You’ve heard it before: breaks are good for productivity. Taking breaks actually helps you sustain your focus and energy, so even though you’re taking some extra time to work regular breaks into your schedule, you’re becoming a more efficient worker.
But are you really taking the right kind of break that best serves your efficiency? Let’s face it — not all breaks are helpful. In fact, you could feel just as distracted as ever right after a break when it’s time to get back to work.
Here are a few tips and techniques you can take advantage of to help optimize your breaks so they support your productivity and make you more efficient.
Work in 50-Minute Sprints
The folks who run DeskTime, a productivity tracking tool, looked at the top 10 percent of their most productive users and analyzed their computer use throughout the day. What they found was that the most productive people worked for 52 minutes, treating this period like a sprint by focusing on completing a single task (no distractions or multitasking) and making the most of it.
