Comments on: How to Know When to Take a Break

By: How to Take Strategic Breaks « Medliorate

How to Take Strategic Breaks « Medliorate — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 08:06:11 +0000

[...] How to Know When to Take a Break [Scott H Young] [...]

By: Scott Young

Scott Young — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 13:37:13 +0000

Adam,

The goal isn’t to be tired. It’s to get work done you actually care about.

-Scott

By: Chris (from Lifestyle Project)

Chris (from Lifestyle Project) — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 08:57:55 +0000

Scott, thanks for the follow up advice. I think my rearranging my to-do list is part of my work environment and my lack of interest in work!

By: Andreea

Andreea — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 07:29:48 +0000

Hey there,
I’m a strong believer of the short break system, it works perfect for me. I think that the key of being active it not pushing your limits, if possible. As far as I am concerned, this makes you perform better in whatever you do.
Very nice post.
Andreea
http://www.colouredfeelingsuniverse.com

By: LifeMadeGreat - Juliet

LifeMadeGreat - Juliet — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 05:56:50 +0000

Hi there

I like your ideas and suggestions.
I wish that companies were more aware of the individual “break needs” of employees. If the company culture was more flexible and you didn’t “have” to work “continuously” or for certain hours I think there would be a great deal more productivity.

Cheers
Juliet

By: J.D. Meier / Sources of Insight

J.D. Meier / Sources of Insight — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 01:38:14 +0000

Time’s a great way to set boundaries and keep momentum. In my “how to study in college” class we learned to take five minute breaks for every half hour of work. This helped us learn to work in short, efficient spurts and stay motivated. I later learned how quickly you can burnout your prefrontal cortex during sustained thinking, which explains why the short breaks every 30 minutes were so effective.

By: Adam

Adam — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 00:25:03 +0000

Hi,

I was just wondering how much work (in terms of hours of intensive thinking/problem solving) do you do each day? Personally I do few (2/3) hours a day of that kind of work but I’m not tired and it seems to me that I could do much more every day… and I achieve a lot right now, so it’s strange, I’m going to work more and see what’s my threshold so that by the end of the day I can actually say that I’m tired!

By: Scott Young

Scott Young — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 21:16:38 +0000

Chris,

I could have gone into an even more detailed system of off-hand rules for preventing to-do list changing, but that would have bloated up the article too much.

The truth is, it’s a fine line. You need to figure out what your productivity weaknesses are, and discipline yourself to avoid them. So if you chronically rework your to-do list, commit yourself to not touch your to-do list once formed until the day is complete.

I usually estimate my productivity for the day fairly accurately, so to-do list reworking is unnecessary. Adjustments are only necessary when something unexpectedly takes far longer than it should and I’m left with no time to finish but I don’t want to give up completely.

-Scott

By: Joseph Garza

Joseph Garza — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 20:40:08 +0000

Scotty great stuff. I’m new to your blog but so far im loving it. I’m all about energy, although confused on how to utilize it at times, and thanks to your blog you have helped clarify some ideas that have been floating around in my head for a while.

By: Chris (from Lifestyle Project)

Chris (from Lifestyle Project) — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 18:44:30 +0000

“The “rest when tired” approach fails because it is hard to separate genuine resting with procrastination. ” – I hear this Scott.

Oh, by the way, no matter how hard I try I always end up reworking my todo list! That’s too much procrastinating I think.

Nice post.