Brainhack

11 Watch Cat Videos

“Always laugh when you can. It is cheap medicine.”

Lord Byron

In a recent study by the Draugiem Group it was found that the 10% of employees with the highest productivity, surprisingly didn't put in longer hours than anyone else. In fact, they didn't even work full eight-hour days. What they did do was take regular breaks. Specifically, they took 17-minute breaks for every 52 minutes of work.

And to be really productive, it's just as important to concentrate on what you do in your breaks as what you do while you're working.

Laughing All the Way to the Bank

Once you've stretched your legs and got yourself a coffee, the last thing you should do is sit down at your desk and check up on what's happening in the news. What you should be doing is sitting down at your desk and watching videos of epic fails, grumpy cats and sneezing pandas; whatever makes you laugh, in fact.

A study published in the journal Psychological Science found that subjects who watched brief video clips that made them feel sad were less able to solve problems creatively than people who watched an upbeat video.

Ruby Nadler, one of the researchers from the University of Western Ontario said, “A positive mood increases cognitive flexibility, while a negative mood narrows our mental horizons. If you have a project where you want to think innovatively, or you have a problem to carefully consider, being in a positive mood can help you to do that.”

One of the other great benefits of watching things ...