#220: Increase Productivity, Decrease Stress (With This Surprising Strategy) [Rewind Episode]

[00:01:15] Today I want to talk about something that most lawyers know they need to be doing more of, yet don't and probably. I don't know that this is special to lawyers, although I know this is a big issue with lawyers and that's around taking breaks.

So of course taking vacations could fall into this category. And we all know that lawyers are terrible at taking non working vacations. But it actually goes deeper than that because taking a vacation once or even a couple of times per year is not enough and you need to take breaks every day, every week, every month. So today we're going to get into exactly what I mean when I say taking a break. Giving yourself a break. Hint, it's not just a physical break, it's also about your mental health and productivity.

We're going to talk about the science behind why taking daily breaks aren't just important to your well being, but to your productivity as well. We're going to talk also about why it's so hard for lawyers and other high achievers to take breaks as needed and how to overcome that.

And we're going to talk about how to take breaks every single day and I'm going to give you some tips of course. So this is what we are getting into today. But before we get any further into today's topic, I do have two quick requests. So number one, if you are enjoying this podcast and you have not subscribed yet, be sure to hit subscribe. That is the best way for you to keep up and get notifications about new podcasts, et cetera. Secondly, I ask you to please consider sharing this podcast with your colleagues Your family, your friends, you can do that. Personally, I would love that. Also, if you would share it on social media, whether it be via Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, whatever your favorite social media platform is, I would totally appreciate it. There are easy to use social sharing buttons that are included on each episode page. So just go to lifeandlawpodcast.com episodes, find your favorite and and share away. One final thing before we get started into today's topic. If you are ready to give yourself a break, including your brain, some mental breaks, I have the thing for you. Be sure that you grab my free guide, five Minute Stress Solutions. It has eight ways to de stress, calm your mind and give your brain the space it needs to think more creatively and be more productive. Each of these exercises can actually be done in five minutes or less, so it's not going to take up a bunch of your time. But. But they are still very powerful so there will be a link to it in the show notes. Okay, so first let's get clear about what I'm talking about. Most of us know that we should. I don't love that word, but this is where it does apply. We should, for our own mental and physical health, sleep well and have a long break at night, not work all weekend, have breaks during the weekend and take some regular vacations. Right?

But that's not really what we're talking about here. At least that's not what this is, this podcast is gonna be about. What I'm talking about is taking short daily mental breaks, physical breaks too, that allow you some time off from all that overthinking. So it could be with or without movement. Although you'll notice later on that I do love the movement breaks and there are reasons for that. Because I want you to also get moving around and not just sit in a chair all day long without moving. Our bodies aren't meant for that. Right.

And also to allow your brain to work differently. Because here's the thing, you activate and use different areas of your brain depending on what it is you're doing. So when you're working in a very hyper focused deep thought state, you're gonna wanna break from that. Same goes for when you're on conference calls all day that require you to pay extra attention to what's going on so that you can stay up with things and be prepared for when it's your turn to speak or when some issue comes up that is relevant to what you are doing.

There are different types of breaks that you need from those types of things.

It's also to allow you free space to think, right? To allow your subconscious thoughts to come out or just not get so stuck within your mind in the first place. There's a reason that schools traditionally weave breaks naturally into the day between various subjects. So, right, they have cleanup time, they move around, they go to different rooms, the kids do, they chat in between. They have recess and pe.

They. That gives them some natural breaks in between the longer thinking periods that have them focused on one task, project or subject. Somehow we get older and we think we no longer need this or really think we don't have the time for it. I would beg to differ. And we're gonna get into why today.

Here's the thing. We know we have to take vacations, and we know we need longer periods for downtime, and yet we still have trouble doing that. I mean, how many of you don't raise your hand if you're driving, but, you know, raise the mental hand, go on vacation thinking you're gonna take most of that time to yourself and end up working half or more than half of it, right? We end up in working vacations all the time. So even though we know we need that time, we end up not taking it. And that's something that supposedly you're bought into and you're not doing it. Which is exactly why we're talking about taking short mental breaks today. Because I'm willing to bet you're not even bought in on it. And if you're not bought in on it, you're certainly not doing it right?

Especially since the things that you are bought in on, you don't do as much as you would like.

And I gotta say that I think this is an even bigger issue now, post pandemic, especially for those who have been and may still be working mostly or all from home.

