Breaks Productivity Legos
Breaks & Productivity
You’re sitting at your desk or standing at your work station. You’re tired, bone tired just like the commercial says and there’s no relief until Miller Time. You’ve read that 1 in 25 bosses in America are borderline psychopaths. You swear that your boss has “Uno” tattooed on his forehead, and you daydream about the power nap that will undoubtedly get you fired. What can you do? Take the Five-Hour route? Chase a chocolate covered espresso bean down with a cup of it? I’ve tried them all, but nothing works better than 15 minutes in your own little world. The trick is to get there and keep a steady paycheck. Let’s look at a few things.
I was in the workforce for forty years and the best job I can remember having was at a machine shop here in Ohio. Two hours after we started we took a fifteen minute scheduled break, a half hour for lunch and another break at 2 pm. Those two acts of exoneration made me, and the business itself, one of the most productive—and profitable—places I know of. The owners knew that the only people that’ll work hard for eight to ten hours a day are the ones that own the business and have a vested interest in it. The rest of us have to be motivated by whatever works.
Repetitive actions sometimes breeds beings with continuous stares, robot like movements and continual mistakes. I was a truck driver for thirty three years and I know the value of breaks. For us the law was a fifteen minute break every two hours of driving, or roughly 120 miles. The bathroom breaks were sometimes necessary, but the chance to just walk around and breath different air was exhilarating. It can work the same way at the office, if allowed, as well as the road. Corporate America seems to suffer from the delusion that they’re not getting their money’s worth from you if a little slack time is afforded. Maybe they should look at a group of American workers that make millions for their employers—and wear sandals to work.
I know nothing about computer software. I’m getting so old and technologically challenged that I think software is a pair of white, cotton socks, but I know what I see, and I see a group of people on “the gravy train.” These young people are some of the brightest and best who devise the thing that make my PC work; so I can point, click and just do. They have—oh no—a basketball hoop in their office. They wear—now hold on tight—tank tops to work on hot days and—this is blasphemy—they make their own work schedules. And then they walk laughingly to the bank wearing—oh dear me—flip-flops. Now I might be the dumbest person in the whole wide world, but I know smart thinking when I see it. Maybe the cigar smokers and bean counters should consider a “flip-flop.”
According to the website Productivity 501, breaks should be at least ten minutes long in duration. They say to do something in that time frame that you can finish; from taking a walk to building something with Legos. When you’re focused on an idea or a problem that needs solved it stays in you conscious. Many of them are so complex that you need your subconscious mind to kick in. What will help that appear? Let me get my childhood toys out, and I’ll show you.
Yet, all of these suggestions won’t help at all unless you have a boss that can see the science in this. If you do convince one to give it a try, than be prepared to be productive; that’s the unfortunate bottom line. Remember, great productivity isn’t about working all the time, it’s about being effective when you’re working.
I’m done.
