Break free during office breaks!

There is more you can do during office breaks than playing Solitaire on your computer or bitching about bosses. Here are some effective utilisation of freetime while you are in office...

Ever wondered how you can utilise breaks during office hours to work for you and not against you? You can make the most of your office breaks if you plan to do something more meaningful than playing games on your computer or just going for a fag or a tea break. Listening to music, eyeing beautiful company or touching make-up in rest rooms are other options, how about looking for a match online or hunting for a good gym?

Breaks during office hours are necessary to beat stress and deal with work pressure. Some organisations provide recreation facilities for employees that include indoor games, meditation, gymnasium, cultural fests, inter-department competitions etc. If you don’t have these facilities for effective utilisation of office breaks try any of these:

Use office breaks to increase productivity:

Get organised: Clean up your desk, plan ahead, put on your thinking cap - be a poet or just jot down tasks on your to-do list. Clean up the inbox on your mobile phone; organise e-mails in specific folders. Make important telephone calls before it’s too late. Plan your weekend. Your free-time can work for you when you are actually not working.

Exercise: At work, if you are glued to your seat for hours either you are over possessive about your ‘wheel-chair’ or you prefer to be called a lazy bum. Regular breaks to stand and walk are important. To relieve muscular tension, try doing a new dance step (in rest rooms if not your boss’ cabin) or share a joke to laugh till your sides ache, it may help in toning down your abdominal muscles. Meditation is another good thing to do while you are at work. If you don’t meditate atleast you can pretend to. Stretch, bend, stroll, jog or go for a ball!

Be in touch with the world:
Spare 10 minutes from your lunch time to visit news website. Be in touch with the latest events and happenings, this helps in raising your intelligence quotient. You can also start a conversation with your associates about the new additions to the city – be it a new lifestyle stores, new flyover, new hair salon, a forthcoming flick or the new colleague with killer looks. Know what’s happening around you, it helps.

Use the net to increase your net worth:
Check e-mails, chat, build contacts, search for important information; how else can you put the internet to use in your free time? Well, look for the recipe for ‘Mushroom Sphagetti’, search for exercise positions for back ache, shop from the e-stores, look for dressing tips, meditation tips, etc. What else? You can download your favourite song, pay your electricity or mobile bills online, hunt for a bank branch near you or know about the unique features of the Nokia phone you always wanted to buy!

If none of these interests you and you are still looking for options to utilise office breaks, better get on with the job that needs to be done. There’s no hope for you! It’s time to get back to work. What say?