Latest / Health Tech & Wellness Podcast / Too Busy to Take a Break? Try This Instead (The Power of Micro-Breaks)
Transcript
- John Adams: Welcome back to another week of the Health Tech and Wellness Podcast. I'm John Adams. Crystal Nevedale: And I'm Crystal Novidale. John Adams: And today we want to talk about micro breaks. And Crystal, ⁓ we were talking before this, but you know, this one actually feels very appropriate for my life right now because I've just been extremely busy and busy in a good way. One of the things that probably I need to stop doing that would probably help the most, ⁓ is just burning the candle at both ends. I need to start taking little micro breaks. I need to take a big break, but I can't do that right now. ⁓ so Crystal, let me ask you before I really start ⁓ down a tangent. ⁓ when you have those days where it just feels like everything's coming at you at once. You know, we get it, it's great, things are going amazing. But are you actually good at like stopping for a few minutes and just breathing, taking a break, like giving yourself that pump the brakes moment? Crystal Nevedale: So I used to be really good at it. Like I used to take the moments and just take ten deep breaths, push myself away from my work table, like just connect for a minute. And now this year has been the busiest year in business for me. ⁓ I've worked seven days a week. So it's it's been very hard to just stop. But I'll tell you not to bring Emily into the conversation, but Just like yesterday, everything was like piling up, the kids, work, all these other things that we need to do. And I was kind of short with her and she was drilling glass to help me get caught up. I was kind of short with her. She didn't say anything. She I was up front dealing with customers. She packed everything up, put everything away nice and neat, and left. And I was like, Well, I think she might tell me I need to take a break. So I called her and I said, Hey, let's, you know. John Adams: Yeah, yeah. Crystal Nevedale: Go do X, Y, and Z. And she says, Are you sure you would like my company? I said, Yes. I said I'm just overwhelmed. There's like everybody's coming from different angles needing different things for me and I'm just not taking the time to breathe. So yes, I've been g not as good as used I used to be for sure. But I'm on the way of fixing that too. John Adams: But the good thing is you recognize that, right? So so that's huge because sometimes I don't. Like I try, ⁓ but there's times when I'll be short with Cindy or something and and I just, you know, I don't recognize it, you know, because I'm just in the flow and I'm just trying to get things through, right? And you gotta take those moments and you gotta, you know, and that recognition or recognition that you had, that's Crystal Nevedale: ⁓ yeah, absolutely. John Adams: something I need ⁓ a lot of, we'll just say. ⁓ but recently in my life, you know, things are going amazing. This is exactly what I've been wanting, right? ⁓ but now I have to take my own advice and figure out where that balance is now. ⁓ because I went from zero to a thousand, you know, where normally your small climb, I have a feeling Crystal Nevedale: Right. John Adams: That it's gonna slow down quite a bit after we get through this initial build build for my current client, but I'm gonna ride this wave, right? So I just gotta find that balance. ⁓ but what I here's what I think happens when we get that way, right? When somebody says that you need to take a break, we all picture, like you said, you know, let's go do something. let's take the afternoon off. ⁓ I'm gonna go somewhere, you know, extravagant. I'm gonna take a vacation, you know, I'm gonna spend hours. Doing something for myself. And a lot of times, because we don't actually have the time to do that, we just don't do anything, right? And I'm guilty of that more than anything. You know, Cindy will say, Well, let's go, you know, do this. And I'm like, well, I gotta get this done for him. And da da da da. Well, it doesn't have to be this big elaborate, like, go do just take a few seconds and walk away from what you're doing at that moment, whether you're you're working with You know, building your stuff, or you know, you've had a really hectic day in the store and you got all these client or ⁓ customers in, you get two seconds, instead of going right back to drilling glass or putting things together, just step outside for a second, you know, feel the air, take a breath, you know. ⁓ but we always feel like we're gonna be behind if we do that, right? ⁓ and I've been really guilty of that. Crystal Nevedale: Yeah, I was ⁓ listening to a interview really quick ⁓ with Steve Jobs and he was saying how he separates his day in like little tiny increments because that break in between makes those little pockets of work way more productive because the overwhelm isn't there anymore. So I mean I tried to practice that in the past for sure, but definitely fell off that wagon. John Adams: ⁓ good. Yeah. Yeah. So an old interview then with him, 'cause he's gone. