Gabor Hosszu:
Breaks: friend or foe?
We were told while we were kids to just
sit down and study
and when we were adults get to sit down
and do our work.
I always found this a very strange way
to be productive and move forward.
It turns out it was
actually based on an old theory.
Studies from the past indicate that our
attention is like amuscle it gets tired over time.
This phenomenon was called
vigilance decrement.
This idea was accepted for a very long
time because it sounded very plausible.
Imagine sitting in
front of a computer and doing the same
tasks for 8 hours.
It is nearly impossible. You will lose focus
over time because our
attention gets tired just like a muscle
after a workout they said.
A misconception from the past
A professor from the University of
Illinois called Alejandro
Lleras rejected this theory.
He suggests that our attention
is not limited resource that runs out
as we use it, but it shifts over time.
From the previous example
imagine sitting in front
of the computer for 8 hours.
At one point you start to distract
yourself with surfing on the internet
playing on your phone or
having a conversation.
Your attention did not run out, you are
still paying attention.
But you’re
paying attention to a different
task to a different subject.
Lleras’ studies indicate that the brain
filters out unimportant
stimulus it registers over time.
So if you are paying attention
to a subject or task that is
unimportant you will eventually
lose interest because your brain starts
to filter parts of it out
aka gets bored.
But if it is true how can you keep your
productivity high throughout the day
even with attention
hungry, repetitive or boring tasks?
Lleras continued his research and in
2011 he reported that
people who regularly takes breaks tend
to keep focus and
their productivity high throughout the day.
They tested this
theory on 84 subjects who had to
perform repetitive tasks on the computer.
The results show that the subjects who
had to take regular breaks had much better
results than the ones who had to do itin one sitting.
“It was amazing that performance seemed
to be unimpaired by time,while for the other group’s
performance was so clearly
dropping off,” Lleras said.
This result left the researchers to
believe that our attention
is not a limited resource and with
regular brakes we are
able to keep our focus.
How to keep your productivity high
during the day?
So brakes are your friends but you can
still do a break wrong.
The best kind of break applies two
rules:
First, a scheduled break is much better
than a random break.
Second, a break has to have a
limited length.
For example, as I’m writing this article
right now I plan to have a
10-minute break after every 40 minutes
of work.
These rules make sure I have a
small break once every 1 hour and
keep my productivity high and
my attention focused.
This rule works for me very well, I
figured it out in college but
back then I used to do 45 minutes of
work and 15 minutes of
break.
You have to find what works best
for you. I recommend
starting with 50 minutes and 10-minute
break so this adds up to one hour.
In conclusion, take regular
but short breaks to keep up
your attention and productivity.
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