I hate job hunting. Ever notice that when most roles are on the job hunt, all they really have to do is have a resume and cover letter ready and start applying, but as a designer... we have to have a full diverse portfolio put together, work on our personal branding, have a resume, plus prep for white boarding sessions, have a long-form case study ready to present, engage in a home test for some roles, and just be perfect through the whole thing? I've learned through the years that it's a stamina game, and if you want to keep your energy up you've got to be a pro at well-timed, distracting, and healthy breaks from time to time.
Take it from someone who had painful ulcers in my 20's and a bunch of anxiety-related issues to boot. Nobody is invincible and your mental health is paramount above all other things. I'm pretty sure Superman got some super gut problems from balancing the tights and his job all the time. It wasn't until recent years that I've adopted the mantra of "Me First" and it's done amazing things for my work and the people around me at work. It has a halo effect!
So here's a couple of ways that I've personally benefitted on my tiny breaks while I worked on case studies, rewrote my interview questions, and etc.
Whether it be some hardcore PC or console gaming for true gamers like me, or just some sudoku on my phone, games kept my critical thinking brain cells sharp and successfully distracted me. The only downside would be that games would sometimes add a little more stress onto the pile if I started losing or got stuck on a puzzle.
Leave an instrument of your choosing at arm's length next to your desk - If you're like me and you love the guitar, there are some great small-sized travel guitars in the market, or learn the ukulele! It's a pretty easy transition. Music soothes the soul and can give you a good reset when you need to clean the creative palette. This one goes well with doing a little shimmy or dance break if you're a weirdo like me.
This one would normally be hard to enforce for me, but I've found some hacks to ensure I take breaks outside. First, I schedule phone calls with a friend who's also in need of taking mental health breaks in his day. Second, I've learned that aerobic exercise (especially walking) burns a ton of calories, especially if I get at least 10k steps in per day. Lastly, I have a very demanding dog who is a shepherding working dog (Aussie Cattledog) that needs a ton of walks. Great for my mind and for my waistline! I particularly love going places where there's a lot of sky and water (lakes, beaches, rivers) and I tend not to look at my phone. Let your mind get bored a little bit!
The secret to looking forward to snack time is to have the best snacks - I'm very partial to Korean snacks 'cuz they just have the best umami selection and ME LOVE UMAMI (in my mind, I'm saying this in a cookie monster voice). Trying to keep my kitchen well-stocked with honey butter cashews and squid nut chips (ojingeo ddangkong) is a challenge because I nomnom it so fast. Yes, I realize those sound nasty, but don't knock it until you try it. Shoutout to HMart.
Affirmations, smooches, hugs - I come out of my office some parts of the day to give smooches to my partner and my pup. Both of them give me the same side-eye annoyed look when I do it, but it totally works with giving you a nice change of tone from looking at applications all day.
I'm learning ASL (American Sign Language) and it's perfect, because I can learn a new word on a short break. My favorite word right now is "nice." In sign, you put one palm on top of the other and slide it away from your body. It's just conceptually perfect for the word. I love the visual aspect of ASL - there are some great lessons on Youtube and Udemy!
There are some perfect workouts during breaks and it totally gets your blood flowing. If you're like me and you're just time poor, the three best workouts I'd recommend are burpees (you get a full body workout), core (trust me, this will help when you're sitting at a desk all day), and just good old fashioned walking (aerobics for burning those calories).
