A survey conducted by Harris Interactive found that millions of American adults feel guilty about taking downtime, resting, or napping, making them check work-related emails or do some work even while on vacation or during weekends.
However, research has also found that taking regular naps or downtime is highly beneficial for productivity and even health. Essentially, taking downtime means unplugging or taking a break from work or tasks, allowing a person to relax. It can be done through various ways, from daydreaming to simply shutting down your computer to relax.
According to Tony Schwartz of The Energy Project, sleep is a competitive advantage. Schwartz shares the research findings of Dr. Cheri D. Mah of Stanford Sleep Disorders Clinic, which discovered that athletes displayed better performance and reported better moods and higher energy levels when they had more sleep hours. Sleep is indeed the best way to take downtime but sadly, millions of Americans do not get enough sleep hours or suffer from chronic insomnia.
Schwartz adds that taking vacations lead to better performance evaluations. This conclusion made out of a study of Ernst and Young employees, which found that for each added 10 vacation hours the employees took, annual performance evaluation results improved by 8 percent.
Daydreaming is another way to take downtime. Daydreaming may sound silly for some, especially for people who want to maximize their time wisely, but according to Dr. Daniel J. Levitin, the brain has two main functions- to accomplish tasks, and to daydream. Either task can only be done one at a time, but both are needed to be practiced regularly. The former gets things done, while the latter is where great insight comes from. Dr. Levitin stresses that unplugging, taking downtime, and daydreaming allows the brain to stabilize connections from arbitrary information and creates creative solutions.
