5 Reasons to Incorporate More Downtime in your School Day
Each year when the school year got rolling, I would let work take up most of my life, and I would feel guilty if any spare moment wasn’t filled with planning, grading, material creation….you know the drill.
Downtime quickly became a foreign concept to me and my coworkers. “Downtime? What’s that??” we would all joke.
But if I’m honest, there was always some point each day where I would hit a wall and spend quite a bit of time staring at my computer, drawing a complete blank.
Sure, I looked like I was being productive for long periods of time, but little to no downtime meant I would eventually get frazzled, unfocused and unmotivated.
Have you ever done this? Because you are not alone, my friend.
Imagine if I had taken even ten minutes to step away and come back rejuvenated instead of wasting all that time staring like a zombie at my screen.
But, if you’re like me, even the idea of downtime can be overwhelming. Maybe there’s guilt associated with taking a break, or a fear of seeming lazy, or a fear you won’t get it all done…
That’s why this week I am sharing 5 reasons to incorporate more downtime in your day-to-day. My goal is to empower you to schedule downtime in your planner without the nagging feeling of guilt or nervousness that used to bug me, and that I know affects my teacher friends and clients as well.
Before we get started, there are a couple of different ways to define “downtime”. Quality sleep and longer vacations are super important components of downtime, but I want to focus on those short breaks you can schedule into your day. It can be as quick as 30 seconds or as long as an hour—whatever your body needs/is reasonable in that time. These breaks can be during the school day if that’s possible for you or before or after school during planning time.
Without further ado, here are just some of the benefits of downtime:
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Improves mental health
Long working hours have been correlated with depression and anxiety. On the flip-side, a break of just 6 minutes of reading can reduce stress by 68%. Taking a break to exercise after school can also significantly lower stress. Incorporating more downtime during the day can help boost life satisfaction, create a sense of better work-life balance, higher self-esteem and better relationships.
2. Improves physical health
Long working hours has been shown to increase behaviors such as smoking, excessive drinking and weight gain in adults. I definitely experienced the weight gain when I was logging the long hours. Another study showed that working 10 or more hours a day in 50 working days a year increased chances of stroke by 29%. Long working hours (40-55 hours a week) have been shown to be related to other negative health outcomes including sleep, heart attack, and accident rates. On the flip side, the more you can incorporate quality sleep, regular downtime, screen-free breaks during the day, and longer vacation holidays the more rested, energized and rejuvenated you will feel.
3. Improves memory
Breaks give your brain time to fully process new information. One study showed that students who were given a mundane task to complete after learning something new were better able to retain the information compared to those were given something else to remember immediately after. This is helpful to know for your students, but also helpful for you because, as you know, teachers have to remember everything they have planned for the day.
4.Increases productivity
Taking quick breaks can help you stay focused on the task at hand. One experiment found that making employees take days, nights, or extended periods of time off actually increased productivity. Consider reserving at least one night a week where you leave the school building after the bell and bring no work home with you.
5. Boosts creativity
Ever have those moments where you stop intensely focusing on a problem and then BOOM, the answer comes to you when you are cooking dinner or going for a walk or doing something random? Jonah Lehrer writes that relentlessly focusing inhibits the brains ability to have creative breakthroughs. Big companies like Google and Apple have started giving more downtime for employees so they can tap into that creative energy—why not apply that same idea to your own lesson/grading schedule and…dare I say it…your classroom itself.
One last thing! Downtime can benefit you, but your students can also get these benefits from short bursts of downtime during the day. So with all of this in mind— How can you start incorporating short breaks in your work/school day?
Please share this post with any overwhelmed teacher friends who may find it helpful!
