By Puteri Othman
It is the first month of the new semester and you already received tons of assignments to do. You’ve been working for five hours’ stretch to meet the deadline. Your eyelids are heavy, your back are aching, and your mind wandering around somewhere nice.
You want to keep on doing your work because you believe the more time you spend on it the faster you’ll get things done, right? It’s true, but the quality of your work could be affected. Surprisingly, one of the best strategies to regain your momentum is to lose yourself a bit for a few minutes, or in other words, to slack off a little.
Bryant McGill, an American author of self development book emphasised that a clear mind is the ultimate weapon against your challenges. To get a clear mind, our body needs to get enough rest. Taking regular breaks from mental tasks will improve your productivity and creativity.
A break is a way to jump-start your brain, boost motivation, as well as to improve your focus. Stress will occur if you keep pushing yourself to work without a break.
When you work without taking a break, you will face major exhaustion. A tired body is more inclined to illness, and when you fall sick, more work will be delayed. Health is said to be seen as a crown on the head of the healthy one that only the sick can see. Not everyone is blessed with good health.
Hence, in order to maintain one’s health, you are advised to get enough rest. However, some people believe that taking a break is a waste of time. So, why not try to fill in your break with something useful, like reading a book that is not related to your work? We all know that time invested on reading is not time wasted. It will also cultivate reading habit in oneself.
A break is great, however, don’t go too extreme with break because it will lead to procrastination. You wouldn’t want to delay your work when you have loads of it to attend. Hence, scheduling a 15-minute break in between your work is one great tip to follow in order to prevent taking a long break. Even though it is only for a few minutes, it makes a huge difference. Your body will thank you for taking the short break.
Most of us ditched our daily naps when we are too busy with work. Little that we know, a daily nap works wonder on us. People who work without sparing some time for break often make mistakes in their work. Daily nap helps you to improve alertness, memory, and cognitive performance. It might also help you to reorganise your thoughts.
Experts say, having a cup of coffee before a short daily nap is a great combo that can boost your energy and leave you feeling sharper.
No matter how hardworking you are always be advised to slot in a few minutes of break because your health is more important than all the other things you are working for.***