Is It Crucial to Take Breaks at the Ready?

4min Snip

00:00

Play full episode

Summary

Transcript

Episode notes

Working at the ready is particularly draining work. Most people need a break once a quarter when they go to strategy meetings or their off sight, and they're like, oh, so tiring. I think that there's like, what's good for the goose, and then what'sgood for the gander. For the individual, figuring out an actual rhythm, i don't think it necessarily has to be pre planned down to the day,. But i think having some kind of a rhythm, or an expectaion of a rhythm is probably a good thing.

Taking a break from work can look 1,000 different ways: You could learn how to make homemade pasta; you could visit five new countries; you could spend sunup to sundown swinging in a hammock. What constitutes a break should fit your specific context and needs. And in this way, taking a true, you-shaped vacation—for a week, a month, or even longer—dips into org design knowledge and territory.

In this episode of Brave New Work, Aaron Dignan and Rodney Evans reflect on their recent breaks and what they learned, including:

The signs and signals that tell us when it’s time to take a break
Why breaks are important and how they contribute to system-wide resilience
How taking time off in a self-managing system can look and feel different than in a more traditional one
Parsing the key differences between a break, a trip, and a vacation
How to think about and reimagine the OS of your next vacation

Mentioned references: