Canadian Government Executive - Volume 24 - Issue 04

July/August 2018 // Canadian Government Executive / 49 and your colleagues one, you need to work out how to sneak one in so that the government, despite its lack of generosity, gets more productivity from you. He offers five guiding principles: Trying something beats not doing anything; moving beats being station- ary; social, being with others, beats solo, except perhaps for intro- verts who like to replenish alone; outside beats being inside; and being psychologically and fully detached from work for a period beats being semi-detached. Naps can be ideal. Pink used to hate them – considering them pathetic for grown-ups – but has changed his mind and ways, working them into his day. Naps improve cognitive performance and mental and physical health. “In many ways, naps are Zambo- nis for our brains. They smooth out the nicks, scuffs and scratches a typical day has left on our mental ice,” he writes. But naps aren’t available to most of us most days. So he provides a menu of five kinds of restoratiove breaks: • Micro-breaks: A replenishing break need not be lengthy. It can even be a minute of less. He shares the 20-20-20 rule: every 20 minutes look at something 20 feet away for 20 seconds. Also, get a smaller water bottle so you have to go to the water fountain more frequently to refill it. And try getting up occasionally for 60 seconds, shaking your arms and legs, flexing your muscles, and rotating your core. • Moving breaks: You probably sit too much and move too little during the day, so build more movement into your breaks. He suggests a powerful act can be to take a five-minute walk every hour – they are particularly useful in the trough. Try some yoga poses like chair rolls, wrist releases and forward folds. Or build your push-up ability, starting with two a day, and each week adding two more. “You’ll boost your heart rate, shake off cogni- tive cobwebs, and maybe get a little stronger,” he says. • Nature break: Go outside and find a place to sit and think. Or if there’s a nearby park, take a walk. “This might sound ‘tree- huggery,’ but study after study has shown the replenishing ef- fects of nature. What’s more, people consistently underestimate how much better nature makes them feel,” he says. Indeed, even looking at some indoor plants or out the window has been shown to have a positive effect. • Social break: Reach out and call somebody you haven’t talked to awhile, catching up for five or 10 minutes. Or send a thank you by email to somebody. If you can, plan a regular walk or visit to a coffee shop with someone, regularly or occasionally. • Mental gear-shifting break: Give your brain a break by medita- WEB http://canadiangovernmentexecutive.ca/author/harveys/ tion, or listen to a comedy podcast, or put on your headphones and jam along with a favourite song. Try controlled breathing: Take a deep breath, expanding your belly. Pause. Exhale slowly to the count of five, then repeat the process four times. It will take about 40 seconds, sharpening your thinking and maybe even strengthening your immune system. Anders Ericsson’s study of violinists led to the prescription by au- thor Malcolm Gladwell that to be successful we need to put in 10,000 hours on a chosen field. But less noticed were Ericsson’s findings about rest: “One factor that distinguished the best from the rest is that they took complete breaks during the afternoon… whereas nonexperts were less rigorous about pauses. We might think the superstars power through the day for hours on end. In fact, they practise with intense focus for 45- to 90-minute bursts, then take meaningful restorative breaks.” So think “when.” Consider your own patterns over the day, how your moods and productivity fluctuate, paying particular atten- tion to troughs. And then tweak your schedule, to the extent you can. High on your lists might be a modern siesta. H arvey S chachter is a writer, specializing in management and business issues. He writes three weekly columns for the Globe and Mail and The Leader’s Bookshelf column for Canadian Government Executive, and a regular column and features for Kingston Life magazine. Harvey was editor of the 2004 book Memos to the Prime Minister: What Canada Can Be in the 21st Century. He was the ghostwriter on The Three Pillars of Pub- lic Management by Ole Ingstrup and Paul Crookall, and editor of Getting Clients, Keeping Clients by Dan Richards. THE LEADER’S BOOKSHELF “One factor that distinguished the best from the rest is that they took com- plete breaks during the afternoon…whereas nonexperts were less rigorous about pauses. We might think the superstars power through the day for hours on end. In fact, they practise with intense focus for 45- to 90-minute bursts, then take meaningful restorative breaks.”