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Crystal Nevedale: ⁓ super old. It was like in the beginning. It was talking about like ⁓ you know, s separating your work day into like two or three parts and and making it more productive. John Adams: Yeah. Yeah, I actually that's kind of funny. I just watched ⁓ the movie with Ashton Kutcher where he played Steve Jobs yesterday. ⁓ I took a little break and ⁓ I said, I need I need something. And that was kind of the the perfect thing because he was that, you know, overbearing, overwhelming kind of like this is how it needs to go, you know, and and you know, he didn't even when his daughter was born, Lisa, he didn't even you know, want anything to do with the kid. He's like, This is gonna ruin my life. And then towards the end of his you know, not end of his life, but, you know, later in his life he realized that, Okay, you know what? I'm a D bag. Let me let me fix this. You know, and he he fixed his relationship with his daughter. He he ⁓ Crystal Nevedale: Right. John Adams: I think actually she's kind of the reason why the the iPod, the original iPod even existed, because she was like listening to her Walkman and man, it'd be nice if you know you could and he's like, ⁓ wait a minute, you know. So, ⁓ we could learn from so many different places and people. And ⁓ that's kind of funny that you were listening to an old recording from him and I watched that video yesterday. So maybe this was this is kindred here. ⁓ Crystal Nevedale: Right. Yeah. John Adams: But here's the thing, we're not talking about fixing our entire lives. We're not talking about fixing our entire days, right? We're talking about interrupting those long moments of just burning the candle at both ends. You know, taking two minutes, three minutes. May if you got five minutes, take it, right? but do you feel and I and we've kind of touched on this, but do you feel that we sometimes we kind of make taking care of ourselves harder because we think that it has to be all or nothing. That's the whole, you know, Living 95 philosophies. It doesn't have to be all or nothing. It needs to be all or something. But do you feel that you catch yourself doing that sometimes that, you know, ⁓ you know what, I can't right now because I just don't have the time to put into that. So if I don't have all the time to put into it, I'm not even going to worry about it Crystal Nevedale: Yeah, I'm definitely that person. I really I I try not to be, but it's it's hard to balance that. John Adams: It is. And and I think having these conversations where we can, you know, let our listeners know that, you know, we're all in this together. We all have those. I gotta put my stuff on do not disturb, I forgot. ⁓ because I've got messages coming through already. ⁓ at seven forty AM. ⁓ but ⁓ yeah, we we all need to hear that you know, we we listen to these podcasts, right? We listen to, you know, people listen to us. ⁓ Listen to, you know, all these people that we kind of respect and we're like, man, they've got it all together, but none of us really do, right? We yeah, yeah. And I don't care if you know who you are, you know, what podcast you're listening to, there's growth continual, right? And they didn't, and let's just say they're doing amazing. They didn't start there, right? So we all need to just understand that. Crystal Nevedale: Well, we're all learning. John Adams: Even when things look amazing, when things are going exactly the way you want it to go, you're having a great busy summer with your shop. My my business is taking off. That we still need to stop and go, okay, what got me here? What did I how did I get here? I got here because I did the right things to get here. I built slowly. I used balance. And don't forget that, right? Because then that's just gonna push you back to where you were before and you're not gonna it's not gonna be a great thing. So let's start simple, right? ⁓ first off, this is almost gonna sound way too simple, but sometimes we just need to breathe. And and I know we've talked about breathing exercise. I'm not even talking that. I'm just saying sometimes in in just stepping away and just take a breath. You know, if you want to get into like the psychological sigh or whatever, you know, you can definitely do that. The this almost gonna sound way too simple, but sometimes we just need to breathe. And and I know we've talked about