Feeling off your game? You may need to start treating rest and recovery more seriously. A recent NOBL Academy article offers some advice:

Listen to your body. It knows when it needs rest.

Do what feels right for you. Take a bath. Take a 30-minute nap in the middle of the day if you need it.

Get a good night’s sleep. That means getting 7-9 hours of uninterrupted sleep; keeping to a basic sleep schedule; developing a wind-down routine that avoids stress and worry by embracing relaxation and positive visualization techniques; avoiding substances that interfere with sleep, particularly caffeine and alcohol.

Build rest into your schedule. Short-term recoveries might include ensuring you find 10 minutes between meetings to sit in a comfortable chair or stare at the clouds while listening to music you love. Long-term recoveries include vacation time.

Source: “To Be Resilient, Rest Like an Athlete,” NOBL Academy, Jan. 11, 2021

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Taking a daily lunch break can increase productivity and job satisfaction, says a recent Harvard Business Review article. That means making time each day to step away from work and eat lunch or go for a walk—not eating at your desk while you keep working away.

It’s just as important, as a manager, to make sure your team feels safe taking time for their own lunch breaks.

Take lunch—visibly. When managers take time to step away from their desks and take a break, it creates an environment where we don’t always have to be busy (or act like we are) to be considered productive. In the remote work environment, that could be creating an “at lunch” notification, mentioning at the team meeting that you’ll be away from your screen during lunch or verbally acknowledging in the afternoon, “I’m back from lunch.”

Limit meetings at some mid-day hour. Days filled with back-to-back meetings can cause employees to skip lunch. Consider designating a time for all employees to eat lunch or even run an errand or two every day.

Source: “Take Your Lunch Break!” Harvard Business Review, Jan. 21, 2021