Taking Daily Breaks

Alex Yeum | December 12, 2022

Photo courtesy: Jimmy Kim

Going to school can be rough these days, especially with endless schoolwork, sports, and extracurriculars to do. It can be tough to manage all of these things at once, and sometimes, even the best time management skills can’t guard you against feeling some kind of anxiety. In those moments, it is essential to take breaks from those causes of stress and allow yourself some time to relax.

I know most students can relate when I say that the moments after coming home from school can be the most tiring. As an athlete myself, after two hours of exercise, oftentimes neither my body nor my brain can handle tasks like writing PEAL paragraphs for Humanities. And many times, students can’t even go home after school activities because of hagwons or other extracurriculars. For me, when I get home late, the only questions on my mind are “How much sleep am I going to get today?” or “How can I manage all of these things that I need to do?” These stressful thoughts only hinder me from getting any actual work done, and always results in un-wanted procrastination. I find studying at night nearly impossible after all of the rigorous work I do during the day, and in turn, the bed is too alluring for me to handle.

Let me set up a real-life scenario of a student that can manage their time perfectly. An average student wakes up at 6:00 every morning to get ready for the bus, meaning by the time school ends at 3:10, the student has been awake for 9 hours. Let’s say that this student enjoys participating in after-school activities, such as theatre or athletics, which often end at 5:00. And, as most students in Korea do, this student goes to a hagwon for two hours after these activities, causing them to get home at 9:00. After getting home and vigorously working for around 2 and a half to sleep at around 12:00, leaving them 6 hours to sleep.

This may be an exaggeration, as not everyone goes through the same daily routine. Some people may have far more, or far less work to do. No matter how well one manages their time, factors like lack of sleep and feelings of stress are bound to pile up. Taking breaks throughout the day, however, can allow you to stay motivated and work through hardships. Personally, when I allow myself even 10-15 minutes doing what I like, I can focus on schoolwork for much longer without being tempted to procrastinate. Trying to do everything at once without a break is near impossible, and surprisingly more unproductive. Therefore, if these

tasks are inevitable, wouldn’t you want to have some fun while doing them, rather than laying them off until the end?

It has been proven that the longer you try to stay focused, the more distracted you will be in the long run. According to professor Alejandro Lleras from the University of Illinois, our brains stop reacting to stimuli if they work for long, uninterrupted periods of time. By giving yourself some time to relax, studying can become much more productive.