We’ve all heard that it’s important to take breaks, have time off, and recharge the batteries. However, while we all have weekends and holidays throughout the year that doesn’t mean we’re actually giving our minds the chance to disconnect, relax and regenerate.
Taking a proper break is more than simply not working, it also requires a pause from stress and using the problem-solving parts of the brain. Parts that are far more taxing on our mental energy. Achieving this in the 21st century is not as easy as it used to be. While the internet and smartphones provide almost endless opportunities for learning and productivity, they also provide an equivalent source of added work, stress, and distractions. For most, taking a proper break will require that they stop checking their phone for notifications or to check the value of their cryptocurrencies, stocks, or other assets. It would also require a conscious effort to avoid getting lost in thought about earlier conversations with friends or colleagues, as well as avoiding thinking through future plans, ideas, political opinions, or world events.
When was the last time you did all the above for a full day?
Looking at myself I’ve been failing this miserably for the past 5-10 years. In fact, I have had to look back to my teens to find the last time I’ve experienced a full week of a "proper" break this way. A week in which the only “problems” I had to solve was deciding what I wanted for dinner on the menu at a restaurant in Greece, or whether I wanted to go play tennis or do hiking in the afternoon.
This failure has haunted me real bad, and accumulated into a fatigue that unfortunately took years to properly diagnose and then finally repair.
The age of infinite distractions and “opportunities”.
Thanks to our smartphones and 4G internet connection, we have the opportunity to do something productive every waking minute. Instead of relaxing in a chair to your favorite song, you could be trading stocks or cryptos, building a following on social media, engaging on your business's social media account to gain traction, answering a work email, or earn by writing a blog on Hive.
Given this fact, it is easy to see why we are becoming increasingly poor at ever taking breaks. And why fatigue, burnouts, and high levels of stress have together become a first-world pandemic. It may not be that we work more than we used to. It may be that we simply rest less.
Impulses to check notifications, valuations, reactions etc, etc, are all triggers of stress. And even if it’s not felt as stressful, it is engaging the problem-solving portions of our brain and thus not allowing it to take a break.
The solution itself is simple: Find time to not try to solve any problems or invent clever thoughts and ideas, but instead merely be present. Of course, as always, everyone knows what they need to do. But most don’t know how to do it.
Planning a proper break
So for the first time in years, I've had a prolonged period of time to disconnect, completely. And then rebuilt my day around respecting having dedicated time off from thinking. But I have to admit, taking a break is one of the hardest things I've done in my life, and I've built a freaking rocket. Not that having a break is hard in and of itself, but rather getting myself to do it and resist the urge to grab my phone or computer to do something "clever" or stay lost in thought about things I wanted to build or solve.
In the end, I even had to plan in detail how I would manage to do nothing but have fun. In retrospect, it sounds crazy, but the urge to "always do something productive" has been so strong that I knew it would require a hard reset. Thankfully, it only takes about a week to forget old habits and get somewhat into a new flow. Knowing this, I knew that if I could plan a week or two without work and distractions, then the rest would get a lot easier.
So starting with this year's summer holiday, I went to the drawing board to plan the first proper holiday in well over a decade. To do so, I started out by identifying the common sources of stress and distractions that I was currently having. Being mindful of these and having a "list" of things not to think about helped make me conscious of when my thoughts were going to those topics so that I could immediately stop and focus on something else. It's a technique I've found extremely powerful when needing to concentrate or avoid temptations.
After that, I made a simple draft of what I wanted the break to include. Roughly speaking, I wanted it to consist of one part socializing and having fun, one part relaxing and having conversations with close family, and one part exploring and being in nature. A rough split that to me seems like a holiday trifecta that I intend to keep as a "simple rule" also for future use.
Positive results
It's hard to overstate the positive effects this has had on me. In many ways, I feel as if I have gotten my life back after years of constant fatigue, tiredness, and poor levels of focus. With the heavy carpet of mental fatigue gone, laughter and positive emotions also come a lot more easily.
It's far too easy to normalize being busy, and then not realize that you are running yourself into the ground before it's too late and you're already burned out. I could go on about the discovered benefits of taking proper breaks and finding proper rest. But I wanted this post to be more about what I've done rather than the why. It's almost infuriating to know that we're not learning more, earlier, about the pitfalls that modern technology becomes to the mind, and how much we're really sacrificing when being "online" all the time.
Looking ahead
Hopefully, having been able to take almost half a year's break from technology means I’ll be in a better mood and shape to contribute to some of the many things I’ve long wanted to help add to Hive’s growth going forward. It’s been exciting to see so much positive development lately, and many things have been done right with the last HF as well as across dApps and proposals like the Hive Authenticator.
Still, I think most of the important “right things” are yet to be done. Which although being mild criticism of some of the priorities made so far, only means that we have even more opportunities to grow.
I look forward to sharing some ideas and proposals in that regard soon. But first, there's just no way I can return to posting without sharing a bit of a travel blog from some of the most epic places I've been to these past 6 months.
So stay tuned :)
@fredrikaa I totally get it when you say we need to disengage the problem solving parts of our brains. With the modern world being so connected through internet, phones and media, it is really hard to really isolate ourselves.
I am glad to hear that your vacation (a beach in the Norwegian mountains ) rejuvenated your mind. It surely bodes well for the HIVE community since you will engaged with renewed vigor on projects for HIVE platform.
I consciously take a break every Sunday and literally go off the grid. As you will see from my posts, I am passionate about wildlife photography so I go into wetlands and jungles where there is no contact with other humans and technology. It certainly works to clear my mind and I feel refreshed
Thanks for sharing your experience with the HIVE community.