breathing exercise. I'm not even talking that. I'm just saying sometimes in in just stepping away and just take a breath. You know, if you want to get into like the psychological sigh or ⁓ whatever, you know, you can definitely do that. ⁓ You could do that, okay? But I'm not talking any of that. I'm just talking about stop for a second and just breathe. give yourself a moment ⁓ to away. You could do that, okay? But I'm not talking any of that. I'm just talking about stop for a second and just breathe. You know, give yourself a moment to step away. You admitted, you know, you got a little short with Emily. That moment of just stepping away and just maybe you don't, right? ⁓ I get short with Cindy. Same thing, right? So taking that moment to just breathe. If if you need those. Breathing exercises, if you need that special stuff, sure. You know, you can do multiple different breathing exercises and you can go on YouTube and find a ton of them. But I'm just talking, take a moment, step away. Crystal Nevedale: I think this goes back to that feeling of urgency of like that things need to be done when they don't really need to be done. And I feel like I just need a reminder sometimes. And honestly, that could be funny, but Emily is literally the human I needed. It's no joke. Like she is so calm and in and soft with her approach where I'm like, X, Y, and Z needs to be done, you know? And she's like, but does it? John Adams: Yeah. Crystal Nevedale: But does it? And I'm like, okay, you're right. It doesn't all have to be done right now. But I think that's like the mom in me, the nurse in me, the business owner in me. Like I feel like I always have to guide everything, but I don't. Sometimes letting go of the wheel and allowing other people to help me through life is what I need to allow now. John Adams: Well, let's let's ⁓ not to bring up something you you mentioned pre-recording, but you were talking about your experience yesterday ⁓ with the key being left behind for the motorcycle and you couldn't start it up, right? Because it's a key fob. And ⁓ maybe that moment was meant, right? You were gonna be rushing off to the beach, not to relax, but to look for glass, right? And I get it. That's relaxing for you. You enjoy it. I understand, but that still works. Crystal Nevedale: Right. Right. John Adams: But it gave you three hours to just chill. Like it was prickly g grass, but just yeah. So sometimes I think that things happen a lot of times I think things happen for a reason, right? And I think that those are moments that we don't take those moments. So sometimes I think that ⁓ the world gives us those moments, right? Crystal Nevedale: Yeah, we just laughed and laughed and laughed and laughed and I totally believe that, one hundred percent. We needed that quiet time and just time to connect without anything in the way of it, for sure. John Adams: So No, that's that that I think that you you gotta look at that glass half full moment and that was huge. And you know, it could have been very stressful. ⁓ we don't have a key, we gotta get this done. You could have been really frustrated, you could have been really overwhelmed, but instead of immediately freaking out, you just you just stopped and you laid on the prickly grass, right? You know, you just took that time, right? So those are those moments of intentional breath, right? Crystal Nevedale: Right. John Adams: And I'm not that's why I say it doesn't, I'm not talking about those, you know, moments. I'm just talking about those moments of intentional breath, those just slowing down moments. We need those, right? And we don't need an app to tell you how to do it. That was a great moment right there. ⁓ wait, why why won't the motorcycle start? Well, ⁓ well, we don't have the key five. We left it at home. Somebody's bringing it, right? So those are those moments that. Could have just been you could have been yelling at each other. How could you forget about it? But no, you just it went nice. And those are the times that we need sometimes. Here's another one. This is kind of one of those moments, especially for me. You know, we spend our entire day, or I do. You stare, you stare at a lot of customers, and you know, you're putting things together, but I sit here and I stare at my screen all day long, right? again. I'm loving this. This is what I've been trying to build. But there's something called that 2020-20. I don't know if you've ever heard of it. ⁓ but every 20 minutes, just look at something about 20 feet away for around 20 seconds to just get your eyes off of here. And when I say taking your eyes off of here and looking at something 20 feet away, the reason why the 20 feet away really, really, really matters because we don't want