I’m going to get straight to the point here: Take a break.

Schedule regular breaks every day

Schedule regular vacations (you decide how long) throughout the year.

Make them habits

Here’s why:

• Taking a vacation increases productivity by 82% (Lovell, 2004)
• In 2007, workplace stress was estimated to cost US companies more than $300 billion a year in poor performance, absenteeism and health costs (Wittern, 2007)
• Stress and mental health problems accounted for 40% of long-term disability claims in Canada in 2006 (Simard, 2006)
• One-third of Americans feel they are living with extreme stress. (America Psychological Association, 2007)
• Fifty-one percent of employees said they were less productive at work as a result of stress (American Psychological Association, 2009)
• Forty-four percent of workers have gained weight in their current job and nearly one-third (32%) say that work related stress contributed to their weight gain (CareerBuilder Inc., 2010b).

So reduce the stress, avoid the burn-out, make your down-time a regular priority. Do something small every day: take a break, connect with colleagues, take a walk, check out of work-mode temporarily.

Make it a habit.