Everyday at the ring of the lunch bell, when I was a teacher in Boston, my colleague would exit the school doors and walk two laps around the campus. She did this whether there was sun in the sky or snow on the ground, and always returned by the end of her lunch break with a smile on her face, ready to teach her next class.
My colleague’s stroll around the school was time she took to focus on herself. Her routine not only gave her the chance to exercise and breathe some fresh air, but it helped her to relax, reflect, and recharge for the second half of the day.
She was onto something: Research from the last few years overwhelming shows that short breaks during long work sessions are key to improving task performance.
Our brains need stimulation, but “constant stimulation is registered by our brains as unimportant, to the point that the brain erases it from our awareness,” said University of Illinois psychology professor Alejandro Lleras, who led a pivotal 2011 study that demonstrated how brief interruptions in activity can improve long-term focus on work.
Mental breaks and brief distractions prevent people from succumbing to exhaustion or inattentiveness. And for those who spend hours at desks, a 2016 study published by the International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity found that by walking for five minutes at the start of each hour, workers could boost mood, energy, and cognitive function, while staving off hunger and fatigue throughout the day.
Some of the world’s most innovative companies seem to be adapting this research into workplace environments: Facebook has a stroll-friendly rooftop garden at its Menlo Park headquarters; some Google offices around the world are equipped with indoor slides; even ThinkCERCA HQ has ping-pong and foosball tables my colleagues and I use when we need mental breaks.
But while these practices are replicable at startups and large-scale tech companies, the simple fact is that school routines and structures aren’t as adaptable. And in a place of work, employees can feel uncomfortable with the idea of taking time for themselves – even though breaks have a proven, positive impact on productivity.
Therefore, administrators must take the initiative to model how teachers can and should take time for themselves throughout the workday. Of course, this doesn’t necessitate providing a startup environment. We may not be able to put a slide in the teachers’ lounge, but we can show how to take advantage of brief interludes during the workday.
To demonstrate to your colleagues that taking time for themselves is encouraged, try modeling one of the actions below. After all, when we take mental breaks for ourselves, we are more present, happy, and clear – which is beneficial for the students we educate every day.
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