Start Taking Boring Breaks

Everyone needs to take breaks. You’re not a robot who can work for hours and hours with no respite.

The problem with how a lot of us take breaks, though, is what we do during them.

A (Very) Quick Guide to Dopamine

Dopamine is the “reward chemical” that our brains release when we achieve something. It’s the thing that makes us feel good when we get a job done.

That little boost when you cross something off your to-do list? That’s dopamine.

But the modern world has heavily messed with our dopamine production.

Breaktime and Dopamine Destruction

How often do you scroll through social media on your breaks? I do it all the time, and I’m sure you do too.

The problem is that the things we do on our breaks (scrolling, playing games, eating junk food, etc) flood our brains with dopamine.

And with the spike of “reward chemicals” hitting your brain, your threshold for dopamine is higher after the break than it was before.

Meaning that returning to work will be much harder because your brain now has a new baseline for dopamine, and those boring tasks aren’t going to give you the same pleasure as they did before the break.

It’s like trying to eat a salad when you’ve just had a cake; the veggies will have no flavour because the sugar has fried your taste buds.

Boring Breaks FTW

Breaks shouldn't make work harder; they should make it easier. The way to make your breaks help you is to make them boring.

Going for a walk, staring at the ceiling, drinking a cup of tea, or really anything that doesn't give us any unnecessary dopamine is the key to a successful break.

Try it and see how much easier it is to get through the day without crashing at 2pm.