Do you feel like you need a break? Before you leave your desk, take a moment to ask a crucial question: Why do you want a break?
Your reason could be physical. You could be tired, hungry, thirsty, cramped from writing, achy from sitting, etc. If so, it’s clear that you do need a break. It’s also clear what you need to do. End of story.
What if your reason is nebulous, emotional, or doesn’t make sense? What if you need a break because you just feel squirmy? Or you’re suddenly feeling discouraged? Or, you want something to drink, but you just drank a pint of water, and truly, you do not need hydration? In these cases, it’s not obvious why you need a break. And it’s not clear what you should do during the break.
Since you have no clear purpose, you could easily waste a lot of time doing nothing in particular. That’s what happens when you stop work due to an unidentified uneasiness. It’s called procrastination.
So, what should you do? I recommend you delay getting up from your desk, while you take a different kind of break. Take a minute or two to get clearer on why you want a break. (I suggest you do this as “thinking on paper.” See the blog on the topic linked to below.)
Think about your situation. What just happened? Why are you uneasy? Don’t try to talk yourself out of taking a break. Just delay a bit to see if you can figure out what’s pulling you away from your work.
Once you know what’s bothering you, go ahead and take at least a quick stretch break, During your break, mull over the problem you uncovered. When you come back to your desk, you’ll be prepared to deal with it. You have transformed potential procrastination into purposeful action.
If you feel like you need a break, you do. If you identify whyyou need a break, you can use your break time effectively and avoid the trap of procrastination.
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II. Tap Your Own Brilliance
In your mental databanks, you have a tremendous amount of experience and expertise that can help you with all your toughest problems, decisions, and people issues. Your background knowledge is uniquely helpful: No one else understands the details of your situation like you do.
There’s just one problem. You can’t always access the information when you need it. That’s why so many issues are difficult, but after you’ve figured them out, they seem obvious. Hindsight is 20:20!
If you want to speed up the process, and learn to access what you already know when you need it, you can learn how in my 4-session course, Tap Your Own Brilliance.
Special Bonus: The CD/MP3 set already comes with 2 bonus CD’s, a handbook, and laminated summary sheet. Order by January 31 and you’ll get an additional recording: “Making the Best Use of Your Mind with Thinking on Paper” (a $29.95 value) included for free.
Read more and purchase it here:
http://thinkingdirections.com/tap.htm
III. Recent Posts on the Blog
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