The afternoon is when most of us hit a productivity wall and feel the need for a break, but a study suggests that it might be better to conserve your energy earlier in the day. The study (published in the Journal of Applied Psychology) analyzed over 900 surveys regarding breaks at work — lunches, coffee, socializing with co-workers, and personal email. The results suggested that it’s better to break before you’ve used up your mental resources in order to refresh and actually recuperate some of those resources.
Researchers found that workers should take a break mid-morning, before lunch. Morning breaks were the most effective at restoring resources of all breaks across the day. Your mental resources decline throughout the day, so when taking a mid-morning break you’re replenishing a small amount of lost resources better as opposed to afternoon, when it’s harder to get back to your pre-break state.
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