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Taking Breaks At Work is My Success Secret  

26 Nov

Each minute of our life is a lesson but most of us fail to read it. I thought I would just add my daily lessons & the lessons that I learned by seeing the people around here. So it may be useful for you and as memories for me.

I strongly believe in the concept of Pause is Power. Like me, People know breaks are helpful, but we don’t always take them. Take your mind off work to give your brain a chance to truly relax.

We are living in competitive world. Competition comes with great pressure and intensity, and it’s important to remind people of the power that can be found in the simple act of a pause, allowing us to come back better and stronger.

Taking break is not a crime. We have to make sure to Prioritise Wellbeing Over Winning.

You don’t want to take breaks because you think you can get more done. But did you? One day you will started realizing that your neck, wrist, and back are hurting, despite being an otherwise health-conscious, active lifestyle advocate.

Remember that, We work best when we adhere to our natural rhythms, which dictate switching between periods of expending energy and periods of renewing energy.

Elite musicians, actors, and athletes know this well enough and rarely practice for longer than 90 minutes in one session. They take breaks between sessions, and rarely work/practice for more than 4.5 hours in any given day.

Basically, microbreaks help you manage your energy resources over the course of the day — and that’s particularly beneficial on days when you’re tired. We Need to Get Serious About Taking Breaks At Work

“Almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes…including you.” – Anne Lamott

Science Agrees: More Breaks = Higher Productivity

Many people experience “productivity breakthroughs” after going against their instincts to meet a deadline by taking a pause. We emerge refreshed and more resilient after getting up for both brain and movement breaks.

So, how do breaks help us? 

Here’s a quick look at the magic taking breaks does to our brain:

  • Improved focus.
  • Boosted creativity and problem-solving abilities
  • Better information retention
  • Improved productivity
  • Prevents decision fatigue
  • Reevaluate goals and seeing the bigger picture
  • Better stress management

Besides the juicy benefits that breaks have on our brains, now what if you can double the benefits? 

It’s simple – add movement to your breaks.

For those who get the least amount of physical activity, replacing a half hour of sitting time with physical activity was associated with up to a nearly 50% reduction in mortality, according to a new study from the American Cancer Society.

Breaks are a great opportunity to incorporate movement into our workdays to combat the setbacks of a sedentary lifestyle. 

Take a look at the most important benefits of movement breaks:

  • Improve energy levels
  • Boost mood and relieve stress
  • Strengthen weakened muscles and bones
  • Reduces the risk of developing type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease
  • Reduces the risk of injury
  • Boost memory and focus

It’s pretty clear that taking breaks is a powerful tool that can make us better at what we do, feel physically better, and happier. 

High-performing people understand the power of taking breaks and know how to take advantage of effective breaks to become more productive while keeping their health in check.

So, how do you harness the power of taking breaks, so that you come back fully recharged both physically and mentally?

Continue reading to find out the strategy that actually works.

How to Work Like an Expert and Maximize Your Productivity

If we want to work like an expert and maximize our productivity, we need to learn from elite performers. Here’s the recipe:

  1. Work in sprints: Give it all you’ve got for short periods of time. Get as much done during that time as possible. Push hard.
  2. Take frequent recovery breaks: In-between work sprints you need to recover and replenish some of your energy.

That’s it. You’re either working super hard – deeply focused, fully engaged, highly concentrated, at full speed – or you’re taking a recovery break.

There’s no more in-between. There’s no more ‘doing some work’. There’s no more preserving energy when you’re working. There’s no more half-assed working because you’re tired or whatever. You either work (you’re super productive) or you don’t (you’re taking a break). You’re either expending energy (work sprint) or replenishing energy (recovery break).

That’s working according to your natural rhythms and it’s exactly how the highest performing people in the world do it.

Now, How long should those work sprints and recovery breaks ideally be?

If you want to copy the best, then the ideal length seems to be working for 90 minutes and recovering for 15 minutes. (That way you also adhere to the ultradian rhythm.)

For most people, however, that’s not very practical. You may have a meeting coming up, co-workers interrupting you, or whatever. What’s important is that you either work or recover. Don’t do some half-working/half-chilling stuff.

Sometimes you may have a work sprint that only lasts for 30 minutes. Or one that lasts for 80 minutes. Or heck, even one that goes on for 2 hours. Similarly, some breaks may only last 10 minutes, or 5 minutes, or 40 minutes.

