A Few Tips on Maintaining Productivity during the Workday

Sometimes even the most hard-working employee need a break for the sake of their mental well-being. Similar to the devices we all utilize every day, our brains need a chance to charge back up. Without a chance to de-stress and decompress, we are all susceptible to burnout. Listed below are a few methods you and your employees can use to revitalize or refresh yourselves.

Naturally, there is always the other critical question that goes along with asking how; asking when.

Judging When You Need a Break
There are a couple dependable warning signs that someone needs to step away for a moment. For example: while someone may be prone to typos, there’s a difference between always making spelling and grammar errors versus specifically starting to make them six hours into a Tuesday.

Alternatively, some workers will become apathetic in their responsibilities and just start going through the motions. In severe cases, they may detach completely, causing accuracy, morale, and productivity to nosedive. If you catch yourself start to display these symptoms, do yourself a favor and step away for a few moments. What follows are a few things that usually help employees recover more quickly, allowing them to promptly refresh themselves and return to their duties.

Read Something (Unrelated to Work)
We’ve all been stuck performing a task we don’t want to do, so we all know how draining it can feel to do it. If you or your employees find yourself losing focus, take a few minutes and switch gears. Reading can help you to get your mind off of what you were just working on, especially if it’s about something completely unrelated to your task. This change can help your gears recalibrate, enabling you to resume your initial task with aplomb.

Briefly Escape the Office 
Productivity can usually be interrupted by a sense of restlessness; not so much a slip into passivity, but a desire to move around a little. Actually separating yourself from your work tools and getting a breath of fresh air can have a huge impact on maintaining productivity. Trying to force yourself to focus can often have a detrimental effect on productivity, which is why skipping breaks and meals is often counterproductive. Instead, try actually leaving the office on your breaks, actually getting something to eat on lunch and going for a brief walk or drive when the opportunity arises. Sometimes, you might just need a literal change of scenery to increase focus.

Get the Blood Pumping
Taking a walk can contribute to our final way of more productively taking a break: exercise! Taking a few moments to up your heart rate, if only by a little bit, can have a plethora of long-term benefits to the work experience. Not only is it a way to improve overall health, it has been shown to boost focus among those who exercise habitually. Additionally, being tired isn’t great for focus as a rule, so the improved sleep that exercise can promote can help that way as well.

In order to produce their best work, your employees need to be in the position, both mentally and physically, to do so. How do you stay refreshed in the office? Provide your strategies in the comments and call Macro Systems at 703-359-9211 for any further questions!