Never wind up your unwinding activities.

Many of our management books recommend regular breaks from work to increase productivity. Today we are going to talk not about those simple tea time breaks or listening to music on your IPod kind of leisure activities.

According to me there are two types of breaks. Breaks that provide temporary refreshment, relief from stress etc. and breaks that would actually increase your productivity. Starting from a small chat with friends to watching an entertaining movie is all considered to be a temporary deviation from the routine and stress. This would definitely have a good impact and people may actually avoid situations to get overwhelmed. But if you had noticed this may actually gobble up some of your time and still leave you with fatigue to get back to work.

Then there is real unwinding activities that would actually increase productivity. The real unwinding activities should release endorphin into our minds. It might be doing something related to art or social service or maybe even a workout. So next time when you take a break instead of listening to the same old numbers without any intention to learn you can actually draw a sketch or may go jogging.

I am sure that it is difficult to completely eliminate leisure activities, but the more we limit them and dissuade to healthy unwinding activities we can see enormous results. But unfortunately such unwinding activities are often looked as additional deeds to be done when you find that so called “extra time”. When people are encumbered with further responsibilities they slowly start to wind up their unwinding activities. This is where my thoughts are dyslogistic. Do not wait for the right time to carry out your endowed undertakings. Instead do them on daily or at least on weekly basis. Many of us might have said or heard people saying, “Oh I have stopped swimming as I had to go to for my new job”, “I hardly get time to read management books after having a baby” and the series goes on. Cutting down that few minutes of such productive activity might seem like you may be able to do more in your current job, but on the contrary it will make you more lethargic. And if you somehow just keep doing your favored tasks amid your chores, then you will be surprised that you are able to perform better or result in increased productivity.