Why You Should Take a Mental Health Day Off to Boost Your Productivity
Time off is a need. |Photo by Drew Coffman on Unsplash
Hard work is rewarded. It’s been that way for decades and isn’t likely to change anytime soon. That being said, it’s essential that you also pay attention to your own health if you want to sustain your productivity over a long period of time.
While it can be tempting to stay late at the office every single day to try and impress your boss, you won’t be impressing anyone if you regularly have to take sick days when your mental health plummets due to the overworking. In fact, two-thirds of employees experience burnout.
Taking a day off to unwind every now and then is the smartest choice in the long run. You might feel guilty initially, but you’ll see it pay off soon enough. Let’s get into some of the reasons why you should take a day off.
1. Motivation
You’re only human. You can’t expect yourself to stay fully motivated if you never take a break. This is especially true for long projects that will take multiple days to finish. Sure, you might be able to plow through one blog post in a single sitting, but can you do that repeatedly?
If you’re like most people, probably not. At least not without breaking down after a few days and being subsequently slower with any succeeding tasks. We’ve all had those mornings where we feel like we can take on the world, but we need to pace ourselves for the greater good.
Trying to binge all of your work in one sitting without taking a single break may make you feel accomplished at first, but it’ll be very detrimental to your overall productivity, especially over time, day in and day out. Days off are the perfect chance to sustain and even increase your motivation by allowing yourself a break and resting back up, so you can keep on keeping on.
Many wait until they feel burnt out before they take a break. While taking a day off can cure your burnout, it will take a while. That’s why we suggest that you dedicate some time to mental health before you’ve already dug yourself into a deep pit of cognitive exhaustion.
2. Creative Reboot
Beyond being spent in the cognitive sense, you can also burn out creatively if you don’t take enough time off and constantly work yourself like a robot. Whether you’re a writer, graphic designer, or animator, it’s important that you treat your inspiration like a baby.
Inspiration is precious and fragile. If you spend all your days inside the office or at home then how do you expect to get the creative juices flowing whenever a task is assigned to you? Some of the greatest writers and painters would spend a whole day just walking through a forest.
What some workaholics today might call a waste of time was actually their way of drawing inspiration from their environment so that they could continue doing what they do best and produce more pieces that they’re actually proud of.
If you’re stuck on a certain part of your project then that’s also a prime time for you to take some time off. You’ll be able to come back refreshed with a new perspective and have that eureka breakthrough that you’ve been waiting for.
3. Sharpened Memory
Cognition, creativity, what are we missing… of course! Memory! While memory isn’t as important as the aforementioned two in the present moment, it’s something that future you will need to rely on if they hope to perform well in the business world.
If you slave away at your desk every hour, of every day, of every week, of every month and so on then your retention rate for long-term memories will be awful. This might not seem like such a big issue at first since you can just Google the information again.
However, what happens when your boss asks you for some statistics on an ongoing campaign in the middle of a meeting with executives? You clearly can’t look the information up while the board waits, so you’ll need to rely on your recall to find the information stored in your brain.
This won’t be a problem for those who take enough time off work to preserve their memories, but those who practically live in their office will likely fail to find the figures. Rather than appreciating all the hard work, your boss might be left with a less than favorable impression.
A day off goes a long way. |Photo by Aki Tolentino on Unsplash
4. Increased Focus
Humanity is our greatest virtue, but it also sets certain limits on us. We aren’t robots that can stay focused on a task for an infinite amount of time and maintain the same level of productivity. In fact, the human attention span is quite limited, and this has turned into a running joke online.
All humor aside, taking a day off from work to do things you enjoy and dedicate time to your hobbies will help you focus once you get back into the office. This is because your mind won’t be wandering off thinking about the places you’d rather be.
If you keep your needs fulfilled by watching the occasional movie, going to a concert, or even just spending time with loved ones then you’ll be better able to focus on the task at hand during your workdays.
One study even proved from a clinical standpoint that diversions can help you focus more. This may go against the mindset that staring at a single task for hours on end is the true meaning of focus, but you can’t really argue with the data and experts on this one.
5. Physical Health
The first four reasons listed in this article covered the psychological benefits of taking a day off — as it should seeing as this article is centered around mental health days. Still, it’s important to put an equal emphasis on your physical health.
Some people tend to think of psychical and mental health as two isolated bubbles that operate independently of one another. The fact is that they actually influence each other quite often. Your physical and mental wellbeing are linked, so you need to focus on both of them.
Needless to say, employees who haven’t taken a day off in years likely aren’t getting enough exercise to maintain a healthy lifestyle. Sedentary lifestyles will increase your odds of developing conditions such as obesity, diabetes, and heart disease, not to mention depression.
If your reasons for overworking yourself are financial then we understand. Everyone has goals that they want to hit, but you won’t be hitting any of those goals if you’re emptying your wallet on medical bills and eventually end up too debilitated to live out your dreams.
Ready to Take Time Off?
As you can see, there are many key benefits that you stand to reap by taking a mental health day off every once in a while. Whether it’s the physical or psychological aspects that you’re concerned about, don’t be afraid to spend some time on yourself.
After all, there’ll always be more money in the world, more tasks to finish, and more deadlines to keep up with — but time is the one resource that we can never make more of. So don’t waste it on areas of life that don’t really matter in the grand scheme of things.
Guest writer Jake Lizarraga is a content writer who reviews software for the Chanty blog. The combination of humor and conciseness makes every piece of his a fun read. When he isn't writing, Jake loves watching movies, practicing Muay Thai, and geeking out about the fact that Melissa Benoist now speaks Russian on CW's Supergirl.