How To Ensure You Take A Break

It is really important that you make sure you take a break in your working day, especially now that we are all working from home. It’s easy get stuck in and forget to take breaks and work late into the evening, when you should be enjoying some down time. Don’t forget, that if you were a paid employee, you would have a fixed lunch break, you’d naturally start and finish work at a set time, and have boundaries in place about bringing work home with you.

When you are working for yourself or even working from home in the current climate, it’s very easy to slip into bad habits! You must make sure that you are taking a break every day, or you risk burning yourself out.

The sort of break you take very much depends on your business.

If you are a virtual assistant, for example, you should make sure you take regular breaks away from your laptop. Why not have a nice walk to clear your mind? If, however you are a dog walker, the last thing you want to do is more walking, so why not bake something and get creative in the kitchen?

The most important thing to do at lunch time is to make sure you eat something. There are lots of quick and easy lunch ideas around or you can batch cook and have leftovers for lunch the following day. My top tip is to do some meal prep at the start of your working week, whether it’s just washing and chopping all your veg ready to cook, or making a big batch of chilli and curries to stick in the freezer. This saves so much time, helps minimise food waste and ensure you’re eating nutritious meals all the time – best of all, it means you can have a little bit more time to relax instead of cooking very day.

One of my favourite ways to take a break is by playing online games. This might sound a bit off the wall, but actually online games are a really great way to switch off, take you mind off work and life and reduce stress. If you are playing Solitaire for a few minutes, it completely focusses your mind and stops you thinking about the next job you have to do.

I love this site as it gives you absolutely loads of free games to play, online. No need for any downloading or signing up to things, just some really great games ideas. As well as Solitaire, they also have a hidden objects games, such as The Palace Hotel which is great for getting your little ones involved. It gives you some truly mindless fun, while playing with and entertaining them too.

You just click on all the (obviously) hidden objects, so it really is mindless fun while giving your little ones some great motor skills!

An important thing you need to remember when having a break, is to hydrate yourself. Too often, you may be too busy to remember and then end up with a headache. Keep a refillable bottle with you – and remember to refill it!

You may think coffee is the answer to keeping you awake, but water helps even more. It really works wonders! Try it and let me know if it works for you! You will feel so much better for it.