Repeating tasks leads to cognitive boredom, which in turn halts your ability to thrive at whatever you’re doing. First and foremost to your levels of productivity, working for long periods of time can be detrimental to your level of engagement with a certain task. There are a lot of surprising benefits to this rest time. Whereas, during the 17 minutes of break, you’re completely removed from the work you’re doing-you’re entirely resting, not peeking at your email every five minutes or just “ quickly checking Facebook.” Therefore, during the 52 minutes of work, you’re dedicated to accomplishing tasks, getting things done, and making progress. Working with purpose can also be called the 100% dedication theory-the notion that whatever you do, you do it full-on. They make the most of those 52 minutes by working with intense purpose, but then rest up to be ready for the next burst. The reason the most productive 10% of our users are able to get the most done during the comparatively short periods of working time is that their working times are treated as sprints. Turns out, the secret to retaining the highest level of productivity over the span of a workday is not working longer-but working smarter with frequent breaks. The employees with the highest productivity ratings, in fact, don't even work eight-hour days. Specifically, the most productive people work for 52 minutes at a time, then break for 17 minutes before getting back to it (similar to the Pomodoro Method- more on that here). Turns out, what the most productive 10% of our users have in common is their ability to take effective breaks. Using time-tracking and productivity app DeskTime, we’ve been able to study the habits of the most productive employees-and pinpoint the working flow that leads to that incredible ability to get things done.Īnd the trick might surprise you. How does he or she get it done? And can you steal those secrets to improve your own productivity? You know, the one who always seems to get way more done than everybody else, but who never seems stressed or frantically trying to finish an assignment.