to take our eyes off of this screen and go. That doesn't help us, right? So again, this isn't everybody. Crystal Nevedale: Do you set a timer? Like that's a that's like a I so I've thought about doing that for every hour. Like every hour, like if I 'cause I'm never sitting for an hour, but if I was to like sit say that I was sitting here, there's no customers and I'm working, then I would need something to remind me. At at the shop I'm it's nonstop back and forth, back and forth. ⁓ but I feel like when I'm in a moment where an hour alarm would be great to just get up, walk from here, walk into the living room, walk around, come back and finish. But I feel like sometimes we do need those little reminders because we are focused. I mean, I don't know about you, but I get hyper focused sometimes. And I'm really into what I'm doing in any deviation from that. So but then sometimes if you do get up, you come back with better ideas. So John Adams: Yeah, so part of mine is is ADHD. You know, I get hyper, hyper, hyper focused. But then if I leave that, I already know my brain is gonna get red, shiny bald, and I'm gonna be off on something else, and I'm not gonna get to that. So my brain won't let me stop that. Because if I do, I I l Jay said that years ago. We call it the red shiny ball, right? That one just something distracted me. And now I'm onto that, hyper focused. And then this gets left behind. And that's what kind of ⁓ part of my issue. And I need to really work on that. And I think that I just need to set an alarm just to just get up and walk away and try my best not to get red, shiny bald, and pulled into a different direction and just know that I gotta come back. ⁓ but that's part of mine a hundred percent. I get so hyper focused and I I'm afraid that if I stop that that red shiny ball mom's gonna happen and I'm gonna be pulled in a different direction. That's part of ADHD. Crystal Nevedale: Yeah, when I'm cleaning my shop and stuff, I'll literally out loud say focus because I'll see something and I'll and I'll wanna make something out of it. I got the idea. I'm like, okay, let me make this real quick. But I'm like, no, Crystal, focus. What are we trying to accomplish? You know? But sometimes just say out loud, you're like, okay, okay, I get it. Supposed to be doing X, Y, and Z and not this. But I'm the same way exactly, John. Exactly. John Adams: Okay, exact. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Yeah, it's it's it's it's tough. And and I think that we all have a little bit of that. ⁓ for both of us it's it's even worse. ⁓ and and like you said, you know, you're not dealing with a screen all day, but you're still doing the same thing, right? And We're both guilty of that. You know, we we take that break that we're supposed to be intentionally helping ourselves that we we have to refocus ourselves because we ⁓ let me do this real quick. We turn our break into more work, I guess is what I'm getting at. So ⁓ so do you find yourself in and you you'd mentioned on the podcast with Kendall, ⁓ that you you intentionally this podcast has helped a lot with it. But do you find yourself, you know, the store finally empties out, and you're supposed to be kind of taking that break, but then you're scrolling through social media or the phone or whatever and you're not really getting that break. Crystal Nevedale: No, I'm I don't even have time for social media during the day. Usually sometimes I don't even get to post my work. Like I need to post like what I'm making on my business page just so could people can see that there's new stuff. And I don't know if you've realized, but I I post maybe once a week now in in my ⁓ business. And I'm trying to get better at it 'cause things are gonna get slower. So that's mandatory that I start doing that daily again because that's where I can get some business if there's nobody in the shop. So this is like like I ⁓ John Adams: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Crystal Nevedale: My my job is constantly switching gears of what I need to do to be successful all year long. It's never the same, you know? So right now I have plenty of time ⁓ to get everything organized, but eventually I'm gonna have to get on there and keep my business thriving. John Adams: I was just reminding myself that yesterday, ⁓ when I looked at my other YouTube channel, not this one that the podcast is on, but my media channel. And I'm like, Yeah, you know what? I've been so busy with the business, I forgot about what got me the business in the first place, and I can't let that fall away. So I gotta get on there and make some videos, you know. ⁓ because you don't know tomorrow what tomorrow brings. You know, I've got a big client right now, but he