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A Science-Backed Guide toTaking Truly Restful Breaks

有科学支撑的真正休息指南

We know, thissounds made up. But stick with us, because not just any kind ofbreak will do.

我们知道，这听起来有点像编造的。但是跟着我们一起做，因为没有任何其他的休息形式可以有如此效果。

Step 1:Fully switch off

要彻底的休息，而不是换一个活动内容。即使这个活动与工作内容无关，可能是看新闻、浏览网页或者是狂淘宝，但依然会消耗精力和毅力，结果休息之后还是会有自己被榨干的感觉。 So make sure you do take regular breaks to prevent yourself from becoming exhausted。所以经常性地休息，防止自己筋疲力尽。最有效的休息方式称为:“micro breaks”，对应中文“小憩”，Only genuine relaxation and social break activities had any benefit。只有真正的休息和社交聊天活动才会有帮助你恢复精力。

Step 2:Take short breaks early and often

要经常性、提前休息（感觉是对待消化不良的策略—多次、少量）。不要等自己真的感到疲乏的时候才休息，那往往需要更长的时间来恢复，而且效果不佳；所以，早上尽管精神旺盛，也省着点用，否则就算中午休息了，下午估计也难恢复到较佳状态。文章把人的精力比作电池的电量和汽车的燃料，不要等到用完的时候采取补充，那常常付出更多，却也未必能够达到效果。

Step 3:Get out of the office

走到室外去，即使只是围着所在办公地点的大楼走上一圈也是极好的，要是附近有公园或者湖泊之类的效果就更好了，不见得要绿意盎然的热带雨林才可以达到效果。因为在工作场所，你们聊天的内容或者无形中的氛围，都会给你潜在的心理压力，难以卸下所有的包袱和伪装去轻松自在的休息。

记：真正会工作的人，并不是一刻不停满负荷运转，把自己搞得像一个机器人，而是更懂得，利用经常性地休息几分钟，让自己始终保持高效的工作节奏。他们并不是在时间的“量”上面和自己死磕，而是懂得身体运转的规律，在有效、高效的“质”上面和自己较真；说到底就是对自我的精力（注意力）管理，以目标为导向，让一天的时间，产出最大的成果。

When deadlines are looming, the phone keeps ringing, and your inbox is overflowing,the idea of taking a break seems faintly ludicrous.The only option, you tell yourself, is just to plough on. Understandable, but shortsighted – you’ll end up paying a heavy price in the long term.

Just as you need to refuel your car and recharge the batteries in your cell phone, it’s important to give yourself the chance to recoup your energy levels throughout the workday. In fact, the more demanding your day, and the less time you feellike you have to take any breaks, the more crucial it is that you make sure you do take regular breaks to prevent yourself from becoming exhausted.

But not just any kind of break will do.Psychologists and business scholars have recently started studying the most effective ways to relax during a workday – they call them “micro breaks” – and their latest findings point to some simple rules of thumb to sustainand optimize your energy levels through a grueling nine to five.We’ve  crunched the data into the following three-step process to reach peakrestfulness.

Step1: Fully switch off

It’s extremely tempting,especially when we’retired, to spend breaks doing things that are convenient, but aren’t  truly restful. This might be internet shopping, browsing the latest news, or skimming an industry magazine. However, studies show that brief workbreaks are only genuinely rejuvenating when they give you the chance to fullyswitch off. By contrast, any kind of activity that involves willpower orconcentration, even if it’s not in a work context, is only going to add to yourfatigue levels.

Considera study published thisyearby researchersat the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and George Mason Universitythat involved nearly a hundred Korean office workers keeping a diary for tenwork days, in which they noted how much work pressure they had after lunch andwhat they did during any work breaks. Each participant ultimately noted howfatigued they felt at the end of the day. The researchers coded the work breakactivities as relaxing (such as daydreaming orstretching),as nutrition-based (grabbing a coffee), social (chatting with colleagues), orcognitive (reading newspapers or checking emails).

Reading websites taxes manyof the same mental processes that we use when we’re working.

As you’d expect, feeling thatwork demands were more intense around lunch time went hand in hand with feelingmore end-of-day fatigue. Crucially, the right kind of break provided aprotective buffer against this link between work demands and fatigue. Whichkind of break was this?Only relaxation and social break activities had any benefit.Cognitive activities during workbreaks actually made fatigue worse, likely because reading websites or checkingemails taxes many of the same mental processes that we use when we’re working.

