- ID
- 603268
- Banca
- CESGRANRIO
- Órgão
- FINEP
- Ano
- 2011
- Provas
- Disciplina
- Inglês
- Assuntos
Don't spend all your time at the office. Take a break.
By Kim Painter, USA TODAY, April 7th, 2011
Remember the lunch hour? In a more relaxed,
less plugged-in era, office workers would rise up
midday to eat food at tables, gossip with co-workers,
enjoy a book on a park bench or take a walk in the
sun. Can it still be done, without invoking the scorn
of desk-bound colleagues or enduring constant
electronic interruptions? It can and should. Here are
five ways to break free:
1. Give yourself permission.
As the hair-color ads say, “You're worth it." Taking
a break in the workday is more than an indulgence,
though: It's a way of taking care of your body and
mind, says Laura Stack, a time-management expert
and author who blogs at theproductivitypro.com. “You
have to eliminate the guilt and remind yourself that
the more you take care of yourself, the better you are
able to take care of others," she says. “We have to
recharge our batteries. We have to refresh. It's OK."
2. Get a posse.
“Indeed, many people are wishing they could
just peel themselves away, but they don't have the
discipline," Stack says. Thus, invite a co-worker to
take daily walks with you or a group to gather for
Friday lunches. Pretty soon, you'll be working in a
happier place (and feeling less like a shirker and more
like a leader).
3. Schedule it.
Put it on your calendar and on any electronic
schedule visible to co-workers. “Code yourself as
'unavailable.' Nobody has to know why," says Laura
Vanderkam, author of 168 Hours: You Have More
Time Than You Think. And, if a daily hour of “me time"
seems impossible right now, then commit to just one or
two big breaks a week. Or schedule several 15-minute
leg-stretching, mind-freeing breaks each day. Keep
those appointments, and spend them in “a cone of
silence," without electronic devices, Vanderkam says.
4. Apply deadline pressure.
The promise of a lunch break could make for a
more productive morning: “Treat it as a deadline or a
game," Stack says. Pick a meaty task or two that must
be finished before lunch and dive in. Plan what you'll
finish in the afternoon, too. That will free your mind to
enjoy the break, Vanderkam says.
5. Eat at your desk.
That's right: If you can't beat them, seem to join
them. If you really don't care about eating elsewhere,
“pack your lunch and eat it at your desk, and save
the time for something you'd rather do," whether it's
going to the gym or sneaking out to your car to read,
Vanderkam says. (But remember, you still have to
schedule this break.) While most co-workers care less about your habits than you think they do, she says,
“this has the extra advantage that you can be seen
eating at your desk."
.
Access on April 7th, 2011. Adapted.