for the person who talked too long. If you can’t change everyone just yet then at the very least when you are the meeting organiser practice what you preach.
Compile a list of ten activities you can do in a ten-minute micro break. Now label them asto whether they will be helping you refresh brain or body or both.
When you start your day – before you even open your emails, pick the ones you’re going to do today and put them on a list. Arrange them in an order.
As you go into each micro-break session towards the top of the hour, take the item off your list and do it and aim for a mix of physical and cognitive restorers. This is the trigger / reaction response we want in order for this to become a ritual and a ritual to become a habit. Don’t worry if you didn’t get through them all in a day but do notice when and why you compromised your micro-break.
And as a leader not only should you be doing this for yourself but you should also be encouraging your team to be at their most productive – and most productive, attentive and creative is not about an “always on” approach – really quite the opposite. Follow the research and enjoy the new freedoms you’ve afforded yourself.
Ten minutes to boost your productivity.
