9 Micro-Rest Practices to Prevent Mid-Day Remote Burnout (cheat)

What if the secret to 10x productivity wasn’t a 9-to-5 grind, but a series of rests?

Here are 9 micro rest ideas to enjoy life and get more energy.

• Make a schedule and stick to it
• The 20-20-20 Rule:
• Walk around
• Bodyweight Movements
• Tidy Your Desk or Workspace
• Fluids
• Switch tasks
• Tidy Your Desk or Workspace
• Write Down 3 Small Wins from the Day
• Power Naps

Keep reading, and I’ll go over these ideas in more detail. Plus, I’ll share a downloadable cheat sheet you can pin to help you.

Make a schedule and stick to it

The best advice I ever received for a work-from-home job is to create a schedule and stick to it. This is what I do, and it works!

This is especially helpful if you're in sales, content creation, affiliate marketing, or something where you're not on a clock.

Not being on a clock is both a blessing and a curse.

I think it's 1,000% a blessing. Is it just me, but working on a clock (getting paid per hour) almost feels like slavery.

Don't you always look at the clock wanting it to go faster?

When you create a schedule, first put your business owner's hat on, and then come up with a schedule. It will probably be crazy, such as working 100 hours a week.

Then put on a empoyees hat and come up with a schedule, and you will probably want to work 2 hours a week.

Then you have to meet in the middle and make each crazy half happy!

So, schedule some time working and some time off daily and weekly!

Now you have your schedule, the hard part is sticking to it. Also, I usually have to force myself to STOP working.

Every time I go over, I regret it. Yes, also schedule some days off.

Do it a few times, and you can always adjust, meaning give yourself more time off or work more hours.

The 20-20-20 Rule:

Every 20 seconds, look at something 20 feet away for 20 seconds to prevent eye strain.

Honestly, I suck at this.

Usually, every 60 minutes, I try to take a 5-10 minute break and walk around, stretch my eyes, fingers, neck, and wrists.

Sometimes I'm in the zone, and it's hard to even stop!

One idea that could be considered cheating is something like this HERE, which is designed for eye strain. This means you can work longer and be healthier.

Walk around

Every 60 minutes, I try to walk around my room or my house.

Sometimes I do these deep breathing and arm exercises, as I do this too.

So I try to combine a little bit of everything to be as efficient as I can. Oh, and I combine this with stretching my eyes too, and stretch my wrists and fingers!

Now, I admit sometimes I struggle doing this, but having a timer go off every 50 minutes to force myself to get up and stretch, walk, stretch my eyes, deep breath could be an amazing idea.

If you want to cheat a little, something like this HERE could be wonderful.

Not only does it clean the air, but serves as a visual cue to take a deep breath. Use energizing citrus scents during work hours and switch to lavender to signal your shutdown ritual.

Cool stuff, right?

Bodyweight Movements

Walking around is great, but I try to schedule something to get my heart beating fast every day.

This could include...

• Swimming
• Jogging
• Tennis
• Burpees

Of course, on some days I do fail.

Burpees are when you put your hands on the ground, sometimes I do a pushup, and then pop up. The picture below explains it more.

Try to do a set of 5 or 10, and they will get your heart beating, and your breathing will increase.

These are great to do if the weather is nasty, and it sucks going outdoors.

Now, I try to do this before my day starts, and I feel great. You may not have that luxury with the work you do.

If you want more information on how to find a legit work-from-home job that you enjoy and pays great, I created a post HERE that shares 10 steps to finding these types of jobs.

Tidy Your Desk or Workspace

If you look at my work area, it's empty.

I love this because it gives me a calm, creative feeling.

If your workspace has lots of papers, clutter, gadgets, and things to do, it can give you a sense of stress and take away your attention.

Having an empty workspace gives you a sense of accomplishment, like it's ok to take a break.

Another killer idea is to..

Also, get rid of notifications or pop-ups on your computer, browser, or anything else that can distract you.

I do admit my desktop has WAY too many icons, but that is another area that can keep you focused, especially during the mid-day crash.

Lastly, having a good chair like these HERE can help because they are designed to support the natural curve of your spine, prevent slouching, strain, help muscles, improves blood flow.

Basically, they are healthy and prevent spine issues over time.

If you want to be hardcore, something like this HERE can help you breathe better!

Not only does it clean the air, but serves as a visual cue to take a deep breath. Use energizing citrus scents during work hours and switch to lavender to signal your shutdown ritual.

Fluids

Ok, you may be mentally throwing a tomato at me, but you would be surprised how many people forget about drinking water.

Sometimes I drink tea too, and I try to stay away from coffee during the middle of the day.

Of course, early in the morning, I do have half a half of cup just to give myself a legal upper to get my brain working.

Funny, sometimes my mom complains about being tired, and I'll ask her did you drink enough water? Sometimes she forgets.

Some people recommend 10-15 glasses of water, depending on your size. My rule of thumb is that if my pee is white, I'm good, and if my pee is yellow, I'm dehydrated.

Now, I'm not going to get into how many glasses of water a day to drink, just drink a lot.

If you have issues with drinking enough water, something like this HERE can be of help to remind me.

Switch tasks

My brain can sometimes only concentrate for so long. Maybe I get bored, or it's a concentration thing!

If you're like me, it's not a bad idea to switch tasks.

Now, you don't want to switch tasks every 10 minutes, but after some time, if your job allows it, try something different.

I notice sometimes I get a burst of energy when I do this.

You might be wondering, what the heck do I do?

1 idea that I'm a LARGE fan of is affiliate marketing. This is where, if you post a link and if someone clicks on it and purchases something or even fills out a form for more information, you get paid.

What I like about it is you can do it anywhere in the world, at anytime, in nearly any niche, it's super flexible, it can be a shit ton of fun, and you can earn some great money.

Seriously, why not?

I've been at it for 15 years, and I'm sharing the system I use and am most excited about HERE.

Plus, if you only want to do it 30 minutes a day, you can do that, you can make it passive, too, meaning you still get paid if you don't work.

Write Down 3 Small Wins from the Day

I admit this sounds cheesy. Also, I've never done this - but maybe I should!

However, writing down small wins can give you a dopamine effect. You know a natural high drug feeling. Dopamine can increase motivation and willingness to continue.

This probably helps the most when you're mentally fatigued and want to quit.

There are also many more benefits to doing this, such as...

• Reinforces a sense of progress, even on slow days
• Builds confidence through visible accomplishments
• Helps buffer against burnout and frustration
• Makes your brain feel less overloaded
• Trains your brain to notice progress consistently
• Increases the likelihood of repeating productive behaviors
• Helps interrupt negative thought spirals
• Helps your sex life.

Ok, the last one I made up.

Plus, I admit I took the list from ChatGPT, but it does sound awesome.

Power Nap

I admit I 100% suck at this.

However, even just closing your eyes in the middle of the afternoon can be beneficial. I think I'm going to include this in my 1-hour walk, stretch eyes, wrists, fingers routine.

A study found that 15 minutes of waking rest with eyes closed after learning improved compared with doing a distracting task during that same time.

So quiet rest supports early memory consolidation even without sleep. Cool stuff, right? Here is the link to the study, if you don't believe me.

Closing to Micro-Rest Practices to Prevent Mid-Day Remote Burnout

I hope this post gave you some ideas on how to be more productive and prevent burnout at work.

Of course, I once heard that people are not lazy; they just don't like their work.

Finding something that you're motivated to do and brings you joy is a lifelong journey, and some things change.

If you're interested in a work-from-home job, I created a post HERE that shares 10 steps to finding a legit job that you might enjoy.

Give it a whirl.