Or, maybe you’re looking at the finish line to go home and want to get the last 3 items done on your to-do list and then you can leave. Just push a little more, a little harder. The problem is, it’s taking forever. You’re re-reading lines, you’re slumping into your seat, and you’re attention is all over the place.
Here’s what we know about that: our pre-frontal cortex (PFC), our “thinking brain” is a very limited resource. For any activities involving understanding, deciding, recalling, memorizing or inhibiting, we need our thinking brain. Unfortunately, the brain’s energy gets depleted very quickly. When our brain’s energy is depleted, we resort to our mental maps (habits and shortcuts) to get us through the best we can without the PFC. This is when our work suffers, things take longer than we think they will and the end of the day leaves us with no energy to spare for loved ones.
And don’t we all want to do our best work and have energy to spare for loved ones (or ourselves) at the end of the day?
Yes, yes we do.
Enter the Office Breaks on Yoga Download. One of the things both your brain and your body need to refuel is oxygen. So when we get to that place where our brain is fuzzy and we feel the urge to push through… stop. Seriously, stop. Instead of taking the 30 minutes it will take you to finish up without your PFC, take a break and it will only take you 5 or 10 minutes to do even better work.
These Office Breaks are specifically designed for common moments in our work days like when your brain is fuzzy, you’re low on energy, or you’re overwhelmed (among others!). Workplace Evolved (WE) deliberately structures these breaks to give your brain the oxygen it needs, give your body the movement it needs, and give your mind an invitation to shift your experience towards something better.
The result is that you do better work, are more efficient, your body feels better, and you have energy to spare at the end of the day.
So taking little breaks throughout the day is the easy choice, right?
We wish! None of us make good decisions when our brains are already depleted. So don’t rely on your brain—make it a literal no-brainer. Scheduling a calendar reminder every 90 minutes to try an Office Break. This will give you a reminder at just the right time, and relinquishes your brain of needing to make any more decisions when it’s already exhausted. Wouldn’t that be nice!
Try the Office Breaks. Track the results for a few weeks. Let us know how it goes.
Workplace Evolved offers 5, 10, and 20-minute office breaks designed for common situations we encounter in the workday. If you have any requests, just let us know. We’ll use feedback, requests and your results to fuel this segment of YogaDownload.com and hope to have many more breaks available online over time.
Curious about Workplace Evolved? Check out their website here.
By Dia Draper
Dia left the practice of law to shift work cultures and improve lives. Dia believes work is most fulfilling when employees are engaged, valued and trusted to work towards a common goal. As the owner and CEO of Workplace Evolved, Dia is an experienced certified executive coach and she runs powerful programs for leadership development, and employee wellbeing and engagement in large organizations. Her mission is to improve people’s experience of work while simultaneously improving the organization’s profits, a true win-win.
CLICK HERE TO STREAM OR DOWNLOAD ONE OF DIA'S OFFICE YOGA CLASSES!