Five-minute breaks can restore concentration
Need to reset your attention during a complex work task? A five-minute break is all it takes.
A research team asked college students to complete a difficult mathematics pre-test under “speeded testing conditions” for about 20 minutes.
Afterward, students in a control group immediately went on to study a short lesson on mentally multiplying two-digit numbers. Another group was first given an unstructured five-minute rest break before studying the lesson, while a third group watched a video of a rainforest beforehand.
Researchers found that the students who were given the unstructured rest break had higher average levels of directed attention than those in the no-rest group.
All were then given a problem-solving test that applied the math strategy lesson. The rest break and rainforest video groups outperformed the control group on the test.
The results can be applied to the workplace, the researchers said. They suggest building in a five-minute break of doing something complete different after every 20 minutes of complex cognitive work to increase productivity.
Source: Safety+Health
