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An area I didn’t think I would have to worry about when I first started my remote working journey was the number of breaks I needed to take. Whilst working from home is way more productive than working in an office you usually take a lot less time away from work.
When working from home you should take short frequent breaks. You should aim for 5-10 minutes away from your desk after every hour. This is especially true if you work in front of screens all day which can be further damaging to your health.
So is this true for every job type? And are there any specific techniques to ensure you stick to taking breaks? Keep reading to find out more.
(Just a heads up a lot of people reading my blog are in the process of designing their own home office. If you want to save some of the painstaking time I did in designing my office, you can find my recommended products here)
How many breaks should you take when working from home?
The grind, the hustle, the 9-5 (or more if some social media influencers are to be believed).
We are currently living in a new age of work, where it almost seems like the more you work, the harder and more productive you are.
Log on to LinkedIn, Instagram or catch any motivational video on YouTube and you’ll find tons of content on the art of the hustle, and for a lot of good reason. In today’s day and age with the workplace changing so much it’s very easy to become complacent. I’m very much a fan of Gary Vanuerchuck and others like him who promote the idea of hard work that pays off.
That being said there is an underlying pressure of working 12 hours a day, not taking breaks and just generally burning yourself out.
Heck even CEO’s of multinational organisations have trouble with this. Arrianna Huffington called out Elon Musk to find a better work life balance.
With the massive advent of working from home and remote working, it’s so easy to let breaks slide as you try to be as productive as possible, almost overcompensating for not being in a shared office environment (I’m super guilty of this!)
It’s not just me, according to this study 20% of Americans feel their bosses won’t think they are hard working if they regularly take their lunch break.
So what is the right amount of break to take when you work from home?
According to the Health and safety regulation act of 1992 breaks should be regularly taken…. Okay great what does this mean?
Guidelines from the Health and Safety Executive of Northern Ireland (HSENI) stipulate that you should take a 5- 10 minute break every hour away from your desk when staring at a screen.
This tends to work much better then taking a longer break after 3 hours of screen time.
To help explain more I’ve made a table:
| Time allowed for a lunch break | 20 minutes allowed for every 6 hours work |
| Time allowed for daily rest between work | 11 consecutive hours of rest in between shifts when working |
| Best time to take breaks at work | 10 minutes every hour |
How to take your lunch break when working from home?
Okay, so we’ve talked about taking general rest breaks but what about your lunch break? Are you still entitled to this when you work from home from your employer? What about if you’re self-employed? What do the rules state then?
Generally speaking roles in the UK are entitled to a minimum of 20 minutes break if they work more than 6 hours per day.
It’s worth mentioning that this is not legal advice. This advice also might not apply to everyone who works remotely such as emergency workers or care staff.
Daily rest
According to the HSE, if you work remotely for an employer, you are entitled to a rest period of 11 consecutive hours in a 24 hour period when working.
According to Forbes employees who take their lunch breaks are happier and thus more productive.
Does this advice apply to every role?
One of the things about working from home, is that it applies nowadays to almost every desk job in an office. Heck, even day traders can work from home despite them not wanting to leave their screens.
Whilst the daily rest guidelines are advisable in the UK (sorry my global friends) this might not be specific to every role. For example, there are a lot of doctors who work remotely.
It’s worth mentioning if you are working from home whilst being employed by someone else, please do check your current policy.
How to take breaks
So now you know what the general policy is about taking breaks, let’s talk about how to do this.
Simply put you could just manually do it, using your own intuition to take breaks when you need to but my advice would be to use something called the Pomodoro technique
The Pomodoro technique
The pomodoro technique is a method of work that effectively uses breaks to help break up your day. The idea is that you work in 90-minute cycles. At the end of every 25 minutes you take a 5 minute break which helps recharge your brain. At the end of the 90 minutes you then take a 30 minute break which helps you stay focused throughout the day.
What’s great about the Pomodoro technique is that it also falls under the HSE Guidelines of taking small breaks throughout the day. Win-win!
Schedule your day
Another great way to not only factor in breaks but to balance your workload is to schedule your tasks for the day.
Using something as simple as Google Calendar really helps break out your day into more manageable chunks, by doing this you can put the tasks you don’t want to do near the start of the day.
I would recommend reading Eat that Frog by Brian Tracy which talks all about how to improve your own productivity.
Dr Travis Bradberry also has a great article talking all about scheduling your day that I also consider worth reading.
Journal
Again another great thing for taking breaks when working from home is to journal, write down 3 things you want to achieve at the start of everyday and on your break reflect if you are on track to completing them.
Go outdoors
Anyone who has been stuck inside for any period of time knows the massive amounts of benefits walking outside and getting some exercise during the day can have not only on the body but on the mind.
I mean, remember when you were a kid and you would have breaks/recess for significant periods of time? There was a reason why getting outdoors and getting some fresh air in.
According to a study by the University Of Minnesota can greatly improve your wellbeing. By making sure you get some air in means you will come back in fresh and ready to go.
Do your chores
One of the massive benefits of remote working/working from home is you can use your breaks to be even more productive.
Don’t want to cook after work? Now you don’t have to, whip something up in your break.
Is your apartment looking like it’s in need of a clean? get out your rubber gloves and give your dishes a 20 minute clean.
You’ll tend to find that you will come back with a renewed focus on your next task at hand whilst also also taking care of some of your daily chores.
What are the benefits of taking breaks when working
So what exactly are the benefits of taking breaks when working.
According to this study taking regular breaks:
- Decrease back pain and mental fatigue
- Help maintain motivation
- Keeps you focused throughout the day
- Improve wellbeing
- Improve creativity
- Help build healthy habits
Closing statements
All in all taking breaks is vital, especially if you don’t get out and are staring in front of your screen all day.
The best way to do this is by taking smaller breaks, every hour, to maximise your focus and enable you to build strong habits.
Finally a lot of people reading my blog want to know what products I recommend for a home office/remote working. You can find out my recommendations here and learn how I make money whilst working remotely on the side here.
How have you found building in breaks when working? How do you do this when working from home?
Leave a comment below and let me know your thoughts!
Fehed.
Additional resources
A lot of the information has used UK and Irish law with regards to breaks, for my friends in the US please do look at the US employment and labour law which should help shed some insight.
If working from home is new to you and your worried about your lack of experience, check out this post on how much experience you need to work remotely.
The content on this on this site has been written by Fehed Nicass who has over a decades worth of experience in sales and has worked remotely for the past 2 years.
