The Best Time to Take a Break Is Noon, Not Noon
In the afternoons, most of us hit a productivity wall and feel the need for a break, but new research suggests it might be better to conserve energy early in the day.
A study by Emily Hunter and Cindy Wu and published in the Journal of Applied Psychology analyzed over 900 surveys regarding work interruption. A break was considered any formal or informal time during the working day when the performance of tasks important for the work was not required or expected. So think about lunch, coffee, coworkers, and personal email. The results have shown that it is better to take a break before you use up your mental resources to refresh and actually restore some of those resources. Hunter explains to Jordan Rosenfeld in Mental Floss :
We found that workers had to take a break in the middle of the morning, before lunch. Morning breaks have been the most efficient resource recovery out of all the breaks during the day … Your mental resources are reduced throughout the day, so taking a break in the middle of the morning is better at replenishing a small amount of lost resources than in the afternoon. when it is more difficult to return to the state in which it was before the break.
Basically, you fill up the gas tank before the “E” light comes on. You are still likely to experience a day’s recession, but it may not be as debilitating. It might seem awkward to break down when it feels like you don’t need it, but it may be the adjustment you need to get through your workday productively.
Give Me The Best Break: Choosing Activities During The Work Day For Maximum Resource Recovery | Journal of Applied Psychology via Mental Floss