Let’s start off with a story. About seven years ago, I was working with someone building websites and he was working around the clock seven days a week. I said, “you know, you need to take a break once in a while” his reply, “I can’t take a break. I’m building a business. I don’t have time to break. I’m working seven days a week”
I said, “well, you really need a mental break to make yourself more productive. I learned this as I got older, because I did the same thing when I was young. And now that I’m older, it’s very important that you disconnect yourself from work to get a fresh reboot.” He said, “well, if I do that, then I’m going to fall behind and not get this business up and running.”
A few years later, I ran into him and we were catching up. He said to me, “you know what? You were right about getting a break. I make sure I take at least one day, if not two days or a long weekend to get away just to reboot. I get so much more done and I’m more productive.”
I said to him, “I am so glad that you see that now and how impactful it is. Took me years to learn it. I wish I knew it at your age.”
Why am I telling you this? Well, when I used to work in corporate America, I used to sit on a phone a lot, and there was a lot of downtime.
So, I used to go to a couple of different websites and I played online games. One of them was called addictinggames.com and I’d go on there and play all these different games while I had some downtime, because I learned it’s very important to take a brain break.
I’m not just talking about talking days off, but even when you’re at work, sometimes it’s good to just give your brain a break.
So the other day, I don’t know what happened, but I was reading a meme online. And it totally reminded me of when I used to work in corporate America. I used to play games here and there for 10 to 15 minutes as a brain break.
It inspired me to start doing some online research looking for these sites again. Well, I came across a website called plays.org. At first, there was a lot of games for young kids. So, I thought this could be really cool for my daughter. I’m going to show her it, as I started to dig in deeper, I started looking through some of the categories.
I’m like, Ooh, I want to play this! This is fun! I enjoy this! I started playing some games. Then I remembered how I used to take a quick 5 or 10 minute brain break during the day and play some games.
It was cool, since I’m a gamer, to just jump on and play some games. As I went through it, some of my favorite games are Tank Defender, which is more of a strategy game, super simple, and fun to play. And then there’s a Lego City builder that reminds me so much of SIM city that I thoroughly enjoy playing as well.
Why am I telling you all this, again? Well, I’m telling you this because it is good to take a break and mentally get out of what you’re working on. Distract yourself and have a little bit of enjoyment. If you’re someone like me who loves games, this is a good site to check out. If you’re someone who likes funny videos, you know what to do, jump on YouTube. If you’re somebody who your idea of a break is scrolling through your Facebook feed, then scroll through your Facebook feed.
I thought it was really cool that I came across this site almost 10 years later. It was a little nostalgic reminding me of playing some of these quick action packed games online in the past to give me a little break.
So do yourself a favor and take a brain break, don’t skip your 15 minute breaks, make sure you take your lunch break. We all need a break once in a while.
