Take a break with Sharon's Cup

We may think we do not need breaks or that breaks simply means holidays and travel. While that could be a nice break but we can incorporate small little pauses in between our day especially if we are mostly behind our desk.

Here, I share my little technique on taking pauses or break in between which has worked for me.

This name, Sharon Cup was jokingly given during my share on Clubhouse on how to take break in between our work.

So stay with me to find out what Sharon Cup is all about.

I supposed we can all agree that taking breaks throughout workday is essential. Work can be demanding, our managers can be demanding, our clients can be demanding, etc.

You may have planned your day well but on some day or in some season, the work seems unbearable. Like during tax period, or account closing period or perhaps sales suddenly just shot up like rocket.

And when we are working on a complex problem or portfolio, it is often we convince ourselves that we don't have the luxury of time to take breaks. In some office culture, taking breaks is something that would be frown upon or looked down by others because it looks as though one is playing truant or being lazy.

It is also easy to say we have no time to take breaks as everything seems to be on urgent timeline.

This sound rather ridiculous when we set it out in context. But we do it all the time, if not most time. We’ll be skipping our meals because there’s some full day meetings & discussions. We give reasons and excuses to somewhat neglect breaks in between work. It may look as though we do it unintentionally but day after day, weeks after weeks, it somehow becomes a habit to keep going with lesser breaks than our body and mind needs.

The absence of taking conscious break is one of the reasons why we experience burnout.

When we forsake our needed breaks, we are basically loading more stress onto ourselves by being on full capacity the whole time. There comes a point when our body no longer have the energy to be deployed for work or anything else for that matter and the mind is exhausted - THIS could easily cause nervous breakdown.   

Benefits of taking breaks

Various studies done have been done and found that some of the benefits of taking breaks include among others:

• Increases productivity

• Improves mental health and well-being

• Restores focus and attention,

• Prevent decision fatigue; and

• Increases creativity

How do we take break & Sharon's Cup

Some suggest the compulsory lunch break, or social breaks such as a quick 1-2 minute chat to with your colleague or taking a walk.

I'd like to share my Sharon's Cup technique.

Back in my corporate days, I used to sit at my desk working non-stop for hours. And I used to have a 1.5 L water tumbler on my desk because I did not want to waste time walking to the water dispenser every now so often if I were to drink from a cup. That way, I could focused on completing my work. As I assumed leadership roles which also requires me to support and train team members on work as well as completing my own tasks, I found myself getting burnt out and feeling so overwhelmed. The only real break I took was lunch time where I dedicated the one hour to myself on my own. Nothing bout being anti-social but I needed to time & space to ground myself, recollect myself and prep for what's waiting for my presence after lunch, especially when there's meetings thereafter.

This has been my way of routine at work.

Work definitely went well but the stress did not go away.

One morning, I had an urgent matter to deal with for a client. I had no time to go through my morning routine prep of filling up my tumbler. So I just washed my cup and fill it up with water and grounded myself in the matter. After an hour or so, I needed to leave my seat and fill up my cup. It was a brief time break where I got to breathe and to be away from my desk for that few minutes.

For the next few days, this was my routine. Then it went on for a week then months and it became my new routine. I started drinking from my cup instead of my 1.5L water tumbler.

By drinking from a cup, I would have to refill my cup every hour or so. What I used to think as a waste of time actually gave me the opportunity to get up from my chair and move or stretch a little and take a breather. It gave me the little headspace when I disconnect for a moment with what I was doing and then get back with more clarity.

This little 'walkathon' to the water dispenser helps with preventing from being burnt out easily or getting overwhelmed from work.

This became my escapade somewhat because I could take a breather in between.

Realisation

Few realisations after making this little change of drinking from a cup instead of having a water tumbler at my desk and subsequently incorporating intentional breaks throughout my workday is that:

1. No issue is any bigger than preventing myself from getting burnt out or overwhelmed and lose focus

2. All things can wait and be resolved so long as my health state (mental, emotion and physical) is fit

3. Such adjustment to my routine may seem small but it made a big difference in my mental wellbeing.

That said, we will still experience exhaustion on some days but at least we don’t get constant burnout.

I hope this piqued your interest to give it a try. I hope you continue incorporating breaks in between your working hours. Look, nothing is ever guaranteed but the least, we are doing what we can to look after ourselves. And there are days we may not be that discipline, it’s ok. We get back to it the next day.

“Our wellbeing, our responsibility,

Just knowing will not make a difference,

A little adjustment may seem insignificant,

But cumulatively, it may make a big difference.”

Always take good care of yourself. It matters before you care for others.