Tag Archives: Taking Breaks

When and how long your breaks should be… it depends…

Categories: Management | Tagged | Leave a comment

I wrote another article entitled:

“The length of your break time determines your success” which has not been published yet.

However, upon further introspection, I learned that how often you take breaks depends. Sometimes, I can go four or five hours without a break. If I am charged up after a vacation in the desert, I typically have lots of energy. Other times I am sleepy, and can only do thirty minutes without a break. The physical fatigue factor is one serious issue in break frequency, but there is also mental fatigue.

Physical fatigue
If I am really tired, perhaps late at night, I can only work a little bit before taking a rest. I am an entrepreneur in the truest sense of the word. I innovated, and created a business based on my innovative search tools that I use in my online directories. I work around the clock and observe my fatigue patterns. If I go for a hike the day before, I might need to sleep an extra hour, but I will feel much better and be able to withstand longer work sessions without breaks than if I had not hiked. If I recently took a vacation, I often come back recharged as well which can help me do work marathons!

Mental fatigue
Researchers showed that the ideal break is 17 minutes long and should be taken after about 51 minutes of work. I have found this sometimes to be true of highly focused work. If you are doing work that requires a lot of close mental attention, you need to be at your best. Taking breaks can help you achieve that optimal mental state for efficient work. However, for creative work, sometimes the creative process, or the act of working closely with others who are fun or stimulating can eliminate the need for regular breaks. A fun coworker can recharge your batteries in many cases for creative work. However, for drudgery work that can be done with a very tired mind, sometimes working late at night for hours in a row is possible. If I take a break, upon returning from that break, it might be better to do mentally challenging tasks for the first forty-five minutes. But, after that period, it might be good to do repetitive non-thinking type tasks from then until my next break.

So, there are different types of fatigue, and different types of work that a manager might do ranging from repetitive data entry, calls, decision making, and creative writing. Each use a different part of the brain, and each have their own fatigue schedule if you want to call it that.