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Brain power is a very limited thing. We only get so much of it per day, and what we do with that brain power is the difference between success of failure. If too much time is spent on things that don’t matter such as aimlessly scrolling through social media, or getting involved with drama from friends and family, your brain simply won’t have enough fuel to accomplish the important tasks in an efficient manner. With that being said, doing a task for hours upon hours at a time is an easy way to drain your brain power as well. If you sit in front of a computer to do a project for work and you are determined to not get up until its done, you are doing yourself and the quality of your work a disservice. I’m not saying stop working and scroll through social media. What I am suggesting is taking breaks every now and then to get up and stretch, go for a walk, grab something to eat, or anything that will help you refocus your mind. Use time blocking to improve how you structure your day.
I usually take my breaks every hour, but this can vary from person to person. Experiment with breaks and see what works for you. When your brain starts to feel heavy, and you are starting to mentally fatigue, it is time to take a break. For me, this is every hour. My breaks usually last from 15-20 minutes, and involve taking a quick walk outside to get some fresh air, making food, doing yoga, or meditating. These activities help me refocus my energy to the task at hand. My mindfulness comes back to me, and my quality of work begins to pick back up to where I was when I had originally started. I have found that implementing these breaks has made me far more productive overall. Sitting in front of a computer for hours at a time is bad for your eyes and brain. I begin to get headaches and stiff muscles after sitting for too long and staring at my screen. Implementing these breaks has relieved me of both of these symptoms significantly. Breaks are important, but how else do you ensure everything gets done that you need in a day while conserving the brain power to do so?
The answer to the above question is time blocking. This is simply arranging a set amount of time needed to do a task, and implementing it as part of your schedule in the day. For example, I allotted an hour to work on writing for my blog today. After that hour is up, I will take a 15–20-minute break to decompress, and I will return to my next task with a clean slate and a recharged mind. Combining breaks and time blocks is essential. If I have a task that I have allotted more than an hour for, I still take that break after an hour. My brain power capacity does not change if a task is longer. That hour threshold stays for every task. I simply allot time for this break in my time blocking after an hour. For example, if I wanted an hour and a half to do something, I would time block an hour and 50 minutes to make sure that my break is taken.
To time block and add breaks effectively, I recommend writing out your daily plan on a whiteboard or in a handwritten planner. I personally do both. I put the broader overarching tasks in my planner, and block them into time blocks daily on my white board. I use the Clever Fox Planner to effectively plan and time block my day. Experiment with what works for you. Everyone is different and unique in the way they organize things and how their brain works. I hope this can be the foundation for people who are really disorganized to take incentive, and take time seriously. It’s also important to remember that we all have limited brain power. Besides obviously avoiding distractions, time blocking and breaks are great things to implement when trying to conserve brain power.
Links: Clever Fox Planner