Finding your optimal break cycle

- While working on my book, "The Power of Having Fun", I discovered an interesting principle for productivity success. It's called the ultradian rhythm. The what rhythm? Well, you've likely heard of the Circadian rhythm, which is the biological flow of the day. It's typically applied to your best sleep and awake cycles. The ultradian rhythm is a clever chronobiology term for a cycle that repeats many times in a day. You and I have a variety of ultradian rhythms dealing with everything from heart rate to body temperature regulation.

In a work place context, however, you have an optimal cycle for how long you can work until you need a break. The ultradian rhythm was discovered by sleep researcher Nathan Kleitman. He first discovered that we have ultradian rhythms within our sleep cycle, and then revealed that same pattern exists within our day. Each person has an optimal cycle for how long they can work until they need a break. That need varies from around 90 minutes to two hours depending on each person's ultradian cycle.

What does this mean? Well, if you're a person who needs a break every 100 minutes, and then you push past that 100 minute mark, and do the 101st minute of work, and fail to take a break, every one of those minutes thereafter gives you a diminishing return. However, by taking a brief break, perhaps a 10 to 20 minute break, you give your body room to reset the clock, so to speak, and recharge your batteries, so that you can return and have optimal levels of performance.

Discovering your ultradian rhythm is just a matter of trial and error. Just like discovering how much sleep you need. Here's an example of what I did with one manager and how you can follow the same pattern. We set up his schedule so that he had a break every 90 minutes. He opened up his calendar and scheduled a 10 minute break to occur at the end of each 90 minute segment. If he started at nine a.m. in the morning, then at 10:30 he had a 10 minute break with a little bit of buffer room after that.

He went back to work and 90 minutes later, he took another 10 minute break. After trying that for a couple of weeks, we reassess where he was at. Did that work for him? Did he still feel that he had gas in the tank, so to speak, when it came to his energy? He said that 90 minutes was probably too early. He could go longer. So we tried it at 110 minutes. We reestablished his schedule that he could work for 110 minutes, and then have a specifically scheduled break for 10 minutes.

After he did that for two weeks, he discovered 100 minutes was the optimal cycle for him to take a break. Incidentally for his break, he thought it was fun to do a little shadowboxing. Any kind of activity will work for you, as long as you consider it to be fun. If going for a walk around the block is fun for you, then do that. If playing a game on your phone is fun for you, then do that. Just find something that's meaningful to you, and then test it out.

Be aware of the ultradian rhythm with the people around you as well. When you see people pushing themselves too hard, and their energy is starting to flag, encourage them to also take a break. Of course, you'll want to be respectful and aware of the policies of the company that you work in. Finding a regular cycle for peak performance isn't just a matter of personal happiness and job satisfaction. It's also a matter of the bottom line, and improving the productivity of everyone who works in your organization.