If you have ever gone on a break during work and not felt a single bit different when you got back to your tasks at hand, you have just experienced the break blues. Breaks can do wonders for your motivation and your wellbeing, but if you aren’t taking them properly they can just be extended moments of stress.
To help you beat those break blues start using these five tips today. They will help you relax, help you decompress, and most importantly, help you reset so that you can go back to work feeling refreshed and capable.
1. Introduce New Flavors to Your Breaks
Flavor is a great way to ignite different areas of the brain and give you a positive distraction to enjoy, even for a short period of time. How you get this flavor is up to you. It could be done by enjoying tasty drinks or snacks; or if you are a smoker, you could even try out Charlie’s Chalk Dust e-liquid range from RedJuice.
Great tastes are a passive pleasure, so you can boost that dopamine and get more out of your break without too much mental effort on your part. This new, pleasant experience on its own can help you start to take a step away from your stress.
2. Drink—But Do It Right
If you find that drinking water just means going to the bathroom more often, then you may be low on electrolytes. These are essential minerals that are needed to conduct electricity, and in the body they are the secret ingredient that allows us to actually use the water and liquids that we drink. You can get the electrolytes that you need from tablets or sports drinks, particularly if you normally drink filtered water.
The reason why you will want to specifically drink a big glass or bottle during your break is that we tend to forget to stay properly hydrated when we are in the thick of a task. By drinking on your break, you can reset easily.
3. Make Small Playlists to Suit Your Mood
Short playlists can make it easy to use music to help you reach the state of mind you want to be in. Some playlists should have calming music, others upbeat music, and you should also consider finding either white or brown noise to help quiet your mind if you are experiencing high levels of stress or anxiety.
4. Get Outside and Away from Your Desk
You need to leave your desk when you are on a break. If you don’t then you aren’t actually breaking away from work at all. By leaving your desk and ideally going outside for a short walk you will be able to enjoy a change of scenery and get your circulation going.
5. Socialize
Unless you need to calm down (which you should do on your own), try seeing if someone else is taking a break at the same time. Socializing with people you get on with can be a great way to have fun and feel good, and can help you stay motivated.