Which I do think raises something interesting that I've known for a long time because my husband worked from home for a long time, and I've been working from home for quite a while now, both within this business and even back when I practiced for several years post cancer, before I left the law, I worked from home quite a bit. This is a dirty little secret. We all think working from home is going to be better, but you often work more from home, not less. The boundaries between work and your personal life are not really there like they are when you work in an office. That's definitely the case unless you work really, really hard to implement new ones. So everything is starting to bleed together, right?

And this can be a problem. Now. We're not Gonna really have time to get into boundaries today. We are talking about taking breaks, not boundaries. The good news is that we're gonna be talking about that soon, so definitely stay tuned. Let's talk about why it's so hard to not get bought in for scheduling small 10, 15, 20 minute breaks several times into your day to rest your mind, move around and just take a break. And I want you to think about that for a second. Like I'm sitting here telling you you should be scheduling 10, 15, 20 minutes of time that are breaks from your work to get up, move around, rest your mind several times per day. How do you feel about that? I'm willing to bet that at least some of you listening to this are getting a little bit like, ooh, anxious just thinking about it because, oh my God, I'm too busy, I've got too much going on. And so that's part of the problem.

You are probably somewhat overextended, you've got too much on your plate and you're worried that you're going to drop one or more balls. And so you just don't have the time. Right?

Well, I want to remind you, but that's not necessarily true. And if that is you, and that is one of your big reasons, I would say excuses as to why you can't find the time to take breaks, I want you to really think about how you're prioritizing because it's a key indicator that you're probably not prioritizing very well. Right? You can't do everything, you can't be everything to everybody else. And you need to narrow down the things that you're committed to.

Now, we've talked about this already. In episode nine, we talked first and foremost about the mindset, the mentality you need to be productive and be able to prioritize properly. And then in episode 10, we covered the how to of prioritization.

So I definitely encourage you to go back and listen to those if you haven't already.

But having too much on your plate and juggling too much are not the only reasons that you're finding it so difficult to take time for breaks. The other big reason is your mind, your mindset, and what I mean by that is all in the stories that you're telling yourself. Okay, so what do I mean by that? Assumptions about what's expected of you, what other people want of you, what you're supposed to be doing, fears around what others might think, how you'll be perceived, how you'll perceive yourself, beliefs around what got you here.

And your inability then to take breaks and half truths, not seeing the reality, just focusing on a piece without looking at the other side of the coin. Okay, so let me give you a couple of examples of what I'm talking about.

I can't take a break, Heather. If I let up, I'm going to lose my focus and it's going to take me forever to get back into the groove.

Sorry, but I just can't afford to take time right now. I've got so much to do. I need to be productive and take all the time I can utilize during the day towards my work.

I've always worked like this and although it can be exhausting, it's worked, so why stop now?

So those are common stories that I hear from people and, and they're not really true. They're just not.

So how do you counter all that? What do you do? How do you challenge this? How do you even identify the assumptions, the half truth, so you can deal with it and start to get your mentality where it needs to be in order to prioritize taking breaks and actually do it. Because when you're looking at taking breaks from the perspective of the mentality of, no, no, don't have time, got too much to do. Oh, no, this has always worked for before.

Or no, not productive. Unless I'm doing this, you're just never going to do it. Even if you schedule it, even if no matter what you do, you're not going to be bought in. And so the question is, how do you get yourself to buy in?

So of course we get into how your brain works and thinks quite naturally, and then the research behind how to activate your mind so that it'll work more effectively.

And let me just make a quick note here. When I say effectively, your brain working effectively, I'm not really just talking about how to be more efficient and, or productive. Okay. I'm also talking about creativity, right? How to think creatively because you need to think creatively. As a lawyer, that's a big deal.

And that's part of why you want to take breaks. In fact, it's a big reason why you want to start taking more breaks.

So remember we talked about this before back in episode number two. So if you haven't listened to it, highly recommend you do. How you think is really important to understand.

We tend to get more negative, we tend to focus on the negative and we allow our brains then to hijack us even though we know that it may not all be real. And sometimes that just takes over and it especially does when we are stressed, which happens a lot in this career. Right.

So I want you to go back and listen to episode two if you have not, so that you can understand that, because I think it's really important to enable you to get a better handle over your mentality, your mindset, which is ultimately what we're really talking about. So let's go into some of the science and the research behind why you want to take breaks and how you can do that moving forward to help you be a more effective person, productive, creative thinker.

