Category: Career Development

The Power of Breaks

In ADHD, Autism Spectrum Disorders, Career Development, Education, Learning, Learning Disabilities, Psychotherapy, Self Help

Often overlooked and under-rated, breaks are a critical and essential component of reaching your potential

Breaks are an extremely important, though often undervalued, component of education, work, and mental health. Far too often, “being productive” is viewed as constant busy-ness, an immediate response to any issue that comes up (regardless of urgency or importance), and a never-ending to-do list of tasks that need to be completed. Unstructured, unscheduled “down-time” is viewed as time wasted and something to be avoided. However, this non-stop culture of doing and rushing contributes to a number of adverse outcomes, including increased stress and anxiety, decreased physical health, higher rates of burnout, and an increase in maladaptive coping skills (such as addictions and compulsive and impulsive behaviors). Being constantly connected to social media or work through electronic devices begins to blur boundaries and contributes to feelings of pressure, overwhelm, and, ironically, disconnection. When you are always striving for the next thing, you lose the security of feeling grounded and the creative and innovative ways of thinking that are found when you allow your mind more freedom and flexibility. Additionally, the lack of breaks means that you actually have to work harder to learn and to complete tasks because your approach tends to be more haphazard and lacking in focused direction. And so, you begin to perpetuate a cycle of constant doing, rather than leading a life with clarity, intention, and purpose.

The Neurobiology of Breaks in Learning

From a biological perspective, your brain requires time to consolidate newly-learned information. As much as you may think that you can just keep pushing more and more information into your brain, neuroscience has shown that there is a limit to the capacity to learn new information. This limit is individualized and occurs along a spectrum: some people will find that they can sustain their effort over a longer period of time or can hold more new information in mind at once than others, but all of our brains eventually reach a limit. And the limit also varies within an individual, depending on their interest in the material, motivation, physical state (such as level of alertness, whether you are hungry or tired), level of stress, and other factors related to the individual or the environment. Think of experiences where your learning was at its peak; it was most likely because the material was highly interesting and engaging, you were well-fed and well-rested, your level of stress was at a manageable level, you had some previous relevant knowledge or experience to relate the new information to, and the material was taught in a way that resonated with how you learn. In these situations, you learned the material with relatively little effort and it was retained over time much more easily and effectively. In contrast, recall times when your learning was negatively impacted by one of the above factors and when you had to exert much more effort in order to learn effectively. In this second scenario, your “limit” for learning new material was substantially lower. Thus, the limit of how much new material you can learn at once can vary depending on a number of conditions and situations.

Once you’ve reached your limit, additional efforts to acquire more information are likely to be ineffective until your brain has had the chance to consolidate the newly-learned information. And what is the best way to consolidate newly-learned information? Engaging in an unrelated activity. In fact, studies have shown that sleep is one of the most effective methods of consolidating information, as it reduces additional stimulation and input to the brain and allows the brain the time needed to consolidate the new information. But sleep is certainly not the only way to consolidate new information. Exercising, getting a drink of water or a snack, engaging in mindfulness activities or meditation, socializing with others, or shifting to a different activity are all ways of giving your brain a “break” from what you are learning and provide an opportunity for consolidation. In fact, learning new material tends to be much more effective if short breaks are interspersed at regular intervals rather than attempting to sustain attention, effort, and engagement over extended periods of time. The need for breaks takes on even more importance if you have difficulties with sustained attention, processing speed, and executive functioning, as these challenges often require additional energy and effort to manage when learning new material.

Effects of Breaks on Mental Health

Breaks are not only important for learning; they are also essential for mental health and well-being. Poorly defined personal and professional boundaries contribute to increased levels of stress, anxiety, and depression. You may find that you are more emotionally reactive and impulsive. You begin to lose some of the ability to make choices about your emotions and behavior and consider the longer-term implications of your reactions.

The pressure and stress of operating at a frantic pace without any down-time coupled with the guilt-laden feelings associated with taking a break can lead to declines in both physical and mental health. Rather than seeing breaks as opportunities to care for our physical and emotional health, they are seen as signs of weakness and missed opportunities to do more or get ahead. But the hidden irony is that the lack of focus on self-care results in decreased efficiency, productivity, and effectiveness, as well as a reduction in coping skills. If you keep filling your cup with more pressure, demands, responsibilities, and obligations, it will eventually spill over in ways that are unintended and possibly harmful. The key to managing stress is not to strive toward the impossible goal of eliminating all sources of stress, but to take the time and make the effort to both reduce and manage stress as much as possible. The saying, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure,” is completely applicable here; in many situations (though certainly not all), you can much more effectively reduce stress when it is at a low level, and possibly prevent, or at least reduce, further escalation and worsening of the situation.

