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Could Pausing For Five Minutes Make A Difference To Your Stress Levels?

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Could five minutes a day pressing pause make a difference to your stress levels?

I’ve started to notice that it’s not that we are not given moments of calm throughout our day, it’s that we don’t always take them when they’re offered.

In a five-minute lull between tasks, instead of giving ourselves, and our mind, a quick breather, many of us jump to fill that space with a non-essential digital task.

We argue that we’re stressed, overworked and overloaded. But perhaps we need to take a look at how we voluntarily choose to spend the little pockets of time we get given.

By adding in another digital task, rather than taking the opportunity to pause, we’re often adding to the stress we feel.

Rather than leaving a minute or two of ‘nothing’ we seem determined to push right to the edges and fill every available second with information processing.

If this is a typical behaviour for you, see how it feels if instead you leave a tiny bit of space.

Start to notice how you spend the five-minute breaks during your day. Do you immediately check social media or your phone? Do you do this automatically, without even thinking about it?

One reason we turn to digital distractions is that we’ve formed extremely strong habits of checking, checking, and checking again. These are hard to break.

It can feel uncomfortable to sit doing what seems like nothing instead. But by giving ourselves even a few minutes of down time, we can achieve a greater overall sense of calm. It also helps us consolidate our thoughts about what we’ve just done, and leaves space for ideas.

Pausing can help us prioritise, as opposed to just charging ahead or getting caught up dealing with other people’s demands.

So next time you come across a lull in your day, why not consider it an opportunity to re-focus?

Stop, breathe, and decide where you want to place your attention next.

Be aware of what is pulling at your attention.

Be aware of any distractions that are tempting you. What does it feel like if you resist these for five minutes? Does it get easier with time?

In my book, The Distraction Trap, I outline a detailed nine-step programme on how to focus in a digital world with practical advice on how to develop these strategies.

Certainly, we should expect that there will be competing demands for our attention.

And to deal with this we need to consciously develop our skills of mental focus, so we can continue to stay productive in the digital world.

Five minutes is not a long time – almost all of us can find this each day.

However, if we use it well, five minutes here and five minutes there can be just long enough to keep us calm and productive all day.

Frances Booth is author of The Distraction Trap: How to Focus in a Digital World. To get your free first chapter of The Distraction Trap, and for more productivity tips, join her mailing list here