Don’t tell your boss! Short breaks during the work day do NOT help you focus or wake up

If you’re reading this story during a much-needed break from work, it might be best to keep your mouth shut.

That’s because a new study suggests that taking short breaks during the workday doesn’t help you focus or wake up.

Researchers examined the effectiveness of 10-minute breaks on work performance in a simulated office environment.

They examined cognitive function, motivation, mood and central nervous system activity in 18 men aged 23 to 29 through blood tests and brain scans.

The participants completed office-type work, including nine cognitive tasks over seven hours, with a 10-minute break every 50 minutes.

The findings, published in the International Journal of Psychophysiology, showed that regular short breaks caused mental exhaustion.

This, in turn, affected participants’ ability to concentrate and impacted cognitive functions such as attention, learning, and visual recognition.

The study’s lead author, Marius Brazaitis, of Lithuanian Sports University, said: ‘Contrary to popular belief, our findings show that taking short breaks during the workday does not improve cognitive function or prevent fatigue.

“Tasks requiring high levels of mental effort deteriorated during the seven-hour period, which may be due to the brain’s high energy requirements and reliance on a steady supply of glucose and oxygen to maintain optimal cognitive performance.”

Analysis, published in the International Journal of Psychophysiology, found that participants struggled to fully recover, even after a four-and-a-half-hour rest.

Commenting on the research, Dr Colin Rigby, reader of Enterprise at Keele Business School, who was not involved in the research, said: ‘The idea that tasks can be broken down to fit a pattern of breaks is becoming a work-related task in itself, which increases the workload.

In work and organizational terms, Covid-19 was essentially the greatest experiment in new forms of work activity in human history and if it has taught us anything it is that the orthodoxy of formal work patterns may not be the most effective or efficient . or even the best for human health.

“Many employees don’t take scheduled breaks, eat lunch at their desks, and don’t take their full vacation quota.

Chopping and switching tasks with breaks can lead to task anxiety. By leaving a task when it’s not completed, or at a natural stopping point to fulfill a break commitment, you’re doing neither wholeheartedly, but watching the clock.

“Interrupted flow also means taking time off task time, as you try to remember where you were and pick up the thought processes when you return from the break, which makes you less efficient.”