Breaks Provide Opportunities for Creativity

When most of your time is scheduled and structured, you have little opportunity for creative and innovative thinking. When you are focused and engaged in a task, your brain tends to rely on habits, patterns, and past experiences. There is a saying among neuropsychologists that “the neurons that fire together, wire together,” which refers to the concept that the brain develops characteristic ways of responding to certain situations and scenarios. The more often you respond in the typical, expected manner, the stronger that connection becomes. Over time, your responses to repeated scenarios or situations become highly practiced and almost automatic, occurring quickly and with little effort. In many ways, this tendency is helpful; it allows you to conserve your energy for new tasks and situations and makes your problem-solving and behavior more efficient. Take basic math calculations, for example. When you were first learning addition, you likely had to use a lot of time and effort to solve a problem like 6 + 4. You may have had to imagine 6 objects and 4 objects and count them or get actual objects to count, such as your fingers. With practice and repetition, however, you no longer needed to exert the same amount of time, effort, and energy to solve the problem. Indeed, you then had more “brainpower” available to apply that knowledge to other situations in your life (such as making a purchase) or to use it in higher-level math procedures and computations.

Think of a time when you tried to change a habit and the amount of effort required to do so, if you were even able to do so. If you can’t think of an experience, observe how you brush your teeth in the morning. You probably start on the same side every time and move about your mouth in the same general pattern. Once you know your pattern, try to change it in some way and notice the difference in the amount of effort you need. Try to brush with the opposite hand or start on the other side of your mouth, for example. These slight changes tax your brain in a new way and require increased effort, attention, and focus to do.

All of this efficiency and energy conservation comes at the expense of creativity and novel problem-solving. In general, this level of automaticity is a good thing; think of how difficult it would be to get through the day if you had to start fresh each and every day and figure out how to do everything that you normally do automatically. At the same time, you can probably think of experiences where you had a sudden burst of inspiration or clarity when you were engaged in another activity, such as taking a shower or falling asleep. The brain needs time and space to think creatively and flexibly; when you are constantly going from one task or activity to another, you don’t allow leave any space for that creativity. The result is you end up stuck in a pattern or habit with little understanding of how you got there and how to get out. Taking breaks allows you to reflect and think about things in new ways.

Building Breaks into Your Routine

The above-stated reasons have hopefully convinced you that breaks are extremely powerful, essential, and critical to learning, mental health, and creativity. Incorporating breaks into your day can improve productivity, focus, stress management, and problem-solving. But in a culture that emphasizes constant connection and availability, how do you start? What do you do? Here are a few suggestions to get started:

Set clear boundaries. With all of the connection through electronic devices and social media, there is a constant pull toward a loosening of boundaries. Checking and responding to work email after hours or on weekends, posting highly-personal information online, or getting sucked into scrolling through social media news feeds are all examples of activities that reflect weakened boundaries between work and home life and our public and private selves. Try setting specific times or time limits around some of these activities (e.g., only responding to work emails during working hours or limiting the amount of times you check social media). Need more help? Try using apps that block notifications from these apps during times that you set or removing certain apps from your phone altogether. If you have to actually go over to your laptop and turn it on to check your work email, you are less likely to just check it “really quick” when you are not in front of the laptop.
Schedule your breaks. Treat your breaks like any other appointment. Block out the time in your calendar to exercise, meditate, write in your journal, socialize with friends, etc. and protect that time like you do other responsibilities and obligations. By protecting this time, you are setting the intention that this activity is a priority for you and is just as important as your other activities. If you absolutely have to change it, reschedule it to another time, rather than removing it from your schedule altogether.
Set a timer. When you have to work on an activity for an extended period of time, set a timer both for the time you are expecting to work and for the break time. Remember that the amount of time you can work on something is likely to vary, as will the number of breaks you require and how long they need to be. For things that are interesting and engaging to you, you may be able to work for a longer period of time, followed by a shorter break (e.g., 45-60 minutes of work followed by a 10-minute break). For activities that are more challenging or less interesting, you may find that you need to substantially reduce the amount of work time that occurs before a break (e.g., 15 minutes of work followed by a 5-minute break).
Start small. Finding the time for breaks can be challenging at first, especially when you are feeling overwhelmed by all of your responsibilities and obligations. However, as mentioned earlier, it is very likely that some of your responsibilities and obligations are taking longer because they are not being done efficiently because you are not allowing yourself breaks (remember the cycle?). You have to start somewhere. Start with an activity that you can complete in 5-10 minutes and then find that time during your day. Set a goal of consistency in setting aside 5-10 minutes per day, rather than increasing the amount of time. For example, perhaps your initial goal is to take a 10-minute walk in your neighborhood after work, 3 days per week. Do not add additional time or days until you are consistently meeting that goal and if you’re not meeting that goal, take the opportunity to re-evaluate it and determine whether it is realistic or if you need to make other changes.
Develop a mindfulness practice. I consider mindfulness to be a way of training your brain to be calm and still, taking a break from the pressure and pace of daily life, and managing stress and anxiety. It is a powerful way of taking a break physically, cognitively, and emotionally that allows for greater clarity in thinking and purpose and intention in actions and behaviors. While silent meditation is one mindfulness approach, it is certainly not the only one. It is important to find the one that works for you, whether it is yoga, mindful walking, listening to calming music, or doing a guided meditation. Consistency is key here, too, in that it is important to regularly engage in the mindfulness activity you’ve chosen, rather than only engaging in it when you feel stressed and overwhelmed. There are a number of apps and resources available to help you start and maintain a mindfulness practice.