could. Be like, yeah, yeah, you know what, this is not gonna work the way I thought it was gonna work, and we part ways and now I'm back at square one again. ⁓ so the same thing with you, you know, your business is about to start slowing down. So the only thing that keeps you going during that time is having that stuff out there. So yeah, we've we've gotta constantly refocus ourselves and where things need to be. ⁓ even in those busy times, you know what I mean. We gotta. That's that's why I think taking those intentional breaks helps because then we can refocus on okay, what's important right now. We we're killing it, we're everything's going great, but we're letting other things fall to the wayside because we aren't taking those intentional times to refocus and take those breaks. Crystal Nevedale: I know I think what I'm gonna start doing too to be a little bit more mindful. I have been thinking about taking a yoga class like every week and just s get it on my schedule, period, the end I'm going no matter what. Because I feel like that when you're when you do yoga in the house, yes, it's perfect, it's great, but when you have to go outside of your home, you can't see the dust falls and the things that you need to do while you're trying to get yoga accomplished and be in your space. So, like for me. I think starting to retrain my brain to like slow down. I think yoga might be the answer that I need out of my home, not just in the living room. ⁓ but I've been thinking about that a lot. Like I need to really find a new way to focus. I need to stop. I'm going way too fast. And I'm like I'm in this speed right now. I'm working every day from six thirty in the morning to eight thirty. I take one hour off, then I go and I work until four o'clock in the afternoon. And it's like I've gotta scale back. I've gotta start getting myself back into order with my self care and it's not that I don't do any self care, but I'm definitely not doing enough right now to keep myself healthily managed. That makes any sense. John Adams: Yeah. Yeah, no, a hundred percent. Cause I'm I'm living it at this exact moment and and me and Cindy were just talking about it. You know, ⁓ when I stopped going to the gym and I bought a treadmill here and I got my workout equipment out in the garage, the routine of leaving the house, going to a physical location is there there's there's Power behind that because, like you said, you're at home, there's distractions, there's other things, there's this, there's what we both kind of you you live above your business, but we both kind of work from home, right? So there's always work distractions. There's this, there's that. And sometimes we just have to bring that back and understand, you know, what are those things? And this is where, you know, this is why Living 95 is what it is. What are those? What's the smallest version that I can do right now? Right now we're in the busy seasons of both of our lives. But what is the smallest thing, the smallest version of what I can do right now consistently, actually consistently? Maybe not an hour, maybe it's five minutes, but whatever. But what is that smallest thing that I we both can do right now to better our physical, mental, emotional selves? During the busy seasons of our lives. And that's kind of the whole purpose behind this conversation. Doesn't have to be perfect, it just has to be sustainable. Something small, right? So what's one for you, Crystal? ⁓ and you kind of mentioned a few of them, but you know, if you had to say right now, I'm gonna commit to this one thing, what's one micro break that you could realistically start doing without changing your entire day? Crystal Nevedale: Right. I could probably take like an extra like fifteen minutes and take the dog a walk and sit on the bench for a while. I was doing that for a while and I got away from it because I just felt like I couldn't get enough done in the mornings. ⁓ but I would love I think that that really started my day off on a different note. It was quiet. Yeah, I think that's probably something I really need to get back to. And it's gonna get start to get chilly, so it's gonna be kinda fun to be b bundled up and, you know, walked out of the beach with the wind and so I think that's what my thing will be. Just a fifteen minute walk first thing in the morning. John Adams: I think that's gonna be mine also. ⁓ because we were talking, you know, getting out of the house and actually walking. You know, you're like, okay, so it's summer, it's too hot. ⁓ it's winter, it's too cold. Well, you know what? We're getting into fall. This is the perfect time to start it. And then, like you said, you get to winter. Okay, you've already started it, the process is going. Now