So first up, I think it's fair to say that we have quite the busy epidemic here in the us it's been going on for a long time and it doesn't seem to be really letting up, especially in respect of high achievers and lawyers. Specifically, we tend to think that busyness is the same as being productive, that being busy means that you're working hard, you're successful.

And research backs this up. So there was a study conducted by the University of Chicago that found that people like to be busy and do not like to be or feel idle. That's because we identify idleness with laziness and we fear failure.

And so we end up doing all kinds of things to fill up our time, but they're not necessarily important important.

Yet we feel productive because we're busy. Right? Even though productivity and busyness are not the same thing. If you're busy on a bunch of unimportant, urgent things, I would say that's not very productive.

So remember the excuse that we talked about a minute ago? Sorry, I just can't afford to take the time right now. I need to stay productive. Taking time's not good for me. It's not going to help me.

This is showing up in that excuse, this tendency.

And I'm willing to bet that you're not spending as much time on productive things as you think.

I think a lot of us get really confused about what's truly productive and what's not. So for example, constantly checking and then responding to non urgent emails, not a very productive thing. Phone calls can be the same thing. So let's say that you have a brief due or a big contract or a loan agreement that you're working on and you really needed to dedicate four to six hours of your time that day to that. But you keep getting interrupted by phone calls and people coming in and you feel like you need to check your email. Well, are you really being productive because you're not getting the thing you really need to get done? That is a priority. Done. Okay.

So the incorrect assumption is that busy equals productive. And I hope that just by hearing this research, you understand why we tend to think that way. Okay, so that's some of the research that shows how you tend to think and why you know where some of these assumptions come from. Let's get into some of the research that's going to help convince you to actually take breaks. So research tells us that giving your mind some downtime from deep thinking makes you a more innovative, creative thinker. It allows your subconscious thoughts to come out more freely.

So when you allow your mind some breaks, especially your mind, to wander more freely without something very specific to focus on, your brain is very active, but in a different way. It's kind of a more relaxed type of active. Your subconscious is continuing to work on problems by combining different ideas and testing varying solutions.

So this is how you can suddenly have that aha moment when washing the dishes or taking a walk that feels totally out of the blue. Your mind never stopped working on it. You just weren't conscious of that fact. This is also why mind wandering isn't always so bad. I think we give mind wandering a really bad rap. I mean, no, you can't do it all the time, but you actually need time every day for some mind wandering because it allows you to think more creatively and to figure things out and also to connect, you know, problems with solutions and see a bigger picture that maybe you didn't before because you were so lost in the weeds. This reminds me of back when I was in law school and I took my UCC class, which it's really kind of funny because I ended up a corporate finance lawyer. And so the UCC was big in my practice, and I had to know it and understand it well, but I was really having trouble with a particular concept. And I just kept focusing and focusing and focusing and focusing and studying and studying, and I wasn't getting it. And I finally gave up. And this was the night before the exam, y'. All. This one thing had just been on my mind. It was one of the last things we learned. But it had been on my mind for, like, two weeks, and I couldn't figure it out, and I just gave up. I was like, forget it. I'm going to bed.

And I woke up the next morning and I was like, duh. You know, the clouds parted.

I understood it. I needed to give my brain time to process it all so that I could figure it out. Studies also show that this can be even better, this mind wandering. If you're doing something physically active because it engages different areas of your brain. So exercising or, you know, anything, swimming, yoga, bike riding, you can even just go for a walk. I particularly find it even better if you do something outdoors, get into nature, I think that activates different areas as well. So this is going to allow you to creatively think next. Research additionally tells us that taking scheduled breaks at predetermined intervals yields the best results.

So although it is good to take breaks on your own whenever you feel you need it, like after you're done with a big project that you've been working on for hours, it's actually better to do so at a predetermined time, regardless of whether you're finished or not. This one's going to be hard to understand, and I know a lot of lawyers are going to have trouble with this, but here's the thing.

Instead of taking a break a couple of times per day in between tasks, as you see fit, what you want, what this is telling you is that you want to schedule it within your day. Like schedule an alarm to go off at particular times or intervals that day regardless, and then take that break regardless of whether or not you're done or where you're at with that particular task or project. Now this is so hard. And I know because I try to do this and it doesn't always work. I'll just be honest this. I have trouble with myself sometimes.

