How Doing the Dishes Can Increase Your Productivity

If I were to say to you, “the key to increasing your productivity is to wash more dishes,” you would probably look at me like I was a crazy person. Unless you are a professional dishwasher, in case you would just nod your head in agreement.

But I’m not crazy (at least, not because of this). In fact, if you give it a try, you may find that washing the dishes (and other similar activities) may be the key to boosting your productivity too…

I have always hated washing dishes. Hated it. I just assumed it was one of those annoying things in life you’d have to put up with, like rush hour traffic, and people who use the word “literally” when they don’t mean “literally” at all. (See: “Are You Literally an Idiot?”)

Lately, however, I have found myself doing the dishes with much more zest (don’t worry, this is not going to be a post about learning to find contentment in mundane tasks; I’m not that Zen…yet). While I can’t say that I love doing the dishes, I have gained an appreciation for the ancillary benefits of engaging in the task.

I was recently listening to an audio program on being productive and getting more done. I wasn’t getting too much out of it and almost turned it off when the presenter dropped a piece of advice that whacked me in the head and made me take notice.

She was talking about the importance of taking breaks. Now I have known for a long time that taking short breaks (of say 10 minutes) is an important way to maximize your productivity. However, I often found that my 10 minute breaks would stretch to 20 or 30 minutes (or even more), and, once the break was over, I usually didn’t feel energized to get back to work.

The presenter then said, “Breaks are about mental recharge, and not necessarily leisure.”

Interesting.

To this point, my breaks were always “leisure” based. For example, I would usually spend my “break” reading my favorite websites. After ten minutes I was supposed to go back to work, but I would often get sucked into the “internet vortex.” You know that place, where one article links to another, which links to another, and before you know it you are eagerly reading articles about who would win in a fight, a tiger or a lion (most experts agree that the tiger would win).

When it was time to get back to work, I felt less energized, not more. Clearly, my breaks weren’t working.

The speaker then went on to talk about how, for her, doing the dishes is on of the best “break activities” that she does. While no one would consider doing the dishes to be leisure, it was excellent for mental recharge.

This stood out to me, because this year, in an attempt to keep a cleaner apartment, I have taken to doing short bursts of household chores during my breaks. I did find that when I spent one of my breaks doing dishes that:

1. My breaks were shorter (a ten minute break was pretty close to ten minutes)
2. I felt much more prepared and recharged to get back to work

Before listening to the program I assumed that these two things were happening because of an overall internal motivation I had developed for 2011. After hearing the program, I suspected that it was the activity itself that made the difference.

This was a fairly big paradigm shift for me; leisure doesn’t equal recharge!

If leisure doesn’t lead to recharge, then what does? To quote the presenter: “Mental recharge activities are usually repetitive, manual, productive, not something you’d ever get paid for, and usually everyday activities.”

Wow. That completely changed my approach to how I take breaks during the day.

For the longest time (most of my life, frankly) I had assumed that to truly “recharge” I needed to zone out and do something mindless and leisurely, like watching TV or surfing to some of my favorite websites. Turns out, that wasn’t helping at all.

I now spend more of my breaks away from the computer, doing physical things (things I would normally consider “boring,” like doing the dishes).

Take a look at your own day and the ways in which you take breaks or attempt to “recharge.” It’s quite possible that not only are you not recharging, but you may even be lowering your productivity with the very things you think are helping!

Based on the speaker’s advice and my own experience, here are some tactical things to think about to help you create breaks that energize you and help you get more done in less time every day:

• Get away from the computer. If you, like so many people, spend most of your day in front of a computer, take your break completely away from the screen. Of course, if you don’t spend your day in front of a screen, then you need to break out of whatever environment you are regularly in. Shift environments to give your mind a chance to recharge.
• Take regular, frequent, breaks. Fifty minutes of work followed by a ten minute break works well for me. Or, take a break when you are about to switch from one task to the next. Or, if you managed to work in a flow stat, once you come out of it, take a break.  Your exact frequency will depend on your work, environment, and supervisor.
• Test and analyze. There is no one universal activity that will be the perfect break for everyone. Try a variety of things and observe which ones leave you the most recharged to get back to work.
• Think recharge, not leisure. Redefine both
  1. What you traditionally think of as a break
  2. What the goal of your break is.

  The goal is not to just “get away from your work,” but rather to be able to return to your work with greater focus and energy. That simple reframe may make all the difference in the types of activities you engage in on your break time.

If you are reading this and don’t work from home, you may be thinking, “hey that’s great for you, but I can’t just get up to wash some dishes in the middle of the day! I work in an office, and I have a boss who watches what I do!”

Fair enough. But here are some things you can try:

• Take a short walk. Outside, around the office, up and down the stairs, wherever. While you may be tempted to walk with others, I would propose that you would get more mental recharge walking alone for ten minutes.
• Stretch. If you have an office, use the floor. If not, do some stretching in your chair. Just turn away from the computer screen so you’re not tempted to stay engaged to your work. Not only will you recharge your mind, but your lower back will thank you.
• Knit. Not my thing, but I know some people love it and find it very relaxing. You might be to do it at your desk for a few minutes with no one noticing.
• Read. This doesn’t have the physical aspect to it, but I find that moving away from my computer and reading something unrelated for ten minutes is a nice way to refocus.
• Clean. If you keep your desk at all like I did in my corporate days, it could probably use regular cleaning, organizing, and de-cluttering. No one should begrudge you for spending a few minutes straightening up.
• Volunteer. No, I am not suggesting you make “volunteering” an activity you do every break. However, many larger organizations have committees that are always looking for help. Join one of those, and you might be able to do mindless committee work during your work day.

Most importantly, find something that works for you. Try different things, and see which ones leave you the most energized to get back to work. You may be very surprised – the things you always considered “obvious” break activities (talking to a co-worker, playing Solitaire or Bejeweled, surfing the net, etc.) may be the things that recharge you the least!

The simplest test is to ask yourself, “After this break, how do I feel?” If the answer is, “great, and ready to get back to work,” then you’ve found yourself a keeper. If not, then you may want to keep looking.

Remember, the point of a break is not to “take a break,” the goal is to recharge you to do more and better work!

Share Your Ideas: What are your favorite break activities that truly recharge you? Share in the comments below!

About

By Avish Parashar. As the world's only Motivational Improviser, Avish uses techniques from the world of improv comedy to engage, entertain, and educate audiences on ideas around change, creativity, and motivation. Connect with Avish on Google+

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