Don’t overcomplicate it. The key is to make waves and follow periods of intense activity with periods of intense recovery. If you work, work hard. If you take a break, recover properly.

Do that and your productivity will go through the roof. There are a few strategies that’ll help you make your work sprints as productive as possible.

1) Give it all you’ve got.

2) Eliminate all distractions

3) Single-task and work on one task, uninterruptedly, for long periods of time

4) Take mini breaks every 30 minutes.

Forcing the brain to stay hyper focused on work throughout the workday lessens productivity. The solution to this is to take regular breaks so you can refresh both physically and mentally several times a day. Doing so will not only make you more productive but help you prevent job burnout too.

Managing breaks at work

Do you know the difference between some of the best tennis players and average tennis players? One difference is that top players are maximizing their recovery between points.

Here the point is that getting the most out of your recovery breaks is crucial if you’re looking to maximize your productivity. Yes, taking any break is better than not taking breaks at all. But there are better and worse ways to spend your time during breaks.

Watching TV, reading the news, or checking your Facebook newsfeed won’t give you the highest possible returns from your recovery breaks.

Instead, you may want to choose one of the following activities:

  • Get in nature
  • Boost your mood
  • Meditate
  • Walk or exercise
  • Leave the office 
  • Have a healthy snack/meal 
  • Have a brief nap (if you’re allowed) – if not, try some deep breathing 
  • Meditate/daydream 
  • Do something creative – like a puzzle, or doodling 
  • Have a coffee or tea 
  • Create a to-do list for your home-based tasks 

It has become increasingly clear that taking breaks at work helps keep you healthy and productive. Both are important for working individuals to continue to do a good job as well as take care of themselves. Burnout at work is a real problem and employees need to be able to practice reasonable self care so things never escalate to that point. Here are just a few of the reasons why taking breaks at work keeps your productivity levels high.

When people think their employer cares about their health, they feel more empowered to freely make decisions about when to take microbreaks and what type of microbreaks to take,And that is ultimately good for both the employer and the employee.

Final Thoughts

While there are many options for breaks at work, individuals are unique and have to find out what works best for them. Try to make a note of what sort of break benefits you the most – if you can continuously make use of it, your motivation and productivity will stay high.  

Now I’d love to hear from you. What’s your experience with taking regular breaks at work? Let me know in the comments below, and thanks for reading!

References:

https://www.coca-colacompany.com/

Homepage

https://www.stretchminder.app/post/taking-breaks-at-work-the-ultimate-guide

Please feel free to share your story and any lessons you learned, experienced, you came across in your life in the comments below. If you enjoyed this or any other posts, I’d be honored if you’d share them with your family, friends, and followers!

If you wish to follow my journey outside of my writing, you can find me on LinkedIn and FacebookEdit

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Posted by on November 26, 2022 in Experiences of Life., Life & It's Importance, Work Place

 

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FAILURE is SUCCESS if we learn from it

04 Jul

Each minute of our life is a lesson but most of us fail to read it. I thought I would just add my daily lessons & the lessons that I learned by seeing the people around here. So it may be useful for you and as memories for me. 

Many people have an overwhelming fear of failure. This usually stems from societal programming that tells us how negative and even shameful failure is.

However, the reality is that failure is a necessary part of life. It is just one step of thousands you will take. It is unreasonable to expect to complete each task in life perfectly on the first attempt.

Successful People are not Afraid of Failure. Successful people don’t define failure as the opposite of success; they define failure as the opposite of trying.

Failure simply means that you have made mistakes, and you can learn from these mistakes to improve your future efforts. It is not the end of the process. Truly great leaders understand the importance of mistakes and failure, and they are comfortable with the concept of failure. In fact, there are four primary reasons why you should embrace failure if you want to be a great leader.

Successful people know that nothing ever goes exactly as planned. And no matter how hard you work, sooner or later you must face the reality that you failed. You tried to do something and weren’t successful. You didn’t get the result you wanted.

You don’t clear every interview you give.

You don’t close every sale.

You don’t win every game.

You aren’t going to hit a home run every time you’re up to bat.

You don’t always get what you want.

FAILURE is OK. It’s part of life. It should be expected.

The bigger question is: What do you do next? What do you do after you’ve failed?

As Frank Sinatra sang: “You pick yourself up and get back in the race. That’s life …”

You don’t feel sorry for yourself. You don’t mope around. You pick

yourself up and do it again and again and again until you get it right!