Workers who spent lunch break using their smart phone, as opposedto chatting with friends,felt more emotionally exhausted in the afternoon.

Another related study,published this year by a pair of researchers at Ajou University in South Koreaand the Korea Institute for Research in the Behavioral Sciences, found thatworkers who spent their lunch break using their smart phone, as opposed tochatting with friends,feltlike they’d enjoyed as much distractionfrom work as the sociable folk,but they actually ended up feeling more emotionally exhausted in the afternoon.

There’sa popular theory in psychology that says our concentration and willpower levelsare like fuel in a car –the more you use them in one activity, the less youhave left over for other tasks. The theory has recently come under criticismfor being overly simplistic,but if nothing else,it provides a useful analogy to make sense of the new researchfindings on workday breaks: As your energy reserves get gradually depleted through the day,you’re only going to allow these reserves to replenish if you genuinely relaxin your break times.

Step2:Takeshort breaks early and often

A key insight from the research is that it makes a difference whenyou take breaks. Most of us feel more energetic in the morning than in theafternoon, and it can be tempting to wait until we’re flagging later in the daybefore allowing ourselves a short break. However, findings suggest that weactually respond better to breaks in the morning –it seems you need to havesome fuel in the tank to benefit from a re-fill.

This wasone of the main findingsto come out of a study of 95 employeesat Baylor University across five days, inwhich they filled out brief surveys about how they were feeling after eachbreak they took. Breaks taken in the morning were much more beneficial, interms of the improvements in how the workers said they felt afterwardsphysically and mentally.

If you deprive yourself of many breaks, when you do finally takeone, it’s going to be need to be longer to have any beneficial effect.

A related detail from this study was that if you take frequentbreaks, then they don’t need to be as long to be beneficial –a couple ofminutes might be enough. On the other hand, if you deprive yourself of manybreaks, then when you do take one, it’s going to be need to be longer to haveany beneficial effect.

Ofcourse, when you’re embroiled in a complicated creative project, the idea ofbreaking off for 30 minutes or an hour can seem unappealing and impractical andso you end up wading on, meaning your performance is likely to suffer.Crucially, if you remember and have the self-discipline to take breaks earlyand often, you won’t be faced with this dilemma later in the day – you will beless fatigued, and any breaks you take at this later juncture needn’t be aslong and disruptive.

Step3: Get out of the office

For creatives who work in a largeoffice building, it’s easy to find yourself spending whole days indoors –youmight take breaks to the water cooler or the staff canteen, but nothing beatsgetting outside and away from the work environment. One problem with staying inthe office, is that even if you take a decent lunch break and chat withcolleagues, there’s still that pressure to maintain a good impression and youoften end up talking shop.

Staff who did anywork-related activities at lunch were rated as more fatigued by theircolleagues at the end of the day.

When researchers led by John P. Trougakos at the University ofTorontorecently studiedthe effect of different lunch breakactivities among nearly a hundred university workers, they found that staff whosocialized at lunch or did any work-related activities at lunch were rated asmore fatigued by their colleagues at the end of the day. This was especiallythe case if the socializing was imposed by management –something to bear inmind for bosses who try too hard to foster camaraderie in the work place.

If you can get outside, even if it’s just a five minutewalkaround the block, you potentially –depending on where you’re located – also get to benefitfrom a rejuvenating dose of nature. Countless studies have shown howa green environment gives us a mental recharge, and what’s really encouragingis thatrecent workhas shown that this doesn’t have to be atropical rainforest. A modest urban park is all it takes.

Coda

There’s a work zeitgeist todaythat says you have to be constantly busy to succeed.Ifyou’ve got time to go for a short walk, you’re obviously not consumed by driveand ambition, so the mistaken ethos goes. The psychological reality is thatyour mental and physical reserves are limited and it is only by taking frequentshort breaks of a truly restful nature that you will fulfil your truepotential.

A final thought –you might have the view that you’ll push yourselfrelentlessly during the day, squeezing every minute for what it’s worth, andthen completely flake out after dark. This strategy of extremes might work fora robot, but not a human.Psychology research from the University ofKonstanz in German and Portland State University showsthat over-exhaustion at the end of the daymakes it even more difficult to recuperate after work hours. In otherwords allowing yourself proper breaks during the day will make yourout-of-hours recovery more effective, ultimately boosting your productivity andcreativity in the weeks and months ahead.