Are you preparing for a potentially emotionally fraught discussion? Weighing the options for an important decision? Are you formulating recommendations for a critical board meeting? Preparing a speech for an audience? Anticipating a challenging conversation with a colleague? Gathering data before providing feedback to one of your team members? Weighted down with work commitments and missing out on your playful side?

Take 15.

Perhaps your memory is not as crisp as it used to be. Or like many of us, you are juggling multiple priorities and sometimes feeling like none are receiving your full consideration. You may be assisting with aging parents, rebellious teenagers or both at once.

Take 15.

I love the ability to return calls through simple voice recognition while navigating an open highway. I am grateful for technology that allows me to respond to emails in the airport lounge and work from anywhere on the planet. I am the consummate multi-tasker yet I have become more and more attuned to the benefits of a 15-minute break.

Shonda Rhimes, creator of Grey’s Anatomy, How to get away with murder and The Scandal, is a highly accomplished writer and director. She is also a single parent. In her recent book Year of Yes, she describes the joy she experiences from dropping everything to play with her girls for 15 minutes before rushing out the door as she always has in the past.

Just as our bodies benefit from interval training and a variety of exercise, our minds seek interludes of quiet or play—either or both of which fuel our creativity. There is much research on the benefits of mental pause and reflection. It need not take the form of cross-legged meditation on a yoga mat.

• Go for a walk outside without headphones; view your surroundings.
• Close the door to your office. Turn your back on to your computer. Breathe.
• Gaze out the window. Watch the activity unfold or if you are fortunate enough to have a view of water, greenery or mountains, take in the beauty.
• Pick up a book of poetry.
• Play some favourite music.
• Kick the soccer ball in the yard with the kids.

You will make better decisions. You will exercise greater judgement. You will demonstrate more tolerance. You will have increased capacity to hear others. And this is really important—by building in 15-minute breaks, you will become more acutely attuned to what others are silently communicating through their actions and reactions. And in the moments of silence or play, you will become more attuned to your own wisdom.

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