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Those who get tired lose engagement

A recent­ly pub­lished study titled ​“Blend the demand: Micro-breaks as a path­way to work engage­ment” shows that a high work­load reduces engage­ment at work over time. That’s entire­ly understandable.

Micro-breaks are the solution

Inter­est­ing­ly, the study also found that recur­ring micro-breaks coun­ter­act this neg­a­tive effect. In short, when you take micro-breaks often enough, you main­tain both your ener­gy and your mood. A ​“micro-break” refers to a short (max 10 min­utes) infor­mal break that you take when need­ed dur­ing the work­day — when you stretch, take a short walk, or briefly chat with a colleague.

The ben­e­fits of micro-breaks were espe­cial­ly clear when the work­place cul­ture made it ​“OK” to take breaks now and then. Of course — because I’d guess a break doesn’t help much if you feel judged for paus­ing and catch­ing your breath for a moment.

So, let’s advo­cate for micro-breaks today!

Do this

1. If you are a man­ag­er, do what you can to shape a cul­ture where it is OK to take micro-breaks. Above all, lead by exam­ple. It may be obvi­ous that breaks are allowed in your orga­ni­za­tion, but what is explic­it­ly OK is one thing — what peo­ple see oth­ers doing, espe­cial­ly the man­ag­er, is anoth­er. So take a micro-break your­self when it ben­e­fits you. As a man­ag­er, you have sig­nif­i­cant influ­ence over what is con­sid­ered accept­able in the organization.
2. If you are not a man­ag­er, take a micro-break with a clear con­science — and with the men­tioned research arti­cle as sup­port. When oth­ers see you tak­ing micro-breaks, chances are they’ll fol­low your good habit.

You’re lead­ing the way

If you take a micro-break when your ener­gy dips and it helps you, you not only sus­tain your engage­ment over time — you also influ­ence those around you to fol­low your good exam­ple. A healthy cul­ture that bal­ances effort and recov­ery will spread. That ben­e­fits effi­cien­cy in the long run, not just in the moment.

What do you do?

What does a ben­e­fi­cial micro-break look like for you? When do you take it? What do you do dur­ing it? Tell me in an email, I’m curi­ous to hear.

If you have col­leagues who would ben­e­fit from paus­ing more often, share this issue and the study I men­tioned with them. The more peo­ple use struc­ture to refine their ways of work­ing, the smoother all our work­days will be.

(Did you also know you can plan your breaks to increase your cre­ativ­i­ty?)