Overcoming Overwhelm

In Career Development, Education, Learning, Psychotherapy, Self Help

Moving out of apathy, anxiety, and stress and into focused intention and clarity

Feeling overwhelmed is a common experience for most people. Whether you are trying to start a new project, achieve a goal, or just survive the daily activities during a pandemic, you’ve more than likely experienced the state of overwhelm. In this state, your emotions begin to override your other skills and abilities, making it difficult to get started on tasks and projects, follow-through with ideas, make progress toward goals, or achieve desired outcomes. Even though the experience of feeling overwhelmed is unpleasant, the task, change, or activity you want to make or do feels absolutely insurmountable and you remain stuck in the same pattern you want to change. Initially, you may attribute the feeling of overwhelm to a lack of knowledge: you are simply not sure where to start. But a lack of knowledge is not often the underlying cause of feeling overwhelmed. Even though a lack of knowledge is relatively easy to solve with some research and information-gathering, it rarely translates into the action needed to achieve the goal. Feeling overwhelmed interferes with your ability to take goal-directed actions, even when you have the knowledge, skills, and abilities to do so. In this post, I present three concrete action steps that can help overcome feelings of overwhelm and help you to achieve your goals.

Behavioral Activation

Behavioral activation is a component of cognitive-behavioral therapy and is often used to treat depression. In traditional cognitive-behavioral therapy, the therapist and client work on changing thoughts and beliefs; the theory holds that changing these underlying thoughts and beliefs will lead to desired behavioral changes. Behavioral activation works in the opposite direction-the goal here is to focus on making behavioral changes that lead to changes in mood and thinking. Think about a time when you didn’t feel like doing something but went out and did it anyway and your mood improved. Maybe you felt like turning down a friend’s invitation to stay home and watch TV, only to end up going and having a great time. Or a time you really didn’t feel like working out, but did it anyway and felt much better than you expected afterwards. If you would have waited until you felt like doing these activities, you might not have done them. These are examples of behavioral activation at work. By focusing on the behavior, you bypass some of the cognitive and emotional barriers.

So how do you use behavioral activation to overcome feeling overwhelmed? Start by breaking down large tasks into smaller parts that have clear starting and ending points. Initially, you want tasks to be relatively achievable so that you can have success and build momentum. For example, if you want to get into an exercise routine of working out 60 minutes per day, you might start with a 10-minute exercise routine three times per week. The following week, perhaps you increase each exercise session to 15 minutes. The week after, you add a 4th day. If you want to write a 5000-word essay, start with writing just 500 words per day over 10 days or 250 words per day over 20 days. These are just examples; the specific increments and pace at which you increase them will vary from person-to-person and task-to-task. The key is to focus on taking a step in the direction of your goal that you can achieve so that you can begin to feel successful and competent. With continued achievement of these smaller goals, you begin to build momentum and motivation and feelings of anxiety and overwhelm begin to dissipate. By focusing on the behavior, you are bypassing the limiting thoughts and beliefs that are getting in your way, as well as an emotional state that makes you feel unmotivated. As you accomplish these mini-goals, you may notice that your mood and thoughts begin to subtly or dramatically shift. As time goes on, you may find it easier to make larger or more substantial changes, rather than the small, incremental steps you took in the beginning, because you have fewer cognitive and emotional barriers interfering with your progress.

