When was the last time you took an actual break from work? Give yourself one moment to actually think about this. By break, we mean an actual mental break as in, you’ve muted WhatsApp groups and logged off your work email because it’s the weekend or because it’s a national holiday.
Honestly, that sounds far from reality in the current 24/7 world that we live in. Don’t get me wrong, technology has changed our lives in inexplicable ways and certainly saved us during this quarantine. Zoom conferences, social media and the ability to actually have access to the internet has truly helped a lot of people keep their jobs. But it’s time we all admit that ever since we’ve started ‘work from home’, work became 24/7 because every day looks the same anyway.
But whether you are working from home or working from the office, taking a break is essential. We aren’t necessarily talking about asking your boss for a full week off or an actual full on ‘career break’, we mean learning to actually check out at 5 pm and actually enjoying weekends without work being in the background.
1) Get Rid Of The Guilt
Breathe.
Feeling guilty for not working during the weekend is slightly irrational. Unless there is an agreement that you have work to do on a particular weekend, then the weekend is not for work. There is absolutely no shame in disconnecting from the day if you aren’t expected to be working. Honestly, your health and mental well-being will thank you for this.
According to the World Economic Forum, “If we ceaselessly push ourselves without ever taking breaks, the quality of our work will suffer in the short term. And in the long term, we’ll be liable to burnout. For hard work to become valuable and sustainable, it must be followed by rest and recovery.”
Burnout is a very real and very serious thing to consider when constantly feeling the need to work. At some point, even if you don’t want a break, your body will force you into one. You’ll be faced with lack of focus and lack of new ideas, so it’s best to enjoy the breaks when you have them instead of using them to drain your energy.
2) Go Offline
Personally, as someone who works in the media, I have mixed feelings about this. However, the one true way to have peace of mind in the digital age is to disconnect. Unless you’re expecting a call from your boss or coworkers, or unless you have plans to talk about a work-related project over social media, you have every right to switch off.
Quite honestly, if you’ve finished work at 5 pm, then is there really a reason to refresh your email at 8 pm before you go to bed? I think not.
“If someone wants to speak to you, they’ll call you – and you’ll hear it. Otherwise, you do not need the constant merry-go-round of Google, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Email, etc,” wrote the Creative Boom.
3) Exercise And All What It’s Good For
Sports
To be fair, right now is not the time to go to the gym (even if they’re starting to open up soon). However, all you need is a fitness/ yoga mat, or carpet, to do 30 to 45 minutes of fitness exercises every day.
As Healthline wrote, sports improves moods, helps you increase concentration and fights off depression and stress. After a long day of work, this is exactly what everyone needs. The best part about exercising is that you have no option other than putting your phone aside.
If you happen to be going back to the office soon, don’t skip the exercise routine that you can do when you get home.
4) Find Another Source of Happiness
Generally, workaholics link their happiness to how successful their career looks like. While that is a way to encourage you to do better at work, having a balance is critical. A career cannot be the top priority in our lives day in and day out.
Hence, finding a new hobby to do as a way to actually make use of freetime is important. During COVID-19 that is relatively harder, but there are still options: drawing, writing, photography and reading all count. I’ll just spit this out too but there is absolutely nothing wrong with also choosing to laze around in front of the TV with Netflix as a form of a break.
There is a thin line between being a hard worker and workaholic. “When work becomes all consuming and joyless – that is, you go well beyond what’s necessary and have no other interests or activities – it becomes a negative addiction. Workaholics work because they have nothing else to take its place. Their work addiction is a recurring obsession, and typically joyless,” as per Career Cast.
This is definitely not something someone should strive for in life. Loving your job is one thing but sacrificing your life for it is another thing. Hence, breathe in and breathe out, and please, take a break for a change.
