Tag: take a break

If You Feel Like You Need A Break, Take One

HAVE A BREAK!

You recharge your phone when it runs out of juice. You refill your gas tank when you’re running on empty. But sometimes, you forget to take a break and recharge your most precious possession: Your body (and the brain that’s inside of it).

Whether you love what you do, are in between jobs, or have a job you hate: You’re working. Living is also a job. A pretty tough one, actually. Just the act of getting up in the morning can be a daunting task. And I’m not even talking about all the responsibilities we have.

So why do you make your life even more challenging by not taking a vacation to recharge? I’m not talking about your weekends that are packed with activities, or holidays where you do more work than relax.

No, that type of “free time” only costs energy. I’m talking about resting with a very specific reason: To recharge your battery so you can get back to living a productive life.

A break reduces stress and improves productivity.

Scientific research shows that a vacation decreases perceived job stress and burnout. Now, that’s a pretty solid benefit of taking a few days off. But there’s more.

As you may know, I’m always interested in productivity. In the case of resting or a vacation, my question is:

Will I get more things done when I get back?

The answer is yes, but there’s one major thing to keep in mind. But let’s back up a bit: What does it mean to get more done? Getting things done has nothing to do with time—if you work more hours, you don’t necessarily get more done.

In fact, research shows that working more hours general means less productivity.

Why? Well, we often waste time if we have a lot of it. It’s simple: If I say to you, you have a year to write an article. What would you do? Put it off until tomorrow, right?

But what if I tell you that you only have 2 hours? You’ll probably get started right away. So in a way, having more days off, and fewer days to work, forces you to be more effective with your time.

Research shows that a vacation in itself won’t make you more productive, but when you have more days off, you have a strong desire to get more things done in less time.

And that’s a win-win situation for everybody: You, your business, or your job. You take off a few days, recharge, spend time with your family or friends, and when you come back, you’re more productive.

Sounds great. But wait, there’s a caveat.

When your vacation is stressful, the positive benefits go away. So keep the stress at a minimum on your holiday. Otherwise, you’ve wasted a perfect opportunity to relax and boost your overall productivity.

I recently felt I needed a break for several reasons. I had a few injuries that didn’t seem to go away and had less energy. I could have powered through, but instead, I decided to go on a vacation with my family. For a week, I did absolutely no work. And when I came back, I was full of energy.

Here are a few tips that might help you to take a break that fully recharges you.

1. Do What You Want

There are no rules for taking vacations and everybody relaxes in a different way. If you like to plan your holiday, just do it. If you want to go with the flow, then do that.

Want to wake up early? Do it. Don’t like waking up early? Sleep in. Even if you go on a vacation with your partner, friends, or family, you don’t have to be together 24/7. You can also sometimes do things that you enjoy.

The key is to not have expectations on your vacation. Let go of everything. I also don’t like to post vacation pictures on social media. Otherwise, I’m constantly thinking about taking a cool picture so I can impress others.

You’ll probably even do things you wouldn’t do just to take a picture. “I really need to rent a jet ski so I can take a picture with it.” No, you don’t.

Who cares? Focus on enjoying the moments you experience. Whatever those moments may be.

2. Read

Bill Gates is famous for his voracious reading habit. He is also known for his ‘Think Week’ where does nothing else but read and think.

You don’t have to be Bill Gates to think about your life and career. We all have our daily, weekly, and monthly routines. Usually, routines and habits work very well. However, you can also get stuck inside a loop.

That’s why I recommend you to step back from your daily life and career. If you do that, two things can happen: When you step away, you miss your daily life and can’t wait to pick up where you left off.

Or, the opposite will happen. You don’t want to go back. See that as a sign that you need to make a change. Either way, a break always serves a purpose. It doesn’t only help you to recharge, it will also make you think.

That’s why I like to read for hours on my vacation.

3. Get Bored

One of my favorite strategies for finding new ideas is to get bored out of my mind. It sounds easier than it is because of distractions.

In the past, I would do everything to NOT get bored: Watch TV, go out, browse Facebook, etc. But did you know that you can use boredom to your advantage?

Instead of giving into distractions, just give into the boredom and see it leads your mind to. In fact, one of my favorite artists of all time, Andy Warhol, embraced boredom. You can tell by the boring films he made or the references he made in The Philosophy Of Andy Warhol about getting bored.

Whenever I hit a creative wall, I just do nothing. Literally, nothing. Try it sometime. It’s a great strategy; maybe you come up with the next best thing in your industry.

It’s never a good time to take a break.

  • “I just need to finish this project.”
  • “My boss will never accept it.”
  • “People will think I’m lazy.”
  • “I don’t have time.”
  • “My family needs me.”

Yeah, yeah, I’ve been there too. But what would you rather: Continue to work without resting and burn out? Or take some rest before you’re tired?

So before you use all those valid reasons to not take a break, think about what all the people in your life have to do if you’re not here anymore. Yes, you’re important. So take care of yourself. Take a break and come back with more energy.

Things to do when you are feeling low

Do you have one of those days where you don’t feel like getting out of bed? Where you feel like everything is going against you and you feel sad or unaccomplished.

Well good for you, you are not alone.

We all have days where we don’t know what to do. Where we feel lost and unsatisfied. We want to change the way we feel but, there is no motivation to do so

Feeling low is quite normal. It is our brain’s way of telling us to take a break. Now there are two things people do when they feel low.

The first thing is they push themselves to work and forget about their emotions.

The second one is they let their emotions sit in, take a break and, then move forward with a fresh perspective.

Which approach sounds better? The second one right.

So, here are a few things to do when you are feeling low,

The first thing to do is acknowledge your emotions. Cry if you are feeling sad. A lot of people think that crying isn’t good or it shows that you are not strong enough. But, that’s not true. Crying is as normal as laughing when you find something funny.

Did you know that crying makes you feel better?

Crying releases endorphins, these feel-good emotions help you feel better.

Now that you have let your emotions out, give yourself a break so your body can recharge.

Have your favourite meal. You deserve that after going through so much. Forget about the calories and go grab a pizza if that will make you feel better.

Go outside and connect with nature. I am not asking you to go on a vacation. But even going outside to the park near your place can help. Being surrounded by nature will instantly make you feel calm. Nature has a calming effect on human beings. Even lying down under the night sky will help you feel calm and make you realise, how small of a part you are in this universe.

Do not go on social media. It is not the best idea to go on social media, where all you see is people having fun while your life is a mess. We tend to forget that people on social media also have bad days like us but they don’t show that online.

Talk to your trusted ones. Keeping things on your mind can be draining. So, talk to your friends, or family. If you are not comfortable sharing things with them, then you can always talk to your therapists or some trusted friends online. Talking things out and sharing your negative emotions with your trusted ones is profoundly healing.

Do an activity you enjoy. It can be as simple as painting, reading, or singing. You don’t have to be good at it. Do it to enjoy yourselves and to have fun.

We get so involved in our lives that we often don’t get time to do such things. So doing an activity you love would be very therapeutic.

Now that you are done with the break and are ready to go on with your life. Remember to take things slow.

One step at a time. Set small targets for yourself. Give your brain enough time to pick up with the pace.

Doing these activities will help your brain recover and give you a fresh perspective on life. It is always okay to not be okay and, to let our emotions take over. It is okay to take a break and rest for a day or two. Even successful people have bad days. So, don’t be so hard on yourselves for feeling low instead, give yourself time to rejuvenate.