Why Breaks Should Be Take A Break?

Are your department employees tired, unfocused, and without motivation by the middle of the afternoon? Are their too many accidents in the lab? I have the perfect solution! Allow department employees to take breaks throughout the workday. In the following pages I will show why the brain needs downtime and how breaks allow employees to be more productive.

Why Breaks Should Be Given to Employees In the article “To Stay On Schedule, Take a Break,” a mental concentration is similar to a muscle, it will become fatigued after sustained use and needs rest before it can recover, according to John P. Trougakos, who is an assistant management professor at University of Toronto Scarborough and the Rotman School of Management (Korkki). In the same

Yes, but not sure of the best way to structure them. There are many effective break patterns, I will share four specifically and how they can be effective.

Pomodoro Method

This method is common for employees who are busy. The employee sets a timer for 25 minutes, when the timer goes off, they take a 5-minute break. During they 5 minutes they may stretch, grab a drink, etc. After the employee has taken 4 Pomodoro sessions, the employee is encouraged to take a longer break of 30 minutes or so. Working in compact time periods, helps the employee get rid of distractions and focus on their work (Seiter).

90-Minute Work Blocks

Do the employees of Anatomy and Physiology need more than 25 minutes of continuous work with out a break? Maybe the 90-minute work block method would be more beneficial. In the 90-minute work block method, employees work continuously for 90 minutes, and then rest for 20 minutes between work blocks. This break method copies our sleeping cycles, discovered by William Dement and Nathan Kleitman. Dement and Kleitman discovered our sleeping cycles persist when we are awake. See Figure 2 – Waveform of Life for the illustration of our movement from higher to lower levels of alertness. Professor K. Anders Ericsson studied athletes, actors and chess players, he found the best performers practiced in focused in sessions 90 minutes or less. The 90-minute method allows employees to focus on longer tasks, but still have a break in between tasks