Productivity breaks

Do you have trouble with productivity consistency? 

Some days you can get a lot done and then other days you lack the energy to get small tasks done?  A reason for this could be the type of work you are doing or that needed to be done the next day. It could also be mental fatigue. You could be pushing yourself too hard past your work stopping point. Your mind like your body can’t work all out, all the time. Slow and steady will give you a better average of work completed. Get into a good rhythm that works day after day. 

 

Productivity also includes taking quality breaks. This will take some trial and error to find what kind of break works best for you.  It could be a 5-minute break when you are in a good rhythm, or a longer break when you are switching to a different type of task. What you do during your break is also important. Stay hydrated, eat a snack, take a walk. Do something that will allow you to recover. Remember to be mindful of what works or take notes for future reference.

 

Don’t max out on productivity one day and then be maxed out for the rest of the week. Consider blocking out smaller 3-4 hour productive blocks. We are not designed to be productive all the time. 

 

I had a question come in that I wanted to answer today on the show and it was a question about productivity. And this person mentioned that they have really unproductive days after super productive days. They recently tried out basically like pomodoros. So it was like 25 minutes on five minutes of 24 minutes and twelve minutes of and it worked really well for them for the day.

 

They got a lot done and was even able to get sort of ahead of schedule. However the next day and they did this for about 7 hours the next day they got literally nothing done. They were either learning out doing a top back a piece of paper filling on the internet. They got some work done just through to guilt, but like, the day was gone, but I know it can be productive. This worked for me yesterday.

 

Why isn't this working for me today? And there's multiple answers to that. It could be the type of work that was done or the type of work that needed to be done the next day. It could be the fact that you might have been pushing yourself super hard and you didn't realise where you're stopping point was because it's like, I'm now going to the gym. If you go hard all day every day, it doesn't work out.

 

You do I know 100 pushups and that's the maximum you can do. And you try nd do 101 Luke your body's like not not doing it. If you try and do 100 on Monday and then try and do it on Tuesday and then try and do it on Thursday and every day of the week you'll have like, you know, a certain amount of push ups, but really your body can't do that. It needs slow and steady. If you did maybe 70 push ups a day instead, you could probably get a better average and you wouldn't feel so exhausted the next day.

 

So instead of trying to go all out every day and pushing everything to the Max, it might be better to look into where you get into a good rhythm and you're like, I've done. I've done good to dive on a certain amount. Maybe that's 3 hours work. Maybe that's far as a focus work. And then I'm going to stop and take breaks and do something else.

 

And here's the other important part about productivity is it shouldn't just be about the work that you do, but it should be about the quality of the break that you take and everyone is different. But you need to figure out for yourself what type of breaks work best for you and how often and that might depend on the type of work that you did. So there could be some breaks were a five minute break is enough because you want to keep rolling on and maybe you're writing a paper, whatever else kind of work that you might be doing, or you might be doing the type of work where you're actually context switching.

 

So you finish one thing in 25 minutes. When you stop and you go do something else.

 

So you might need a ten or 15 minutes break in between to go and context switch and do something else. Now, what you do during that break is just as important as what you do while you're working. Do you eat? Do you stay hydrated? Do you go and breathe fresh air?

 

Do you splashing cold water on your face? Do you zone out? Do you give your brain a chance to recover? So what you do on the brakes is just as important, if not more important than the work you are actually doing. Think about what type of breaks work best for you, depending on the type of work you are doing, and it will be sort of hit and miss and will take some fine tuning and tweaking.

 

So Journal it, write it down, take notes, have data points. But at the end of the day, it's not just about the work that you're doing. It's about the breaks that you take, how long they are, what you do with them, maybe even the time of day. So you can't just Max out on productivity all on one day and expect to be fully functioning the next day. It just doesn't work.

 

Is that having an introvert hangover right? You go to an event, you speak to lots of people and you come home and you're done because you've hit that wall and you're like, I'm done. I can't. I just and you come home and you're exhausted for the rest of it, like the week. But if you go speak to one or two people and leave and come home, you'll still be able to function of the next day.

 

It's the same sort of thing. You just need to think about it in the that sort of a way.

 

And so maybe try and have smaller, productive day on the whole seven or 8 hours, but three hour block or a four hour block, and it's not necessarily the amount of things you get done, but the type of work you get done right. It's just something to think about and to be fair, we're not done to be productive all the time, something that we kind of forget about. So thank you for listening. This is Janice at the Korean trip. Com helping you build your brand and get hired.

 

Have a great rest of your week.