This 5-Minute ‘Reattachment’ Technique Gets Your Brain Back Into Work Mode

If you’ve unplugged from work and given yourself some well-deserved downtime (something psychologists say is integral to stopping us from burning out), it can be difficult to kickstart your brain back into the professional mindset. But researchers have found there’s one simple strategy that can make all the difference to our productivity, motivation and engagement levels after time off: reattachment.

A new study, published in the Journal of Management, has found that ‘reattaching’ to work is as important as ‘detaching’ from it when we’re away from the office. This is because, researchers say, reattachment works as an “initial mental boundary crossing” between personal and professional “life domains”. Put simply, it tells our brains we’re no longer in relaxation mode and need to reengage with the office environment.

So how do we reattach after a holiday? Well, it’s all about planning out your day, according to Portland State University’s researchers – and the method used will vary from person to person and job to job. Some will find sitting down at their desk and making a comprehensive to-do list first thing will do the trick, while others might mentally mull over the day’s specific tasks in the shower or coffee shop queue. Alternatively, it could be about visualising a conversation with your boss about what needs your urgent attention during your first few hours back at your desk.

“We need to think about helping people mentally reconnect to work at the beginning of their work shift or day so they can create positive outcomes during their work day and be immersed in their work. It’s not enough to just show up.”

Charlotte Fritz, an associate professor of industrial-organisational psychology at Portland State University and one of the study’s co-authors, says these techniques help us activate our work-related goals by “rebuilding a mental connection to work”. Apparently, these motivational goals are triggered when we notice gaps in where we are in our day-to-day roles and where we want to be. Once our brain has spotted these gaps, we are motivated to do something to bridge the divide.

While returning to work after the Christmas break can feel particularly jarring – even as we inch closer to February – Fritz and her fellow researchers say regular Monday morning reattachment can also make the difference to how we perform week-in-week-out.

“We know that detachment from work during non-work hours is important because it creates positive outcomes like higher life satisfaction and lower burnout,” she says. “Now we need to think about helping people mentally reconnect to work at the beginning of their work shift or day so they can create positive outcomes during their work day and be immersed in their work. It’s not enough to just show up.”

That’s why the study’s authors are calling on employers to give workers time to reattach at work. That could be by offering a few quiet minutes at the beginning of the day for planning purposes, or helping their staff prioritise their workloads by running through their to-do lists together.

After all, Fritz says engagement at work benefits both parties because it brings “a sense of energy, [a] sense of feeling absorbed, feeling dedicated to work”.

Illustration: Patti Andrews