Thursday, December 3, 2020

How do you take breaks?

This is the fourth issue where I explore joy at work. Here's 1, 2 and 3.

Hello Amazing!

I'm a social being. I find that spending time with others, especially focused on things I really care about and excite me, is an ever renewable source of energy for me. And it's where I find a lot of joy.

Pandemic, lockdown and working remotely have made this a lot harder. It has also made something else harder: taking a break.

I don't know about you, but for me, taking a break from work when I'm working at home on my own feels frivolous, almost extravagant. I still do it. I watch a clip from Who Is America or some random thing from YouTube that a friend sent me. I may feel a bit guilty about it, but I do it. But because of the guilt, and the fact that I remain seated at my laptop, also means that it serves very few of the functions of an actual legitimate break.

The best breaks are when I manage to get out of my chair, put on a jacket and perhaps just walk around the block or stroll around for maybe 20 minutes. Since April I can count on one hand the amount of times I've managed to do this on my own.

But something happens when a break is social. When I'm working with Mette for example we can take breaks, go for walks, eat lunch together. Somehow, the fact that we are two people taking a break makes it legitimate.

Of course it would be nice to take breaks spontaneously. But the reality for most people working remotely is that everything is scheduled. So let's try to accept that, and then work with it. Let's schedule our breaks. And let's make them social. Invite a friend or coworker that you enjoy conversing with to a recurring 15 or 30 minute break at a set time once or twice a week. Then put on shoes and go outside and talk on the phone about anything not related to work. Walk away from your home while you talk. Then after you hang up, walk back to your home in silence (no walk-and-email!).

The purpose is not to force joy out of a conversation. It doesn't need to solve it all. It's just about shifting our conditions ever so slightly to make a little bit more room for joy to peek out. And if we have the right mindset (get the right mindset here) we have a chance of noticing.

In the next issue I'll share a framework for making these conversations richer and deeper.

much love

Mathias

P.s.: if you are looking for more joy in your work, more meaning and purpose in your career or ways to use your creativity more effectively, I help people 1:1. I call it a personal workshop journey, because it's a workshop designed just for you and your current challenge, where you find your own answers and get the accountability and support to implement the change. Don't wait for new year's eve to write yet another set of resolutions. By investing 15 minutes every week you can be making real progress before 2020 is over.

Find out if a personal workshop could help you too