How Long Should You Work Before Taking A Break?

Working non-stop, like a machine, is neither optimal nor sustainable: the returns diminish while the side-effects accumulate. Clearly, taking breaks to refresh your mental and physical energy is necessary, but what’s the optimal time to work and time to rest?The DraugiemGroup social-networking company used the DeskTime app to monitor their top-performers’ work and rest habits. They found that the top 10% of highest-performers worked on average 52 minutes before taking 17 minutes off to do something unrelated to work. While this was not a high-sample, well-controlled scientific study, it does support the notion that people operate along typical energetic patterns and cycles, and that it’s worth discovering one’s own optimal work:rest ratio. Read more about it in FastCompany’s discussion of the study, The Exact Amount Of Time You Should Work Every Day.