And so that's why it's so important to understand why this is so much better. Here's the thing. When trying to solve problems and do deep thinking type work, we often end up stuck in the same thoughts and ideas without even realizing it.

And we need that space, that break, to give us more creative thinking instead of doubling down. What we don't realize is that we end up in more of a dead end with not so great answers.

By pushing forward, keeping going right, by taking a break in the middle, it's actually going. And even switching what we do for a little while and then coming back.

You're allowing your brain to continue to process and then to come back with fresher, more creative, better answers, better solutions.

Research also tells us that you are most proud, productive when taking breaks every 90 to 120 minutes.

And a lot of the research really settles in at 90 minutes. Although I know my lawyer clients out there really push back on this because it is hard as an attorney to take a break every 90 minutes.

What this research tells us is the break should be at least 10 and up to 20 minutes. Long every 90 minutes to 2 hours.

So remember those assumptions that, well, this has worked for me before.

I'm gonna keep going because it's worked. Why not? Why change something? I don't have time for the break anyway. How do you know you wouldn't have been more successful? You wouldn't have better answers, you wouldn't have gotten the solutions even quicker had you taken the breaks, right? You don't know that. And what this research says is that probably would have been the case had you taken the breaks.

It also shows that that whole idea that well, I just need to push through and finish before I take that break is really a half truth.

Because yes, it is helpful to go for 90 to 120 minutes, but then you need to give your brain some rest.

You're going to be more productive, you're going to be more creative by taking those breaks. Please note that taking a break doesn't mean that you're idle, that you're lazy, okay? It's just about giving your brain the ability to problem solve in a different, more relaxed and more creative way. So you need to remember that that's what the research shows. Remind yourself of this often.

So how do you get started?

Well, one, I recommend that you try to schedule non negotiable breaks into your day. And it's going to depend on your schedule. Your schedule is not going to be the same every day. Mine certainly isn't.

So on non coaching days it's easier for me, right? I work from 8 to 10am, then I have a scheduled break from 10 to 1020 and then I have another break at noon for lunch and then I come back around one and I have another break at three and those are in my calendar non negotiable.

So on coaching days I never know. I mean I may have back to back to back. So I typically look in the morning at my schedule and plan it.

Okay, so that's one, schedule them, two, vary the type of break.

So at least one 20 minute break per day. I like to do mine in the morning. That's my 10am Break. For whatever reason. It's just when I need it the most and when I like it the most.

And during that 20 minute break, it's really important for you to get up, walk around, maybe go to the bathroom, get some coffee or tea, talk to some people.

You can meditate towards the end of it. Make it your own. You don't have. It doesn't have to be the same every day.

Just try to have a nice good 20 minute break. @ least once a day. The others might be shorter, right? Might be 10 minutes.

And you can add in little administrative things like catch up checking emails to a couple of these if you want. But it can't be the bulk of the break, right? So let's say that you have a contract review that you're doing. It's just going to take a long slog and you need more than two hours for it. But you set aside two hours and then you decide, I'm going to take a 10 minute break and then I'm going to switch to something else and do some administrative tasks for 30, 45 minutes and then I'll come back. That would be fine too because you're kind of giving your brain a break from all of that deep thinking. Just make sure that you're not working on any one thing for more than two hours without a break. Okay. That's kind of the key here. So some examples of things that you might do. You may want to walk around, go talk to coworkers, play with your kids if you're working from home.

I sometimes do that or I just go talk to my kids, see what they're up to. What have they done for the day, what questions do they have? And I'll just set aside 15 or 20 minutes for them.

Meditate, do some other mindfulness activities. We got into quite a lot of them back in episode seven seven.

So I highly recommend that you go and look into those. Those are specifically around stress reduction, but they're also going to help you with your mindset as well. So that's why they're so great.

And there are additional ones in the free resource that I mentioned, five minute stress Solutions, which will be in the show notes. So I highly recommend you grab that. You can go take a walk. It doesn't have to be a long one. You can exercise. And no, you do not have to exercise for an hour. Every time you exercise, you can take a 10 minute exercise break. I actually do this sometimes myself. If you're working from home, it's a lot easier. Run up and down the stairs a couple of times. Do something that gives your brain some rest but then also gets you moving a little bit and gets you engaged in a very different way.

