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How many times have you been told you’re not committed? Business moves at such a fast pace today that taking short, 15 minute breaks is more of a thought than actuality for most people.  Skipping lunch plus the well-deserved (and needed!) vacation is also a common occurrence.  This episode of the Manager Mojo podcast talks about three key reasons you should be taking breaks, going to lunch and never missing an earned vacation – all within 15 minutes – enough time to listen on your break!  Actually, you can’t afford not to.

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Manager Mojo

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What are Breaks Really For?

Hello and welcome, everyone.  Today’s topic is: what are breaks really for? Now what I’m talking about are the regular breaks that people are supposed to take in the morning and the afternoon of the work day.  The breaks when they should take fifteen – twenty minutes and have a cup of coffee or just relax and I’m also including in this your breaks for lunch, vacation, anywhere you’re supposed to take a little bit of time away from your work.

You see, things are really different today for managers and leaders. What’s happened is that our society has almost demanded that we don’t take breaks of any kind anymore. I’m seeing more and more managers that never take a break during the day, they don’t go to lunch, they work late, and they get there early.   Am I talking to you today? Is that what you’re doing? Or, they go on vacation but they’re not on vacation. I had a client call me last week, I knew that this person was supposed to be on vacation, and I was like, “What are you doing calling me?” Well, they called because stuff needed to be done at their work and they just couldn’t leave it.  It had to be done and I’m like, “Okay, what was the real rush?”   What I found out is that this individual spent several hours – actually three hours – that day working while trying to say they were taking a vacation.

I see managers everywhere that are doing this. People no longer want to take any time for themselves.   What the result of this is that when you really don’t understand what you priorities are, there is a tendency to never take a break. What’s happened is that we’re too busy. We’re so busy with busywork that we’re not really accomplishing anything important. We wind up over-booking our calendars. I wish I could tell you the number of times in the last year that I’ve had someone either e-mail me at the last minute or call me at the last minute and say, “Hey, something came up and I’m going to need to cancel our call,” or “Cancel our meeting,” or “Move it to a different day.”   I observe this behavior and think, “Wow, here’s another person that really does not have control of their career.”   Their career has control of them.

I started tracking how many people were late for meetings that they requested – and I’m talking about face-to-face meetings that they requested – and it was staggering. I have a lot of meetings with people and I actually went through a period of time, over a year’s time, where over thirty meetings that the people who actually scheduled them were late. They didn’t get there on time and I was like, “Okay, here’s another example.  People don’t understand what’s happening in their life.”  Then I started seeing how few people, when they went on vacation are really on vacation. They’re still doing their work, just not doing it at work.  I began to realize that what’s really going on here is that people don’t understand the necessity for breaks.

What I want to do is talk to you for just a little bit today about why it’s important for you, as a manager – and especially if you want to be a great leader – to actually schedule some time where you take a break.   If you understand what the advantages of taking a break are, maybe you’ll begin to rethink the importance of having one.

Let’s start by just taking the break in the middle of the morning or the middle of the afternoon.   Having ten or fifteen minutes to yourself can mean all the difference in the world between your attitude and the amount of patience that you have with other people.   Having that time to sigh and breathe can make a huge difference.

So, when you take a break, here are three things I want you to think about:

Number one: you need a break from, first of all, yourself. We all need a break from ourselves occasionally. We need to just get outside of our own head, outside of our own problems and outside of our own issues and say, “Whoa, that’s not so bad.  Let me just think a minute.   Things are good, they’re going well, they’re in the right pattern. I’m good,” and just to get out of the way of yourself.

We all need that.   If you don’t take a break your brain just gets faster and faster and faster and you don’t have any time to really be good to yourself.  So, the first benefit – taking a break from yourself.  You need it.

It’s good for you and – I promise you – it leads to the second reason, and that is: you need a break from others and, not only do you need a break from others, here’s something you might not want to hear, but it’s the truth – they may need a break from you – so, it gives both of you a chance where you can get away from the noise of other people, the demands of other people and it gives you an opportunity to take a deep sigh, deep breath of relief.

I had a friend once that was so busy and he just couldn’t figure out how he could ever take a break and, yet I noticed that occasionally he was gone and I thought, “Well, maybe he’s finally solved it.  He’s walked outside and he’s taken a break.”  I asked him about it and said, “Hey, I noticed that you were gone about fifteen or twenty minutes this morning and that you took fifteen or twenty minutes yesterday afternoon and I’m really glad you did. I think that’s great. Have you finally figured out how you can get away from the phone, e-mail and the demands of everything?”   He laughed and said, “Steve, I hate to tell you the truth because you’re going to think I’m crazy,” and I said, “That’s okay, tell me the truth. What are you doing?” and he said, “I’ll go to the bathroom and I get in a stall because when I’m in a stall nobody wants to bother me,” and, I’m telling you, we both just roared laughing.  I was like, “Now, that is awesome creativity.”  To get a break he actually went to the restroom! Now how cool is that? It worked. It might not be the best, most pleasing place to be to have a break, but what the heck, he got fifteen or twenty minutes to himself and that made a huge difference in his attitude. It made a huge difference in his productivity.

Now, the third reason that you want to take a break – first is a break from yourself, second is a break from others and they get a break from you – the third reason is: that is gives you space in your brain to actually allow your subconscious to work on problems.

This is really important because one of the reasons we often don’t solve problems is that we’re thinking about them so hard with our conscious brain that we’re blocked. You need your subconscious to solve some of the more difficult challenges and when you give your conscious brain space to relax.   For the first time you may actually have a fresh perspective at looking at the problem.  All of us need this type of break.

We need to schedule breaks. We need to schedule a lunch. It’s okay if you make it a productive lunch, but I have to tell you, it is so important for you to take a break, to get away from yourself, to get away from others and for them to get away from you. We all need these times where we can really focus on ourselves and our own growth.

So, the next time you hear somebody say, “What are breaks for?” I hope you’ll think about that.

And here is one, final example to really make this come home for you, and I want you to think about this.   I had an interview of someone not long ago and they talked about having a boss who said, “I know we should allow you to have breaks, but if you take a break, that’s telling me that you don’t value your job as much as you should.” Now, how insensitive, foolish and silly does that sound based on some of the things that I’ve told you the benefits of breaks are? We all should be encouraging people to take breaks.

Here’s what’s going to happen when you encourage people to take breaks.  They’re going to be more relaxed.   They’re also going to begin to realize that you, as the manager and leader are actually valuing them as human beings and, I promise you, that’s a great, great place to be.

So, here’s to you increasing your own mojo, becoming the leader that others will follow and valuing both yourself and others on the right way.

Thanks for joining me!