June 2017
Beginner
256 pages
3h 28m
English
The finding: Taking short breaks during the workday doesn’t revitalize you—unless you do something job related and positive, such as praising a colleague or learning something new.
The research: Charlotte Fritz conducted a series of studies on how people unwind from work, looking at everything from long vacations to short bathroom breaks. In one study she surveyed workers about what kind of “microbreaks” they took during the day and how they felt afterward. Micro breaks unrelated to work—making a personal call, checking Facebook—were not associated with more energy and less fatigue, and sometimes even were associated with increased weariness. Meanwhile, breaks that ...