According to research conducted by Draugiem Group, 10% of employees with the highest productivity didn’t put in longer hours than anyone else. If that’s the case, what’s the formula for perfect productivity?
Taking a break is a necessary part of the working day; we should all take a few minutes to clear our minds every now and then to allow us to focus on the task at hand. But is there a secret formula to the ideal work/break ratio?
The Balancing Act
Using the productivity app, DeskTime, the researchers at Draugiem Group believe they’ve come up with the answer to the very question we’re posing.
Their research found that the 10% of employees with the highest productivity surprisingly didn’t put in longer hours than anyone else. In fact, they didn’t even work full eight-hour days. What they did do was take regular breaks. Specifically, they took 17-minute breaks for every 52 minutes of work.
The key, it seems, is to focus intensely on work for a limited amount of time (52 minutes according to this research) and then take a short break to let your mind recover before getting back at it. After all, it’s long been debated that strict 8-hour days aren’t natural (of course they aren’t!) and that the human body and mind need frequent rest periods in order to function at their optimum.
Here’s what you and your employees can do during your break time to help your mind recover:
Step 1 – Step away from the computer! No social media, no YouTube and no 9gag. Focus those eyes elsewhere.
Step 2 – Take a walk. Get up from your desk and move.
Step 3 – Disengage your mind from work. Chat to a co-worker. Grab a cup of coffee. Read a few pages of a magazine.
Step 4 – After 17 minutes, get back to work.
Monitoring Break Times
Ok, so it’s all good and well to tell your employees (or yourself) to take regular breaks, but how can you monitor these breaks to ensure that:
- a) People aren’t overworking
- b) They’re not taking too long on breaks.
Employee computer monitoring is a simple and efficient solution. With software such as that offered by Digital Endpoint, you’ll be able to schedule in break times for the workplace as a whole, departments, or individual employees. It won’t tell them when to have a break (that’s up to them), but it will tell you how long they’ve been working and if they’ve been taking their breaks.
Using the KnowIT work week schedule will automatically calculate employees’ the productive and non-productive hours and generate personal productivity scores that will be sent to you by email as a daily or weekly report.
You’ll have clear infographics about your employees’ working and break hours, giving you all the data you need to see who’s working too hard and who’s slacking. If you’re seeing a large amount of unproductive time, try implementing the new break time formula – KnowIT will let you see just how much that can improve productivity.
Have you tried this technique?
How did it work for you?
Let us know in the comments below….
If you’d like to learn more about the benefits of KnowIT for your business, click here.