Failure is as much a part of life as success. Losing is as much a part of life as winning. The most important thing to think about is how can you ensure that you won’t fail in the same way a second time.

Remember: You just can’t fail the last time you try.

Life is a series of trial-and-error experiences. We are taught something by a teacher, and then we try to do it ourselves. The first time we do it we probably don’t get the results we want. So we try again, and again, and again. With practice we get better.

Then we push ourselves as we try to do something that’s a little bit more difficult. As we succeed, our expectations increase, and so does the satisfaction that comes from the feeling of a job well done.

So we set our sights a bit higher-to improve our results as compared to what we’ve done before and in relation to the results of those with whom we are competing-and we try again. We continue to push ourselves to new heights.

When we succeed, we once again raise the bar. And when we don’t, we go back to work to improve our skills and talents, and try again.

That is why I feel that the subjects of success and failure are so intertwined: because it is through failure that we grow and develop as individuals. We learn through our failures. Failures show us our flaws, our imperfections, the areas in which we need improvement.

In order to achieve your goals, to fulfill your desires, to make your dreams come true, you’re going to have to work. It is hard work that makes you better at what you do, and failing from time to time is just a part of life.

Learn From Your Failures. When you experience failure, take some time to reflect upon what happened. Pull out a pad of paper and start writing down the answers to these questions:

*Why did this happen?

*What could I have done differently?

*How can I do it better next time?

*What changes should I make in my strategies?

*What can I do to improve my planning and preparation?

Study these answers. Analyze them. Then go out and do it better the next time.

Remember: If you’re not experiencing failure, you’re not working hard enough.

Great leaders are not shamed by failure, and they do not attempt to mask their failures. Instead, they learn lessons, determine what went wrong and make a solid effort to get back on track with a corrected course and updated business plan.

Credit: Jeffrey Mayer’s SucceedingInBusiness.com Newsletter

Please feel free to share your story and any lessons you learned, experienced, you came across in your life in the comments below. If you enjoyed this or any other posts, I’d be honored if you’d share them with your family, friends, and followers!

If you wish to follow my journey outside of my writing, you can find me on LinkedIn and Facebook

 
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Posted by on July 4, 2022 in Experiences of Life., Life & It's Importance, Work Place

 

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Success is no Accident

24 Jun

Each minute of our life is a lesson but most of us fail to read it. I thought I would just add my daily lessons & the lessons that I learned by seeing the people around here. So it may be useful for you and as memories for me. 

“Success is no accident. It is hard work, Perseverance, Learning, Studying, Sacrifice and most of all, love of what you are doing or learning to do.”– Pelé

Life is not an accident. The choices that we make determine our success. We can either choose self-defeat and self-pity or self-motivation and self-encouragement. Success in life may look different for every individual, but the definition of success is same.

Success is stumbling from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm. It is not defined by wealth but by contentment. Success depends on hard work, sustained toil, determination and perseverance. It is not a question of luck. Remember that success is not the key to happiness but happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful. Our best successes  are often accompanied by  our greatest disappointments.

One can attribute success to so many things around. Things like families, friends, education, work, skills, and talents could all be part of your success. Apart from them, certain core variables constitute the right success equation.

Among them, the first and foremost variable is ‘doing things that you love’. When you do things that you love, you find every positive outcome as a success even if it’s little. There’s no obstacle for you, but only challenges and opportunities.

Many of us are not willing to try but want to enjoy the fruits of success without any hard work, sacrifice or struggle. Life has its own struggles. These struggles  motivate us to move forward. Adversity always presents opportunities for introspection. To succeed in life and achieve results, you must master three mighty forces—Desire, Belief and Expectation. Many a time, when we are confronted with a problem, we analyse and get stuck up with it rather than finding a solution to it. Sometimes from the remains or wreckage, we find a hidden opportunity. Our response to our struggles decides how we move forward.

An interesting infographic showcasing the growth timeline of one of the most interesting CEOs of the decade, Sundar Pichai. Seen here is his growth from being a product manager to becoming the CEO of Alphabet Inc.

