Recovery is not what happens after work
Aug 29
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Twelve o'clock. Four plates on the table. By ten past, the group is back in the morning meeting. By half past, someone has drafted a reply to the client. You ate everything on your plate. That was your break.
Recovery during the working day matters at least as much as recovery in your free time. And what decided whether a break is a break, is one thing.
Is it a real cognitive break from work or not?
Is it a real cognitive break from work or not?
The part of you that never got its turn
Your brain has a daydreamer and creative soul. I call him Dreamy. He runs the default mode network. He steps forward when nothing is claiming your attention. Then he gets the chance to create new solutions out of old knowledge.
Your brain has a daydreamer and creative soul. I call him Dreamy. He runs the default mode network. He steps forward when nothing is claiming your attention. Then he gets the chance to create new solutions out of old knowledge.
That window is smaller than it sounds. Dreamy doesn't take over the moment work stops. He takes over when nothing has your attention at all. The shower. The walk without a podcast. The two minutes at the coffee machine, looking out the window.
A lunch where everyone processes the morning meeting is not that window. Corty, the thinking part behind your forehead, is still at the wheel. She's doing what she does in any meeting. Listening, weighing, holding the thread.
So Dreamy never gets his turn. Down in the archive, his friend Hippo has memories ready to hand him but he doesn't find his way down. The new idea that would have arrived at half past two never does.
You go back to your desk as tired as when you left. The decision you make in the afternoon is average at best.
The break your team copies from you
In my book I call Dreamy's state Float. It's the opposite of focus. Thoughts wander. Hippo pulls up old memories. Dreamy connects them to something new. That's where the answer you couldn't find at eleven turns up at three.
So Dreamy never gets his turn. Down in the archive, his friend Hippo has memories ready to hand him but he doesn't find his way down. The new idea that would have arrived at half past two never does.
You go back to your desk as tired as when you left. The decision you make in the afternoon is average at best.
The break your team copies from you
In my book I call Dreamy's state Float. It's the opposite of focus. Thoughts wander. Hippo pulls up old memories. Dreamy connects them to something new. That's where the answer you couldn't find at eleven turns up at three.
The phone is the clearest enemy. You sit down with a coffee and open it to relax. That isn't floating. You're still processing. Your attention is claimed the whole time.
Meeting talk at lunch works the same way. It looks social. It feels collegial. (And it is. That's not the problem.)
But Corty never leaves the building.
Your team reads what you do at lunch as the rule. Eat at your desk with a document open. The twenty-minute walk then becomes something people take when nobody is watching. The responsibility is in the culture, not only on the person. A norm is not something one tired individual can fix alone.
Start with what needs to be refilled
Work out what is actually empty. Three hard conversations leave you worn out emotionally, not cognitively. A walk does very little for that. Ten minutes with someone you like does more. A morning of focused spreadsheet work is the opposite. That head needs quiet, not company.
Start with what needs to be refilled
Work out what is actually empty. Three hard conversations leave you worn out emotionally, not cognitively. A walk does very little for that. Ten minutes with someone you like does more. A morning of focused spreadsheet work is the opposite. That head needs quiet, not company.
After the first fix, take twenty minutes and give them to nothing at all. Phone in a drawer. Let your thoughts wander as they like. It will feel unproductive for the first five minutes. Then the thoughts start roaming freely. Somehow there will be a new solution waiting for you when you get back to your desk.
Leaders I have worked with have realised that recovery is not for the evenings or weekends. Performance is built on the small breaks where Dreamy gets to float freely.
Leaders I have worked with have realised that recovery is not for the evenings or weekends. Performance is built on the small breaks where Dreamy gets to float freely.
/ Maria