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Welcome to the Productivity Show, a podcast where

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we believe that you can get the important

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things done without sacrificing your health, family, and

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things that My name

0:54

is Tam, I'm the founder of Asian Efficiency, where we

0:56

help people become more productive at work and

0:58

in life. And it is Wednesday, so you

1:00

know what that means, another Wisdom Wednesday episode

1:03

where you are going to get actual productivity

1:05

advice in less than 10 minutes. So

1:08

let's talk about a topic

1:10

most people find counterintuitive and counterproductive,

1:12

and that is taking

1:14

breaks. Not too long

1:17

ago, I was kind of a skeptic. I

1:19

used to believe that powering through work from

1:21

morning till evening without taking any breaks was

1:23

the key to success. But as soon as

1:25

you hear in a story I'm about to

1:28

share with you, my perspective has

1:30

shifted dramatically thanks to a simple,

1:33

everyday practice introduced by a friend. So

1:35

let's start by addressing a common myth, more

1:38

hours worked equals more

1:41

productivity. This

1:43

couldn't be further from the

1:45

truth. Research has consistently shown

1:47

that our brains need downtime

1:50

to function optimally. Without breaks,

1:52

our ability to maintain focus

1:54

and make decisions sharply declines.

1:57

Now, I'm Not here to

1:59

just talk. About taking any sort of break.

2:02

And talking about taking strategic breaks. The.

2:04

Here's what that looks like First, I think

2:06

everyone must take a lunch break. So.

2:09

No eating at your desk and when she to

2:11

step away from your work environment. This.

2:13

Break is your time to

2:15

disconnect and recharge physically. And.

2:17

Mentally. And this is so

2:20

simple. But anytime I work with a

2:22

Coach Klein and they fall in this

2:24

category of this working way too many

2:26

hours. This. Is one of the

2:28

first things I help them with is

2:30

taking a lunch break and I know

2:32

it's answer basic but once you do

2:34

it's you're in that camp yourself you

2:37

realize? Wow. Being. Able to step away

2:39

from your work and getting. A fresh

2:41

perspectives and letting your mind kind of

2:43

like calm down. And. Get

2:45

back to center. Is a

2:48

simple thing but so powerful.

2:50

So. The next thing where you to do

2:52

is for every hour of focus work and

2:55

once you to take a break. Just.

2:57

Five to ten minutes or so so for

2:59

every six minutes that you're focusing doing work.

3:01

Tic. Five to ten minutes of just downtime.

3:04

You. Can take a quick lox. you can

3:07

do some stretching. Practice. A bit

3:09

of meditation or just change of

3:11

scenery. All these are really good

3:13

ideas and this isn't just good

3:15

practice, it's kind of necessary if

3:17

you want to have sustains mental

3:19

energy and creativity. Ny Got

3:21

this insight many years ago. I was actually

3:24

at a coffee shop here in Austin and

3:26

was good to my laptop and I was

3:28

co working with a friend of mine. We.

3:31

Were kind of sitting there together. And.

3:33

Then office on, he got up ease of hate, you

3:35

want to go for a walk with me for like

3:37

ten minutes and then resume work and was like. Actually

3:40

I'm kind of like and middles working

3:42

by. It's like sounds nice so let's.

3:45

Go. Do that. And so we want for

3:47

walks and he were here with me. How?

3:49

He did this every single day. And

3:52

I said, oh interesting, Tell me more. and

3:55

he said i find that any time i

3:57

take a break from work every time around

3:59

this time It allows me to get a

4:01

new perspective and get a fresh set

4:03

of eyes on the problems that I'm trying to

4:05

solve. I was like, oh, that's really interesting. Have

4:08

you found yourself to be more productive when you

4:10

do that? And he said, yeah, totally. It

4:13

totally changed how our approach work and I

4:15

find myself a lot more focused. So

4:18

when I heard that, I was like, okay, logically

4:20

that kind of makes sense. But

4:23

then as he kept talking about it, I was like,

4:25

okay, maybe I should give this a try. Because

4:27

he shared with me just how having

4:29

consistent breaks throughout the day helped him

4:31

to refocus and boost his

4:33

productivity anytime he returned to work.

4:36

So guess what? The

4:38

next day I tried it myself. So

4:40

when I was working from home, I was like,

4:43

okay, it took about an hour of focus work

4:45

to solve this problem. Do I just move on to

4:47

the next thing? Oh, no, actually I should take a

4:49

break right now. So I took

4:52

a quick five to 10 minute walk

4:54

by myself, strolling around downtown Austin. And

4:57

instead of just scrolling through social media, I

4:59

was just walking around wondering about my city.

5:03

And I noticed right away how effective it was.

5:06

I returned coming back to my

5:08

home office feeling a lot more refreshed and

5:11

a lot more alert as well. And it

5:13

was kind of like a revelation. And

5:15

then that practice turned into a daily

5:18

practice over time. So I did it again the next day,

5:20

the day after that. And

5:23

now pretty much like four or

5:25

five years later, this has kind of become a daily

5:27

thing for me now. Where anytime

5:29

I focus for 60 to 90

5:31

minutes, I'll take a 10, 15

5:34

minute break. Like the longer I work,

5:36

the longer my break becomes. And

5:38

so I find that 90 minutes is kind of the

5:40

cap in terms of how long you can really intensely

5:42

focus. And then typically I like to take a

5:44

20 minute break at most for that. Or

5:47

if I work for 60 minutes, I'll take a five

5:49

to 10 minute break and then resume my daily

5:51

stuff. So I

5:53

want to challenge you today and encourage

5:55

you to say, hey, how can you

5:57

incorporate more breaks throughout the day? So

6:00

think about your next break while you're listening to

6:02

this episode. Planets make

6:04

it purposeful. And

6:07

after you take that break, notice

6:09

how you feel. Are

6:11

you more focused? Do you feel less

6:13

stress? Remember, taking

6:16

strategic breaks isn't just a

6:18

nice to have. They're kind

6:20

of essential for your productivity,

6:22

creativity, and well-being. So

6:24

try to incorporate these strategic breaks

6:26

into your routine. And

6:29

I bet you, you'll find yourself finding

6:31

that you're going to be a lot more productive, a

6:33

lot more creative, and a lot more

6:36

effective. And that is it for

6:38

today's Wisdom Wednesday episode. Thanks again for joining us

6:40

here. Join us again next

6:42

week for more insights on being more

6:44

productive and being more effective, working smarter,

6:46

not harder. And until then, see

6:49

you later.