Failing is a part of life which teaches us many things. Without failing, success is almost impossible. We need to learn how to bounce back from failures. The work of J.K. Rowling, the author of Harry Potter series was rejected by 12 publishers before going on to fame and fortune. You may stumble, people will doubt you and you need to build yourselves from the stones thrown at you. We need to have a positive attitude. Achievement is not just about the happy, shiny things—it is also about withstanding tough times and challenging situations. Resilience demonstrated under pressure is perhaps the darker side of achievement, but is in many ways just as important as the more obvious markers of success.

Nick Vujicic was born with no arms and legs, but that did not stop him from being successful. Today he is a motivational speaker and continues to inspire and touch the lives of many. It is the choices that we make that lead to success. When life gives lemons, make lemonade out of them. We need to access risks and laugh at life.

By Doing What you LIKE, your focus and hard work falls in line automatically. Constant learning and improvisations will become a part of you.

Above all, it will never seem like hard work for you. The process and journey will be enjoyable. Despite the good and bad, your perseverance will shield you against all the odds.

Success needs some sacrifices from you. It takes at least a little. Success will ask you to sacrifice your comfort zone.

Working towards your dreams and goals can make you sleepless and stay awake without a count. Sometimes, success needs you to work at the cost of all the fun things you thought you could do.

The list goes on. But there is no success at the cost of families, friendships, and other good things in life. I like to remind you here.

You will never become successful as long as you continue to blame someone or something else for your lack of success. If you are going to be a winner, you have to acknowledge the truth—it is you who took the actions, thought the thoughts, created the feelings, and made the choices that got you to where you now are. It was you! The person with the negative attitude sees limitations. The person with the positive attitude sees possibilities. “Success is a state of mind. If you want success, start thinking of yourself as a success”

Finally, do what you like. Do it with the best of your efforts. Success wraps you eventually.

References: https://learnfromblogs.com/ https://www.competitionreview.in/

Please feel free to share your story and any lessons you learned, experienced, you came across in your life in the comments below. If you enjoyed this or any other posts, I’d be honored if you’d share them with your family, friends, and followers!

If you wish to follow my journey outside of my writing, you can find me on LinkedIn and Facebook

 
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Posted by on June 24, 2022 in Experiences of Life., Life & It's Importance

 

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Power of your Wasted Efforts

14 May

Each minute of our life is a lesson but most of us fail to read it. I thought I would just add my daily lessons & the lessons that I learned by seeing the people around here. So it may be useful for you and as memories for me.

Probably every person has the same feeling every time they go out into the field, that will they be able to deal with the “fear of rejection”?

We all know that there will always be many more rejections compared to our successes and achievements. However, we grapple with the fear of rejection many times which leads to doubting our own capabilities. In the last 15 years with a career in Quality Assurance, I have acknowledged that along with the fear of rejection.

The journey that I have been making did not started in a high-end car but more like on bicycle. Its a very very special journey from a village kid who is Milk Vendor( person who used to sell MILK by going to each house) in a village to Qulaity Manager in London,  developing teams, implementing effective QA Practices. It is all possible, only by accepting Fear of Rejection and understanding The Law of Wasted Efforts

Do you know that lions only succeed in a quarter of their hunting attempts — which means they fail in 75% of their attempts and succeed in only 25% of them.

Despite this small percentage shared by most predators, they don’t despair in their pursuit and hunting attempts.

The main reason for this is not because of hunger as some might think but it is the understanding of the “Law of Wasted Efforts” that has been instinctively built into animals, a law by which nature is governed.

Half of the eggs of fish are eaten… half of the baby bears die before puberty… most of the world’s rain falls in oceans… and most of the seeds of trees are eaten by birds.

Scientists have found that animals, trees, and other forces of nature are more receptive to the law of “wasted efforts”.

Only humans think that the lack of success in a few attempts is failure… but the truth is that: we only fail when we “stop trying”.

Success is not to have a life free of pitfalls and falls… but success is to walk over your mistakes and go beyond every stage where your efforts were wasted, looking forward to the next stage.

Life can be a rocky road; the challenge is not to let it grind you into dust, but to polish you into brilliant gem.

I learn from my mistakes or failure and move on & the fact is our expectation towards life to be perfect and in a better way and my way is the biggest reason for our unhappiness. So friends we need to understand the law of impermanence of nature & I keep saying for many people that after each sunny day there has to be dark night and night is also good because you are able to get good sleep, rest well when there is a night. If you want to see a full moon to come again it has to pass through no moon right? and if you want to see the rainbow this summer…is it possible? you have to wait for the rain to come + the sun to shine to see the rainbow.

Again friends, in this imperfection of nature there is perfection. Stop taking your failures to your heart and making it so huge and get hurt deeply & mess the whole life. Believe that it is just the cycle which u need to pass through & that’s part of your life. However, get conscious not to take too much time to bounce back & learn how to decide quickly & it is not uncertain situations but an uncertain mind that often leads to failure. So believe in nature and prepare yourself because even failures cannot be permanent.

I agree 100% this feeling `fear of failure or rejection’ would still bother your subconscious mind. Just see around the journey of life, instances like a mother giving birth; the child growing; when the child starts going to school; getting admission to school; when the student working on his final year; employee of his project deliverables; getting into relationship & every instance there exists a fear.

so I want you to be aware consciously & get ready to get absorbed to deal with the fear of failure or rejection.

BTW, get ready there will always be many more rejections compared to our success and achievements. Let’s grapple with this which leads to self-doubt about our own capability and knock this off to get better. I acknowledge whenever I failed or got rejected for my projects, I appreciate the process I focus on learning and continue with never give up attitude and that’s what `Law of Wasted Efforts’ is all about.

I have to share a few exemplary leaders’ examples here:-

  • Apple will be the top brand when it comes to phones and the then CEO Steve Jobs was once a College dropout, fired from his own company & then succeeded in becoming a CEO of Apple again & he’s known as a master of innovation.
  • I’m sure we have grown up in this childhood story, hearing to Thomas Alva Edison story where his teachers told him he’s too stupid to learn anything and he failed thousand times while inventing the lightbulb and he turned out to be a winner of 22 Academy Awards
  • For all our cricket fans – MS Dhoni, one of the greatest cricketers initially played badminton and football, & he took up the job of a train ticket examiner in the Indian railways as he hails from a lower-middle-class family & today Mahendra Singh Dhoni is the captain of Indian Cricket Team and his records are the best among all Indian captains to date and his leadership style has become learning for aspiring leaders.
  • Coming to politics – Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, has faced many odds in his path. He started working at an early age by distributing newspapers after school & he had average grades in his schooling. From there on, Dr. Kalam joined thee Aeronautical Development Establishment of Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO) as a scientist and went on to head the organization as an Indian scientist and he also became the 11th President of India.

There are 100’s of examples around us and look at all successful people around you from Amitabh Bachchan to Albert Einstein, Henry Ford, Walt Disney , Ratan Tata, Dhirubhai Ambani, Narayan Murthy, Sachin Tendulkar and observe all other successful people around you. They have failed multiple times before becoming successful in whatever profession they are in.

BTW, get ready there will always be many more rejections compared to our success and achievements. Let’s grapple with this which leads to self-doubt about our own capability and knock this off to get better. I acknowledge whenever I failed or got rejected for my projects, I appreciate the process I focus on learning and continue with never give up attitude and that’s what `Law of Wasted Efforts’ is all about.

So I finally understood that whether it’s about surviving in nature or hunting as a predator or playing the game or building an IT giant company, this awareness of wasted efforts made these people sharper, better, richer to ultimately succeed in reaching their goals.

To conclude,

You can halt or take rest momentarily but you cannot say QUIT, because success does not come after a few attempts of failure; you need to keep trying, never give up till you succeed, so learn to grow in your life at each stage and go beyond by understanding the Power of your Wasted Efforts.

Also, let’s agree that all of us are vulnerable to faults, we have our own weaknesses, and failures will happen. Don’t shy away from owning your mistake or failure. When it happens believe that that you are wiser today than you were yesterday as you have enhanced your knowledge in this process.

If there is a phrase that summarizes this world, it will simply be: continue all over again.

The universal success secret mantra for Law of Wasted efforts will simply be `Learn from Failure… Take Action… Don’t Quit… Continue! all over again….. until you Succeed!

Refrences: plyinsight, Prajvitha Knowledge, LinkedIn

Please feel free to share your story and any lessons you learned, you experienced, you came across in your life in the comments below. If you enjoyed this, or any other other posts, I’d be honoured  if you’d share it with your family, friends and followers!

If you wish to follow my journey outside of my writing, you can find me on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/MunnaPrawin) Instagram(MunnaPrawin) and Twitter(@munnaprawin1).

 
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Posted by on May 14, 2021 in Experiences of Life., Life & It's Importance, Work Place

 

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