I’ve always been a proponent of small breaks from your daily work to clear your mind, rest your eyes, and recharge your energy. For some people this takes the form of smoke breaks. Wouldn’t you say it’s a sad reflection on our priorities as a corporate society that people take up unhealthy habits just to get a small reprieve from the stressful grind of work? I have met people in my career that have done just that. They don’t take a break to smoke – they smoke so that they can take a break.
We as a society undervalue the benefits of a content and happy person. We focus on the amount of time put into a project rather than the gross amount of energy and excitement that is dedicated to it. This makes our most gifted individuals less productive, while all the while we operate under the assumption that they are more productive because they put in longer hours. That’s a backwards understanding of the human psyche.
This idea of the smoke break has applications in our personal, “extracurricular” lives as well. The average adult in the US spends 5 hours a day consuming visual media via one screen or another. If you consider that the average individual may only have 14 hours a day to distribute across work and other duties, that leave very little room for peace and quite. We are actively robbing ourselves of the time alone with our thoughts that is needed more than ever in today’s world. Our brains are shellshocked by the bombardment of eighteen different storylines from all of the shows that we watch – on top of the data that we feed into them at our places of work. It’s no wonder we are tired, anxious, and oblivious to the things that are most important.
All that said: we need more smoke breaks. I’m not encouraging you to take up the habit of polluting your body. Simply this: give your mind a rest. At work, at home, and at play. And I’m mostly speaking to myself.
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