Why is having breaks important?
Michele Witting
2025-07-23 04:04:41
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It’s easy to get stuck working for hours on end without giving yourself a break, especially when you feel you are too busy, and this can lead to burnout. Integrating regular breaks into your working day is crucial to allow your mind time to rest. Research shows that taking regular breaks improves productivity, reduces stress levels, enhances creativity, and improves our physical health. A short break allows you to pause and rest so you can resume tasks with new energy. Disengaging from work only for a few minutes but on a regular basis can be sufficient for preventing exhaustion and boosting performance. This is because fatigue worsens over the workday, and we need more break time in the afternoon to recharge.
Jake Dietrich
2025-07-23 00:49:51
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Taking regular breaks can boost your performance. Micro-breaks, lunchtime breaks and longer breaks, have all been shown to have a positive relationship with wellbeing and productivity. By taking regular breaks you can reduce or prevent stress, help to maintain performance throughout the day and reduce the need for a long recovery at the end of the day. A relaxing break can help to facilitate recovery, by returning your mental and psychical functional systems to their baseline. Additionally, a relaxing break can help to reset your mood, thereby promoting positive wellbeing and reducing stress. Taking breaks has been shown to be important in recovering from stress, which can, in turn, improve your performance. Recovering from work stress can restore energy and mental resources and decrease the development of fatigue, sleep disorders and cardiovascular disease. Mini-breaks help to support your wellbeing and increase productivity.
Meredith Homenick
2025-07-23 00:22:33
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Regular breaks lead to 13% higher productivity. It also results in 62% higher work-life balance. A licenced Professional Counsellor recommends advocating breaks every 3 hours to maximise productivity, whilst reducing burnout. The simple act of taking your full lunchbreak or stopping by the office coffee machine for five minutes can help reset your mood and aid relaxation. By taking the time to recharge your batteries, it gives your brain a chance to develop your creative ideas and think of new solutions to problems. Having a well-deserved break with your colleagues or catching up by the hot drinks machine is an important part of developing workplace friendships. Those who take regular breaks are more productive than their lunch-skipping colleagues.
Sam Nitzsche
2025-07-22 23:53:18
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Micro-breaks, lunchtime breaks, and longer breaks have all been shown to have a positive relationship with wellbeing and productivity – by taking regular breaks you can boost your performance. Breaks can reduce or prevent stress, help to maintain performance throughout the day, and reduce the need for a long recovery at the end of the day. A relaxing break can help to facilitate recovery – by returning your mental and psychical functional systems to their baseline. Additionally, a relaxing break can help to reset your mood – thereby promoting positive wellbeing and reducing stress. Taking breaks has been shown to be important in recovering from stress, which can, in turn, improve your performance. Recovering from work stress can restore energy and mental resources and decrease the development of fatigue, sleep disorders, and cardiovascular disease. Social breaks, such as chatting with your peers, have also been found to be beneficial, allowing you to share your experiences and feel part of the group – increasing a sense of belonging within the wider community. This feeling of community, during a social break, shows a positive association with feeling recovered after the break.
America Walker
2025-07-22 23:51:38
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Taking regular ‘healthy’ breaks helps to cope with daily work demands.
94% of NHS employees felt they had a refreshed perspective on work after taking a break.
Taking ‘good’ breaks protects wellbeing and prevents a build-up of stress that can lead to burnout.
Having a better balance in your working day with regular rest breaks can support staff to stay in their jobs, reducing absence and improving staff retention.
In addition research shows that taking regular good breaks results in fewer errors and better patient safety.
Good breaks offer the opportunity to take time away from work, do something different, detach from work thoughts and responsibilities, re-charge, eat and drink and rest.
This can lead to skipping breaks, having breaks that don’t recharge you, not having enough time to eat, move or hydrate well, and missing out on talking to colleagues.
Changing the way staff can rest and recover from work will need us to take a shared approach.
The resources available will take into consideration the needs of different staff groups at the individual level and also for managers on how to manage different needs in terms of break taking.
Camren Boyer
2025-07-22 23:30:38
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A culture of skipped breaks only threatens staff and patient safety. Don't feel guilty about taking breaks and encourage others to adopt the same attitude. Dehydration can affect your health and performance, impacting your concentration and cognitive performance triggering fatigue. One NHS study found that 45% of staff were dehydrated at the end of their shift. Night shifts have been associated with obesity and poor health outcomes, snacking on good nutritious snacks can be especially important. Health and welfare at work is enshrined in law, as outlined on the UK Government website. If missed breaks are becoming a pattern, escalate this to your manager.
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