Batching Tasks and Activities

Sometimes the sheer amount of tasks that need to be completed is what makes you feel overwhelmed. You think about starting a business and get overwhelmed by all of the steps required for start-up. You want to clean the house but get overwhelmed by all of the things that need to be cleaned or done. You want to get started on that side hustle or new project but you can’t imagine how you would even find the time to work on it. The behavioral activation strategy of breaking goals down into meaningful, manageable, incremental components is a key first step; the next step is actually getting it done. This step requires effectively managing your time, since time and energy are the critical limiting factors in getting tasks done. Batching tasks is a highly effective time management technique and can often free up time. Batching tasks requires you to complete like tasks together in order to be more efficient.

Let’s take cleaning the bathroom. Say you have two bathrooms in your home that both need to be cleaned. One approach would be to clean bathroom #1 on one day and bathroom #2 on another day. This approach requires you to use different cleaning supplies for the toilet, bathtub, and sink, so each time you do it, you have to spend time getting out all of the supplies and cleaning each room completely. Batching the task would mean you would do like tasks together. So one day you might clean both toilets, which only requires you to get the toilet cleaning supplies out once. Then, you clean both sinks. The following day, you get out the shower cleaning supplies and clean both showers. In the end, both methods get you to the same goal of having 2 clean bathrooms. But batching the task gets you to the goal in a more efficient and less time-intensive manner.

Cooking is another task that lends itself well to batching. Perhaps you spend 5-6 pm preparing dinner each day. You can batch cook by doubling or tripling the amount of food you cook at one time with little increase in the time and effort required to prepare and cook the food. Because you’ve cooked extra food on day one, you only have to reheat your meal for the following day or two, which takes significantly less time than preparing an entire meal. And just like that, you’ve gained 1-2 additional hours in your week with little effort.

Structured Routines

Structured routines can also help to reduce feelings of overwhelm and a lack of motivation. By making routines automatic and second nature, you reduce the cognitive, emotional, and physical effort required to complete them. Your body begins to expect certain activities to occur at certain times, regardless of your emotional state or thought process. Again, these routines help to bypass the negative thoughts, limiting beliefs, or unfocused emotional states that might interfere with your activities.

The key to establishing routines is consistency over time. Think of your morning routine. More than likely, you do the same activities in the same order without much thought. If you wanted to change your morning routine, you would need to exert a lot of effort at first to establish a new pattern. Over time, however, this new pattern would be integrated into your routine and you would complete it without even thinking about it. The problem is that many people get stuck in the effortful phase; the new routine is difficult to integrate, labor-intensive, time-consuming, and feels awkward, so they stop. Or they do the new routine inconsistently so it never gets established as a behavioral pattern. Over time, the inconsistency becomes more frequent and eventually the new routine is lost and the person falls back into their familiar, even if undesired, routine. To establish a new routine, you need to do it on a consistent basis over an extended period of time. You need to sustain the new routine through the effortful stage into the integration stage (where it becomes less labor-intensive) and into the maintenance stage (where it becomes automatic). There is no set amount of time to go through this process, as it depends on how much the new routine varies from your previous routine and how complex or challenging it is. Some routines may become well-integrated within a month or so, while others may take 3, 6, or 12 months.

Although common, feeling overwhelmed can cause significant interference with motivation and goal attainment. It can be easy to get “stuck” in this emotional state and related behavior patterns. This blog post has focused on some strategies to bypass cognitive and emotional barriers that can interfere with task completion and goal achievement. However, it is important to recognize that integrating methods that help to address limiting thoughts, beliefs, and emotional states is also a key component of achieving goals.

Career Decisions During Uncertain Times

In ADHD, Autism Spectrum Disorders, Career Development, Learning Disabilities

What if you could make career decisions with intentionality and clarity, even in uncertain economic times? Or re-evaluate and redesign your career to better align with your values, interests, strengths, and abilities? Or find a career field that matches your unique skills and abilities, even if you have a learning disability, attention problem, or other neurodevelopmental disorder or disability? Or craft your own type of work as an entrepreneur that inspires and motivates you? The key to all of these questions is developing self-awareness and insight into yourself as a person and as a professional. This level of awareness helps provide you with clarity about what gives you energy and purpose; where your natural abilities lie; the skills you have worked to develop through learning, effort, and experience; your areas of passion and interest; and the values and ideals that are the most meaningful for you.