That's a really good idea. I recall hearing it from a speaker at a conference too who was leading an ambitious incubator, and he said it was the only way he could sustain working as much as he did the rest of the week. I always admired the idea, but seem to always come up with excuses for why I need my phone, social media, etc during the weekend. Really, I should just leave my phone at work some fridays...
Good for you though! I will make sure to check out some of your posts following each weekend trip then :)
@fredrikaa It will be an honor if you take a look at my posts and provide feedback. Most of the posts by me are a result of those Sunday photography trips. For example, the Kingfisher with Crab catch was taken early morning on a Sunday while returning from an Owl photography session on Saturday night. The minivet was taken on a Sunday afternoon 😀
Will look forward to more of your posts with tips of refreshing the mind and maintaining a work-life balance etc.
Congrats for managing to pull this off! Humans ofter have a hard time doing this because they have buried themselves in all sorts of productive activities which make them forget about who they are and what is the ultimate purpose of life.
The real pandemic comes from the overuse of technology , it makes more victims than any other one as the effects are not instantly seen
legacy markets understood they needed to close during the weekends... but crypto... is insane trading non stop hehe :D It's very important to learn to manage the situation... indeed.
Going hiking to places where there is no Internet helps :) Norwegian landscapes are majestic. I was there many years ago... the typical touristic fjords, I was amazed.
The odd thing is that so much of Norway is covered with 4G now that even though parts of the hike will be off-grid, you'll always find it within minutes again :P. And I also have a bad habit of continuously taking pictures and thinking about how I will turn them into a good story on instagram... Which again means I'm failing to disconnect. At least, being conscious of that helps.
Yeah the fjords are amazing. I bet you went to the Pulpit rock from Stavanger? That's where I am from :)
Nice pictures! I am looking forward to see the rest of them! Taking a break... is the thing I should learn one day. On day... maybe ;)
I've been better and better at viewing time off work as an investment into increasing the quality of the most important parts of the work that I do.
Most things don't matter as much as we make them seem, so better be more selective and make sure that the things that have the most impact are done well. So I really refuse to believe that there are many jobs which require more than 10 hours x 5 days of effort. If so, the problem is likely not that the workload is too big, but rather that one is failing to prioritize and/or delegate tasks.
My problem with work is different. My work is my hobby. Then the border is non existent, and you may end up working 70-80hours per week without noticing. And your body then fails you... That sounds pretty much me at the moment ^^
That is for sure very important :D
Our lives are now sort of circuling around machines.
How good were the old days :)
I miss those days were we could simply carry water from the well
Oh yes, those are old times. Some folks still do that in the more rural area where there is no other source of water
You can do that if you go hiking where we have the cabin :) although most cabins now have fiber broadband internet that's 10x faster than I've found in most cities outside Norway...
@fredrikaa you should invite me and @creativemary once. I think she will appreciate the wild nature and I will enjoy the wifi.
Hahaha for sure I will adore the wild nature. Norway is still on my list of countries I would love to live in.
Its too cold for my liking. But its always matter of mood.
Where in Norway do you live? I was in Volda for 6 months years ago when I was in the University. The beauty of Norway is just marvelous. I also visited Tromso too and that city is memorable for the amount of lights lol. It looked kinda nice .
I see a dog can I go play with the dog oh my God that dog is so cool! I bet he sniffs a lot.
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You deserve the break man! Its not easy to wrestle down such a big dog!
@fredrikaa great write up I most commend.. it's most easer to say some words, but tasking to implement 🙋♂️ despite the necessity of rest to human.. it's virtually impossible to completely take our hearts from very tasking thing around us.. my opinion. Your sincere take is needed to my questions, us it possible to ride your mind from all task? If Yes more guide to help. Educate workers like us
It sounds like you had a great six months :) that cabin must have been an amazing place!
Welcome back :)
Talk about hitting the nail on the head.... I am completely like your old self anf almost never take a break, always working, parenting, reading, watching telly, playing sport, watching sport, investing. Always doing or going. I'm so used to it that it almost defines me and even when I'm out in nature or bringing the dog for a walk I'm thinking of a post or taking some photos for a post. I really need to try to be more present one of these days and take a proper break. That post was inspiring 👏
Good to hear that you feel you got your life back @Fredrikaa and are recharged.
Yet, over the years, I've come to view those periods where we practice the art of doing nothing as vital and often quietly fertile - our souls are being rewritten and readied for fresh engagement...
Keeping a vegetable garden, I learned of an agricultural reality that doubles up nicely as metaphor you might appreciate:
Fallow periods were traditionally used by farmers to maintain the natural productivity of their land. The benefits of leaving land fallow for extended periods include rebalancing soil nutrients, breaking crop pest and disease cycles, and providing a haven for wildlife.
So, taking a break is actually necessary not only fir our soul, but also for the soil to remain creative / productive :)
This article hits the spot regarding my personal situation! After finishing a stressful period during which I wrote and defended my PhD thesis I went straight on to my next job. Hardly any breaks. I can tell you, writing a thesis for weeks on end while being locked down in a small apartment alone is not healthy.
Since starting my new postdoc job early 2021 I haven’t felt extremely motivated. I was lacking the joy I experienced while learning new things and working on exciting problems that are inherently part of research. I tinkered with the idea of switching jobs and do something different.
Reading your article and reflecting my situation, it might be that I simply need to take some real time off!
Time to make some serious break plans!
Thanks..
Taking the right breaks means a lot to our mental health, for example to me at the time of writing I love to sleep before to keep my brain relaxed.