Too often our workdays are filled with nonstop meetings, stressing over finishing an assignment or deliverable, or worst of all – guilt. Guilt is present throughout our workdays because we KNOW we don’t work the full 8 hours our contract requires. We maybe work 6.5 and the remaining 1.5 is spent scrolling on social media, taking coffee walks, or just plain procrastinating.
In my most recent role there was a manager on my team who openly expressed guilt about taking breaks during work at a team dinner. We were having a discussion about workplace productivity and efficiency and my director (AKA everyone’s boss), openly admitted to taking shorter workdays for the sake of being her most productive self. In response to this, the manager responded “Oh no I can’t take breaks during the day. Because I get in at nine, to get my full 8 hours in, I can’t leave any earlier than six. I need to leave no later than 6:15 to pick my son up from daycare so I have to work through lunch and take no breaks.” To this, our director responded “Oh that’s ridiculous! No one works the full 8 hours of the day!” And to this, the table went silent. I’m not sure what the rest of the table was thinking but in my head, a full blown celebration started to commence. I wanted to shout “SAY IT AGAIN!” but instead I nodded and commented in my modest professional tone, “That’s true.”
When I sat and thought about this in depth, I realized she was completely right. I had numerous examples to back up her claim from personal experience, and I knew I wasn’t a sleeze around the office. I’ve always prided myself in getting things done and making the most of my workday. Yet even with this mentality and work ethic, I too could not escape the reality: my brain does not and will not function for a full 8 hours straight. Therefore, I procrastinate.
Quick disclaimer: this blog post may not relate to my friends in nursing. As the best friend of an ICU nurse, I have witnessed first-hand stories of brain function for 12+ hours. This blog is meant for those who work in an office or instructional setting with less hands-on, person-to-person contact.
Procrastination is such an ugly word. It holds a perpetual negative connotation. I’d like us to change our thinking around this. Instead of thinking of your “breaks” at work as moments of procrastination, lets call it for what it truly is: rest.
I can demonstrate this concept even clearer by sharing my experience from my time working overseas in Rome, Italy. In Italy, the working culture is vastly different from things in the U.S. For starters, their workday starts around 9:45-10am as compared to our 8am start here in the States. Because of this late start, lunch was later and the workday also ended much later. And by “much later” I mean 8-9pm, every day. This also made sense, since most Italians didn’t eat dinner until 9pm. (Subscribe below for stories to come about to mean-mugs I got at restaurants for showing up at 7:30.) Upon first arriving in Rome, my fellow U.S. co-worker (Chancey) and I had a hard time adapting to the longer work days. Neither of us had a problem with staying late or pulling a late night to ensure a project goal was met. The problem was, we weren’t staying late to finish work or to meet impending deadlines. We were staying late simply because no one got up from their desk. The first month we were there it drove us crazy when team meetings would be called at 5, end at 7:30 and everyone returned to their laptops to keep mining away until 9:30…pm. Nothing was due, nothing was urgent, it was just the culture.
Here’s a glimpse of our Skype conversations after 8pm:
Chancey: They can’t be serious.
Me: but they are…
Chancey: We should leave.
Me: We should!
Chancey: You get up first.
Me: No you!
It took us a while, but we finally adapted. We understood that this was simply Italian culture and to ensure we made it through the day, we started to take breaks.
It was already standard in Italian culture to take a long lunch break. By “long” I mean 1.5-2 hours (wonderful, I know). In addition to this, coffee walks to the nearest (or furthest depending on the day and mood) Espresso Bar were mandatory staples in the day. On average, each day consisted of at least a 1.5 hour lunch and 2-3 espresso walks. Once we adapted to this, it all begun to make sense! When I initially spoke of 9pm work days, you probably translated that to be 11-12 hour days. I did too. But when you account for 2 hour lunches, and three 30-45 minute espresso walks, the workday is shorted to its true length: around 6.5-7 hours.
I’ve shared these two stories to bring light of these important truths:
- We NEED breaks throughout the day. Our brains begin to lose function when we look at the same computer screen or excel sheet for extended amounts of time. This is also bad for your vision.
- Coffee or leisure walks are a source of rejuvenation and strength. There are a countless number of times I have left my desk in pure frustration because I couldn’t solve a problem or figure out a solution to something I was working on. Taking a walk to clear my mind made the problem I was working on less confusing and I was better able to understand all the moving parts needed to arrive at a solution.
- It’s important to get out of the office and experience some fresh air. You’re not giving your mind a break by taking a walk to a different floor in your building. By remaining indoors, you remain in a stressful environment which causes your brain to fail to perceive an actual change. Even if you visit your favorite work friend on a different floor for a mid-day chat, you’re still within the confines of the office. If you’d like some conversation to clear your mind, invite that friend on a coffee walk. In most cases, you could both use the walk.
Do yourself a favor and start taking more intentional breaks.
Cheers to improved productivity and efficiency!