The uncertain economic climate can lead to decisions that are fueled by fear and anxiety. In your career, this fear and anxiety-fueled decision-making can have a range of consequences. You may be tempted to take a potential job opportunity without fully appreciating and evaluating all of the components or aspects of the job and how they match with you, as a person and as a professional. You may take on job responsibilities that are not well-suited to you out of fear of losing your job if you refuse. You may impulsively and abruptly change career fields. In the best case scenario, you will be lucky and end up in a position that is a good fit for your personality, abilities, values, and interests. At the same time, you may also end up in a position that does not fit with one of these areas or is in active conflict with one. Over time, you may begin to feel drained by this position, both physically and emotionally. You may lose your energy and motivation for the job, regardless of the other benefits it provides and even if you are able to continue to meet your job-related standards and expectations. You may begin to feel bored and unmotivated. At worst, you may begin to experience burnout or your job performance may begin to suffer.

In contrast, self-awareness and insight can help in making decisions that are intentional, informed, and aligned to your values, interests, abilities, and skills. Ideally, you may be able to find or craft a career that suits all of these areas. At the same time, if your circumstances or situation does not allow you this flexibility, you can still make decisions with more awareness and a greater sense of purpose. For example, perhaps you are taking a position that does not align with one of these areas as a “stepping stone” to getting where you want to be. Or you are taking on a temporary position due to your current economic situation while you continue to take steps toward your ideal career. Or, you can find outlets and hobbies outside of work that meet some of your values and interests that your job does not satisfy. The goal is to see your career as a journey that will continually evolve over the course of your working life while also having clarity about the destination.

Values

Understanding and awareness of your own personal values is key to setting goals and taking steps to reach them. Values are the guiding principles and ideas that are important to you. While many core values may be stable in your life, the relative importance of each one or the attention and focus on one may change over time or related to your circumstances. Additionally, personal and professional values may overlap, though they are not always the same for everyone. Therefore, engaging in regular self-reflection and values clarification exercises are crucial components of developing a clear vision and direction for your career.

Interests

Your interests are the areas where you feel inspired, are driven to work hard, and seek to continually learn and grow. Interests and passions provide the motivation and energy to reach the goals you set based on your values. If you have a passion for a specific goal, then you are much more willing to expend the effort to meet that goal. You are also less likely to give up when you encounter an obstacle or unexpected challenge. Your interests may inspire you to think about or solve a problem in a new way or develop expertise in a specific area. Because you are heavily interested and invested in these topic areas, engaging in them can often be an enjoyable experience.

Abilities

Abilities are the things that come naturally and easily to you. While there may be debate about whether abilities are inherent and due to genetics or are the result of the combination of strong interests and practice, we all have natural tendencies and gifts that can be assets in the workplace. Abilities are the things that develop with very little effort on your part and are usually present from early in life. For example, strong musical or artistic inclinations and abilities, quickly and easily performing mathematical calculation, systematic and logical thinking, or strong visualization and mechanical abilities. You may be unaware of how you developed these abilities or why these things come so easily to you when others have to work at them. Finding a career that aligns with your abilities helps you to use these talents in a productive way. It also allows you to contribute your abilities and thinking processes in ways that complement those of others.

Skills

Skills are areas of competence and expertise that you have developed with effort and experience. Unlike abilities, you have had to work to develop these areas and will only become proficient (and maintain your proficiency) with practice. Initially, you will have to exert a high level of effort when you are learning a skill; however, with regular practice over time, skills become more natural. If you have developed skills in areas that correspond to your interests, the process of learning and practicing the skill is likely to be much more enjoyable and tolerable than developing skills in areas where you lack interest or motivation. Additionally, your abilities can help facilitate the development of skills over time. Because you have had to work to develop these skills, you may be more aware of the process of acquiring them and better able to teach others to do so. The specific process and practice of acquiring skills also influences your eventual proficiency; in order to keep progressing, you must continue to challenge yourself and put yourself in novel situations that force you to use your skill in a new way.

Conclusion

Uncertain economic times do not have to force you into career decisions that are fueled by fear and anxiety. Instead, the intentional development of self-awareness and insight can lead to making decisions with purpose and clarity.