The Benefits of Taking a Break
It is quite common to feel overwhelmed as a student in college. Students more often than not participate in multiple activities, such as working a part time job, raising children, participating in extracurricular activities, and dealing with other life events. Juggling all of the different aspects of your life can be overwhelming, tiring, and mentally taxing. Many students find that the only way to cope with a life full of demanding activities is to devote every possible minute they have focusing on them. Taking a break is in the back of most student’s minds; instead we grit our teeth and power on.
I was guilty of this. I found myself exhausted, but I never gave myself time to rest and recharge. When I did ‘rest’, I was honestly procrastinating, giving up, or feeling frustrated. Afterwards, I would feel guilty that I wasn’t getting anything done. I knew that what I was doing wasn’t beneficial to my health or to my schedule, yet I couldn’t figure out how to give myself a good break. That’s when I read When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing by Daniel H. Pink.
Chapter one of Pink’s book goes into great detail about why taking breaks are important for people’s productivity and gives examples of two different types of breaks: vigilance breaks and restorative breaks. Vigilance breaks are pauses before important events, as to go over directions to avoid making mistakes. As an example, Pink describes how a surgeon uses vigilance breaks in the operating room. The surgeon makes sure to take brief pauses for pre-induction verification (administering anesthesia) and for a pre-incision time out. When one hospital instituted pre-surgery vigilance breaks, the quality of care skyrocketed and complications declined. Though nowhere near as dire, I have found a similar decrease in mistakes and an increase in clarity when I utilize vigilance breaks while doing my schoolwork. When I pause to take in what needs to be done and what steps I need to take to do them, I am able to work more quickly and with less confusion while remaining on task.
Restorative breaks, on the other hand, are breaks in the middle of the day to improve cognitive functioning. In Pink’s book, he describes how test scores for school children were improved due to longer and more frequent breaks throughout the school day. He also gives an example that shows breaks for judges make them more likely to issue favorable rulings towards prisoners. Essentially, restorative breaks give working minds a chance to rest in order to perform at their best. Before I read Pink’s book, I was doing a bad job of taking restorative breaks. Now, I find myself looking forward to my midday break. I make sure that I plan a portion of the middle of my day to take a step back from any type of cognitive demanding work that I may be doing. Typically, I opt to take a half an hour to stretch on my balcony and then walk my dogs around my apartment complex. This has led to a boost in my mood, as well as a renewed sense of motivation when I return to my tasks.
Not only are breaks needed to improve cognitive functioning, there’s a specific way that they should be done. According to Pink, if you can, it’s best to follow this simple outline in order to get the best out of your break. First, decide on taking a break, even if it is a short one. Mentally labeling your interruption from work as a break is the first step to get the most out of your break. Second, move if you can. Take a walk, stretch, or do a chore. Third, take a break with a friend, family member, or coworker. It’s better to take a break with someone else because it makes you social and gets your mind off the work task. Fourth, go outside if you can. Nature does wonderful things to enhance our minds. Fifth, remove yourself from cognitive tasks. Put your phone away. Instead, simply gaze out of the window or play with your pet.
Recently, I decided to test this outline to see how it benefited me. I was working on my online classwork at home, when I began to feel groggy and uninspired. I decided to take a break. First, I mentally labeled the time away from my schoolwork as a restorative break. Second, I decided to take my dog for a walk around my apartment complex. I asked my boyfriend if he wanted to join me, and he agreed, fulfilling the third step. By taking my walk outside, I also fulfilled the fourth step. Finally, for the fifth step, I left my phone in my room.
Following this outline helps me get the most out of my breaks. I’ve become more productive, and I’ve felt less stressed. Taking time to schedule breaks throughout my day has been a relief from my previous unhealthy grind. I’ve realized that I don’t have to plow through all of my work in order to feel satisfied with the use of my time or the quality of the product. In fact, I feel more put together and mentally clear when I schedule breaks throughout my day. It may seem like a paradox, but ensuring that I give myself proper breaks throughout my day has helped me get more work done in less time.
Leeanna Miles is a Psychology student at UNLV. She joined the Interactive Measurement Group in Spring 2016. She is scheduled to graduate with her Bachelors in Psychology in Fall 2018 and plans on pursuing a Master’s in Social Work afterwards.