3 Proven Ways to Recharge for Productivity
A client and I were talking the other day about how vacation “season” seems to have disappeared. Summer used to be a slow time, when families went on vacation because the kids were out of school.
In finance, the month between Thanksgiving and New Year’s was slow, except for maybe the holiday parties we hosted for clients. (Those were the days!) The office was empty the week between Christmas and New Year’s.
Does anyone’s business have a slow season anymore? At least, if you’re not a brick-and-mortar business that operates in a seasonal location?
If there’s no downtime in your business, does that mean you can’t take any time off? (If you’ve been reading my stuff, you know the answer to that!)
I get it. Especially for solopreneurs, it’s not always easy to take time off. But the lack of downtime associated with your business means you have to schedule it in. A writing partner of mine, who is a solopreneur, recharged for a week and her email said she was taking the time for vacation.
A week is great. We all need more than that, though. July 22 is National Hammock Day, and while I myself don’t have a hammock, I’m planning to take some time anyway. And other business owners should too… because you probably haven’t been taking enough rest breaks.
I sometimes feel like I’m a broken record saying this, but here goes again. Second verse, same as the first. Louder and with feeling:
The human brain is not designed to work 14 hours a day. It’s not designed for 5 days straight in front of a screen, spreadsheets, tax returns, legal briefs, academic papers, marketing strategies, etc.
All of these things are extremely recent in human culture, but our brains “grew up” when we were fending off predators and mostly hanging out with our tribes and hunting and gathering our food. There really wasn’t a lot of “work” in the day when the human brain was being formed.
Now, the brain is adaptable, and you can force it to work like that. For a while. But once you hit that limit, you can end up burned out, miserable, sick, and any combination thereof.
How do I know? Take a wild guess!
But let me ask you a question. Do you really think you’re here on this earth to be miserable, burned out, and sick?
I’ll just leave this here: when you’re working 14 hours a day, you don’t have time to tend to yourself. You also don’t have time to pay attention to what’s going on in the world. There are positive things happening always, for sure.
But there are some other things going on that have accompanied the fetishization (yep I said it) of the long work day here in the US: destruction of the planet, climate change, ascendant fascism and authoritarianism, growing inequality. So maybe busting your behind and not getting anywhere isn’t serving you. Just a thought.
Daily recharge
Human brains like movement, social connections, solving puzzles or problems, hobbies, and fun activities. The more of these you can put in your day, the better. So if your work is interfering with getting exercise, something needs to give - and it’s not exercise.
I think too many people think of exercise as a tool for weight loss, which it isn’t. It’s a tool for destressing, productivity, and longevity.
Swing in a hammock, maybe? No phone! Maybe a book, or a friend can come with you. A nice drink, maybe some snax.
Whatever you do, take a break from your phone for an hour. (Really you should do it longer, but most people are way too attached to them. An hour break is better than no break.)
Weekly recharge
Even if you’re working most days of the week (and even I have periods when I have some kind of work to do every day), make sure there’s a fun activity at least once a week.
One that involves friends and/or family, a favorite hobby, or getting to a green spot or water. Or better yet all of these.
Longer recharges
Taking a week off every year is good, but that’s the absolute bare minimum. I do it around my birthday if I can’t do anything else - I’m always desperate to get out of the Coachella Valley and the days of 120 degree temperatures. I head to the beach or at the very least a cooler place with a pool.
Disconnect during this time you are on vacation. If you’re at the beach and still communicating with your team or clients via email or anything else, it doesn’t count. You won't be able to get the fresh perspective that you need for your own business, nor the recharging associated with doing something else.
You don’t have to lie around on the beach if that doesn’t sound good to you. Camping, hiking, adventure sports - if that’s more your thing, then have at it. National Hammock Day is in the summer, but if you’re a snow sports fanatic have at it in the winter too.
(Not me. Below 70 degrees? TOO COLD YOU MONSTER.)
Separate from your screens. You can announce your hiatus from social media, or schedule all your posts, or have someone on your team do it. But you don’t need to be on it that week AT ALL.
Recap
Your brain needs you to take a break. (The planet might need it too.) As much as I loathe advertising, Nike is right: just do it.