Take a "Smart Break"
by Peter McLaughlin and Peter McLaughlin, Jr.

Before my career in real estate and my present role as author and speaker, I was a teacher and coach at the high school and college levels. As a coach, I always set a tone of high positive energy with my players. My teams had a lot of fun.

But there were a couple of things I couldn’t tolerate when we took the field. The biggest was players letting up before the game was over. When I saw guys slacking off in the fourth quarter, dragging, not finishing strong, I’d go ballistic. I just couldn’t accept that attitude and behavior, and my teams quickly internalized the habit of playing all out until the final second expired. If we were winning the game, we would aim to seal the victory, and eliminate any chance of our opponents gaining any momentum (none of this “prevent defense” stuff). If we were behind on the scoreboard after three quarters of the game, we always had the feeling that we could make a comeback. The fourth quarter was ours.

Since moving from coaching athletes to training professionals, I’ve modified and deepened my philosophy. I still teach people to demand high levels of performance from themselves every day of the week, and I still believe that doing great things requires you to push yourself beyond your current comfort zone.

But one of the most important lessons I’ve learned from years of performance research is the principle of recovery: how to balance intense work with the physical needs of the body and brain. Instead of taking a macho, storm-the-castle approach to your daily work activities, you can plan it a bit more strategically, in a way that helps you not only get more done by the end of each day, but that also helps you sustain towering energy levels for the long term. One simple, practical way to accomplish this is to take a break in the mid-afternoon...what I call a “smart break.”

The Smart Break

Many studies show that people naturally experience a drop in energy and alertness in the mid-afternoon (chronobiologists call this time of day “the breaking point”). This downturn occurs around 3 p.m. , when your body's circadian rhythms take a periodic plunge. Honoring this natural recovery period by taking a 10- to 20-minute smart break will help you feel more energized for the balance of the day, with a net gain to the overall quantity and quality of your work.

The smart break is smart for a number of reasons. The first is that it’s specially designed to give you a high-powered recovery period that recharges your physical energy, emotional balance, and mental focus. Secondly, the break affords a quick “attitude adjustment” interval, during which you can check your mental thermostat and consciously turn it a few notches to the positive. Lastly, the smart break is a performance booster. It’s a built-in mechanism to help you review your daily objectives, stay focused on key priorities, and make the last quarter or so of your work day as productive as possible. (If your work day extends into the evening, the smart break will recharge your afternoon-evening hours).

Maximizing Your Smart Break

There are two important parts to your mid-afternoon smart break: a relaxation component and a re-energizing component. The relaxation component is downtime. It includes activities like closing your eyes, deep breathing, or muscle relaxation. The goal of this part is to step back from the intense effort you’ve been exerting all day. De-activate, disengage, and totally relax for these few minutes (or few seconds, if that’s all you can spare). Your goal is to experience a deep sense of release and calmness.

The second component of the smart break is aimed at recharging your energy level. In this part of your break, the goal is to reactivate, reinvigorate, and prepare yourself for a productive afternoon of work. This segment is what makes the smart break a performance-enhancing tool. Instead of letting your mind wander off to the nether world and having your productivity steadily decline until you pack up for home, a smart break helps access a higher level of functioning, where you’re firing on all cylinders. You’re refocused on your priorities and recommitted to a high-energy afternoon.

Practical Tips

So let’s get practical. What should you do during your break? Like the morning ritual I discussed a couple months ago, the answer is that the break has to be simple and flexible enough to fit into your schedule and environment, but significant enough to revitalize your energy and performance levels. Following are examples of activities to include in your smart break:

• If you’re tired (and if your environment is appropriate), lie down on the floor or put your head on your desk for a few minutes.
• Switch to a less demanding activity (read the paper, listen to music, check news online, check mail, email, etc.).
• Go for a brief walk.
• Eat a light, healthy snack.
• Get a glass of water or tea.
• Get up from your desk and do some light stretching, or at least check your posture and straighten up.
• Do a deep-breathing exercise.
• Seek out something humorous (such as visiting www.cartoonbank.com or www.theonion.com for some comic relief…but be careful not to spend the rest of your day there).
• Check your daily plans and priorities to make sure you’re focused on what you need to complete today.
• Check your attitude; make it energized, relaxed, focused, and fun.
• Commit to finishing the day strong, with a flourish of productive activity.

Again, what makes the break a smart break is that it physiologically and psychologically rejuvenates you, and then helps you refocus on your most important tasks. For this reason, the last three items above are non-negotiable – you have to do these to make the smart break work for you.

For how long should you break? Ideally, you should take 10-20 minutes for your break. That’s what experts say gives your body and brain an optimal period of rejuvenation. Now, reality dictates that many an afternoon, you just don’t have the luxury of hanging up a hammock and knocking off for a 20-minute siesta. But at minimum – even if you’re blazing around at 100 miles per hour – you can have a “Plan B” or on-the-fly break that consists of taking a couple deep breaths, straightening your posture, reviewing your priorities, and committing to finish the day strong.

Make the Smart Break Happen

To accrue the benefits of your smart break, you have to take it. Schedule it and make it automatic. I’m certainly no technology maven, but I’ve found that the single best way to cement the smart break into my daily schedule is to use the calendar function on my Outlook program to schedule it as a recurring appointment (full disclosure: my assistant had to help me figure this out). Of course, you can also schedule the break in your day-timer or on your PDA, if those are your scheduling weapons of choice.

On days when I’m in the office, the reminder chime on my computer sounds at 3 p.m. Depending on what I’m doing, I’ll usually get up and walk around (sometimes I go outside and walk a couple blocks to the beach), grab a healthy snack, review my daily plans, and consciously assume a positive frame of mind. If I have a call or meeting at the 3 p.m. time, I try to plan my break right before or after. If I’m stuck in the heat of battle, I go for a quickie – a few deep breaths, posture realignment, priority review, and attitude recalibration.

Think of it as a “productivity break” if it makes you feel better about not working. But try the smart break out for yourself – today. Make it your motto: “The fourth quarter is mine.”

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