Welcome to The Steve Show. Today, we’re going to talk about getting more done by taking breaks. Should we take a break, now? Why not ….

Just kidding! But I’m somewhat serious. When I tell my clients to take a break when they feel they aren’t getting enough done, they often respond with, “Are you kidding me? What are you? An idiot?” I’m like, “No, I’m not an idiot. I’m really serious.” Then they start laughing, “You’ve got to be kidding.”

I was working with an event producer who does events in the United States (US) and in Europe. She said, “Steve, it takes 15 hours for the American crew to set up for this event. 15 hours a day! But when I do it in Europe, they work about 8 hours a day and they get the same, exact event done.

I was thinking, “How could that be possible?” She noticed the confused look on my face and responded, “The only thing I could think of is that they take way more breaks in Europe. They’re just taking a lot of breaks.” I said, “Oh! Well, that kind of makes sense because they’re allowing for recovery time!”

You see, a lot of Americans—and people in other parts of the world too—grind away even when they are at the level of exhaustion. What happens when you’re exhausted? You don’t work as well.

How many times have you worked late at night trying to figure something out, and it’s not working, and you finally give up, go to bed, and when you get up in the morning it’s like the solution appears out of thin air?

For example, many people work weekends. But sometimes you’d be better off taking the weekend off, coming back on Monday. You come back refreshed and your brain can subconsciously process information and come up with solutions.

But you don’t even need to make it a big break like a weekend or a big holiday. You can incorporate breaks into your daily life very simply. Let me tell you a few tips that I share with my clients.

The first thing to do is try to take a break every hour. If you can’t do that, every two hours. Take 10 minutes. That’s it! Just do 50 minutes of focused work effort, then take 10 minutes off.

I’ve had some clients put a guitar in their office because they would just play around with it during those 10 minutes to goof off and relax. One of my clients I worked with in Seattle, they did exactly that. They brought music to the workforce. They used to bring a truck into the office parking lot and people could go do like 15-minute music lessons or 30-minute music lessons. This increased productivity in the business! They had statistics on how they were improving the work area.

I hope the tips I have shared really help you re-think the way you approach life and business. Now, if you are watching my video or reading this post, it’s time for you to take a break, right? 😊

Speak to you soon!

Choose Gratitude Create Freedom

Steve Napolitan