you're bundling up, everything's fine. ⁓ but right now for both of us, perfect time to get back out and just you know, 15 minutes, it doesn't have to be forever. Just get out, move, breathe. Crystal Nevedale: Right. John Adams: Take in the fresh air, get out of your store, get out of your little, you know, office building. Me get away from the screen. You know, 15 minutes, just go walk wherever, you know, you've got the beach right there. I can't really get that quickly to the to the lake, but you know, walk around the block. I there's a there's a ⁓ box or mix that I'm trying to convince Cindy. ⁓ I didn't think I wanted another dog, but this we went to the APL. ⁓ the other day we had some kittens that were abandoned by their mother and one of them had ⁓ disease in its eye and they were so little and we don't know anything about bottle feeding, you know, kittens or anything. So I said, let's go to, you know, Leary AP L and let's get these things some help. While we're there, there's a boxer mix that's there that literally is laying in the corner, and then I walk up and she comes up to the glass and does one of these. And the first thing I heard in my head is that Sarah McLaughlin song. so I I told Cindy, I said that there's my excuse. Get out, walk the dog around the block, you know. ⁓ so I don't know. I we probably won't because I don't need a dog, but ⁓ that was such a nice dog. ⁓ Crystal Nevedale: What the it might be listen, I met this guy in my shop the day the other day. He was eighty four years old, John, and I'm not joking you when I tell you he looked like he was sixty five. I You're eighty what? I said, What is your trick? He says, I take my dog a walk twice a day. That's my trick. I said, Well, I'm getting a whole herd of dogs. John Adams: well you got Emily's dog. Actually, Emily Emily's dog, I'll have to send you a picture of my client Eric's dog. ⁓ it's a ⁓ former military dog, but it looks just like Emily's dog. I mean, they could be sisters or brothers or whatever, but ⁓ Crystal Nevedale: Yeah, he's like he's fun to walk sometimes, but he's he's really well trained for her, but he still likes to push it and see what he can get away with me. So it's sometimes he's walking me instead of me walking him. Yeah. ⁓ for sure. John Adams: Yeah. She she's the alpha. Yeah. Yeah. That's funny. ⁓ so let's let's wrap this one up this week. ⁓ what I'd like, here's our challenge for this week for anybody listening. ⁓ we don't want you to overhaul your life, right? We don't want you to create another wellness checklist. We're not asking you to, you know, rewrite anything. We're just asking you to take one moment of your day where you normally would. push through and say, I gotta go, right? And and I get it, we're always saying, you know, push, but now I'm just saying, okay, if you're in that busy season and and you're realizing that your personal ⁓ care is slipping because of that, just take one moment, one intentional moment and stop for a couple of minutes instead. Breathe if you're sitting in front of a computer, look away from your screen. If you're sitting in a back office building and working with customers all day, go for go outside and do a walk. But don't do nothing. And when I say don't do nothing, don't continue to do exactly what you're doing because you're gonna burn yourself out. And you're gonna find that the thing that you've been striving your most to have, the thing that's been the driving force of your life, is gonna become that thing that also is the detriment, right? So we gotta find that balance. We gotta live in that 95. We gotta understand that. During those times, we still have to find that small moment to take care of ourselves because yes, when that slows back down, we have all that time. But what damage have we done during the time when we didn't take care of ourselves? So find that small moment, find that 5%, get out and just do something. Sometimes it means giving yourself permission just to stop. Sit down, close your eyes, just take five minutes. And if you're afraid, okay, well, I'm gonna close I'm gonna fall asleep and I'm not gonna set an alarm. Set a five-minute alarm. Just sit down, put your head back, close your eyes, take five minutes for yourself, for your loved ones, for everybody. So you're not snapping, so you're not doing things you shouldn't, and so your blood pressure comes back down. So everything feels normal again. So this week, everybody, we just want you to take that five minutes, whatever that is, if it's three. But just take that moment away and just breathe. So as always, stay healthy. Crystal Nevedale: Stay Balanced John Adams: And keep driving forward. We'll see you next time. Crystal Nevedale: All right. John Adams: Okay.