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

Brain still OOO? Scientists say this simple strategy can instantly increase our productivity and professional engagement after a holiday. Now's the time to give it a try.

By Natalie Cornish

Leadership

Brain still OOO? Scientists say this simple strategy can instantly increase our productivity and professional engagement after a holiday. Now's the time to give it a try.

By Natalie Cornish

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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.

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