According to the studies made by Nexian´s HR department, it has been proven that the results of the work do not go hand in hand with the hours spent in front of the computer. Only 50% of the working day is 100% profitable and as much as 15% of this time is lost in ineffective meetings, unnecessary interruptions, and tasks that do not add value. For example, on average we check email about 20 times per hour meaning only 40 minutes of each full hour is actually spent doing real work, and that’s if we are lucky!

Henry, a mobber and nutritionist working at MOB PAU, says that for him: “It´s quite hard to do more than four hours focused. You need to work in different places. And, definitely, there´s no point sitting at your laptop when you are feeling tired.” Meanwhile, his British compatriot, Jenny, who is an English teacher in Barcelona, recommends “breaking the day into chunks to be more productive, than just trying to work for 8 hours“. Neus is a Catalan graphic designer and says she works between four and five hours per day.

She also recognizes that when she can no longer think, she pauses, takes a break, and plays ping pong for a while.

Jorge, the Argentine CEO of Octopia, works online with his company and concludes: “It’s about finding a balance between flexibility and a traditional work scheme, which turned old when new forms of [online] work arose. Nowadays, lots of software have been developed to control and administrate the volume of work, such as Hubstaff, Redmine and Jira. In fact, one of the main purposes of these tools is to manage teams of freelancers.”

In the same way, most mobbers agree that when the brain is more relaxed, the best ideas come up and that they are more productive.

Many recommend cutting the workday, taking a walk, listening to music or practicing sports.

So, attention friends and fellow mobbers! From now on, having breaks will be a must. Not sure how? Here’s a suggestion: Set your phone timer to an hour, and each time it goes off, stand up and alternate between one of the following activities:

Stretch! Here are some suggested stretches that you can do without changing into your Yoga gear!
Drink a full glass of water.
Read a couple pages in a book (not on a screen).
Find someone in the office and say hello. Interrupt them; it’s helping them to remember to take a break too. Maybe don’t choose the person on the phone or in the Skype room! 😉
If you really want to go the extra mile, give someone a hug. 🙂