When I practiced law, I would get up and walk around the office. I would go to the bathroom and this is kind of funny, but I would do squats in the bathroom. Sometimes do 40 squats. You know, it would just get me moving a little bit. I'd go get coffee at Starbucks occasionally even Though I don't really love their coffee that much.

And then sometimes I would come back and to ground myself, to get back into deep work again, I would meditate for three to five minutes. So make it what you will, change it up. Just make sure you're doing something different, okay? Giving yourself that rest, that break your brain, the break that it really does need. Finally, a couple of tips to help you with this. So number one, bookend your day.

And here's what I mean by that. You wanna start your day off right and end it right. Okay?

So, and you want to end it with, and start it with specific types of activities that help you get into the right mind frame for the day. And then let go of whatever's happened during the day so that you can get good sleep. And you're probably thinking, okay, that's great and all, but what does that have to do with me taking breaks during the day? It helps to keep you less stressed and it helps to ensure that you have that right mentality that that's thinking more clearly. And that will allow you then to take that time and not feel the pressure that other people are gonna try to put on you. So when I say start your day off right, start with a walk outside, some meditation, yoga, something that gets you into the right mind and physical frame. For me, I like to work out in the mornings. And sometimes if I don't really have time for a full blown workout, I'll just do 20 minutes of yoga or go on a quick walk outdoors and listen to the birds in the morning. And the beauty of it, that gets me started in the right mind frame. And then when I say end your day the right way, journaling, gratitude, meditation, prayer, whatever works for you that helps you to kind of download your day, let go of it, move on and get some good sleep. Okay? Secondly, I've kind of hinted at this already. Use your calendar. So you have a calendar. Use it by scheduling regular time into your day and week for the activities that, that we've talked about. Now again, you may not be able to do the same thing every single day. So it may be that you just spend two or three minutes at the beginning of each day looking over your calendar and making sure. But schedule that time and don't let others take it from you. It is more likely to be a priority if it's in there, so put it in there.

Number three, turn off your electronics or silence them when you take these breaks. Close your office door if you're meditating. Don't take your phone with you if you go on a walk that's close by, or at least put it on silent or on airplane mode, okay.

Make sure that any distractions are gone so that you can truly relax and let your brain just kind of go.

Number four, close open ended loops.

So open ended loops are activities that do not have an end point or an end in sight. So some examples would be checking and responding to email. That's a never ending activities that always seems urgent, but is often not a priority. Right?

Pushing a long term project forward that's easy to get lost in without setting clear guidelines and deadlines around what you want to accomplish that day, and researching a new idea without an end goal of where you're going or when to stop.

So the problem with open ended loops is that because there's no clear deadline or stopping point, you tend to get caught up in them and feel like you must keep going even when you do not need to. So you want to close them when it comes to larger projects by breaking them into small manageable tasks with deadlines, by stopping when you get to the predetermined endpoint and moving on to your next priority.

And with respect to email and other daily tasks, set regular times in your calendar to check, prioritize, file and respond. So you're going to block time to work on your longer projects and have set deadlines as to what you get done that day.

And you're not going to check email during those times. And then you're going to have a set period for checking email, following up on phone calls, et cetera. Number five is create a not now list.

So a not now list is the opposite of a to do list.

So your to do list should have only those things that are urgent priorities. Anything that's not urgent doesn't go onto that to do list. Okay.

And anything that isn't urgent that you know you still need to get done at some point goes on to the not now list. The point of the not now list is to keep a record of the things you want to get done in the future so that you don't forget and so that it kind of makes you feel better that you've written it down somewhere and you schedule into your calendar regular time to check it. I recommend weekly. Sometimes those things you realize aren't important any longer or somebody else took care of them and they get crossed off. Other times they become priorities and they get moved into your to do list or onto your calendar. Okay?

So you will be amazed how much overwhelm goes away when you keep a not now list. All right, so hopefully I have convinced you the importance of taking regular breaks every single day. I hope that you walk away understanding that you're going to be more creative, which means you're probably going to be more productive as well. You're going to come up with better solutions, better answers more quickly by allowing yourself these breaks. And that is how you start to give yourself permission to take them. The thing is, you're going to learn if you actually do this, say you do it for 30 to 60 days, you're going to learn that you are going to be more productive, that you do have time for taking breaks. I promise it's worth it. More productivity, more creativity, and a much more calm.