Here’s Why Taking A Break From Work Every Day Could Boost Your Productivity

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Unless you’re a heartless robot, you’re likely slumped over your desk around 3 p.m. wondering how you’re going to get through the rest of the day. We know we’ve been there, and that point is typically the cue to take a walk or grab a cup of coffee. But what you may not know is that studies actually reveal a boost in productivity when you take a short mental break from a large task.

In a study from the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, researchers tested the focus of 84 participants who completed a 50-minute computerized task. The participants were broken into four groups, some of which were given a set of four numerical digits to memorize outside of their given task. Group 1 completed the task without memorizing any digits for the full 50 minutes. Groups 2 and 3 memorized the digits prior to completing the task and were told to indicate when they saw those digits during the task, but Group 2 took two small breaks during the task to be shown the digits again. Group 4 was shown the same digits during the task as Group 2 but were told to ignore the digits.

The researchers measured each group’s performance throughout the exercise, and they found that Group 2 was the only group whose memory performance did not decline. They attributed the participants’ success to taking mental breaks from the main task at hand, rending them more productive overall.

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“It was amazing that performance seemed to be unimpaired by time, while for the other groups, performance was so clearly dropping off,” head researcher Alejandro Lleras said in a statement. “We propose that deactivating and reactivating your goals allows you to stay focused.”

Basically, trying to bang out a large task in one sitting may actually take you longer than if you took a few mental breaks here and there. Hey, it makes sense to us, and we’ll gladly step away from work for a few minutes each day. Anything for the sake of productivity!