We use the words ‘break’ and ‘play’ interchangeably but they are very different things when translated into reality.  Breaks tend to consist of exchanging invoices for the newspaper or the well-known strenuous aerobic exercise of making tea and can degenerate into reading through work emails whilst eating a sandwich!  Play represents a clearly differentiated concept, not too far removed from that of childhood and should involve things like fresh air, activity, creativity, being closer to nature and doing what children do so well, having fun.  Families often play better together particularly where there are young children, as they can educate and inspire the adults to drop their inhibitions, leave their work behind and truly enter into the spirit of fun. 

Clearly we all need some play time to balance our work stress and strain just as we need sleep to recuperate from our daytime activity.  Just how much we need does vary between individuals in terms of their personal psychology and hardiness, but will also depend on the stressfulness of their employment, their social capital (i.e. the network of family and friends that support them) and their attitude to others.  The quality of the play activity in terms of its strength in combating work stress is also very important as quality play can be more beneficial by the minute than that which offers less of a healthy alternative to the mundane.  Thus learning to ride a horse will leave you more refreshed than simply sitting in the pub!

All these factors considered we will generally need between a fifth to a third of the time we spend doing work or chores devoted to play, which for quality play will be about one quarter of the 40hr working week i.e. 10hours per week or approximately 90mins a day.  This is best calculated over a week or month but can be averaged to you own required daily ‘play dose’.  We need to integrate this into our working week and this is far easier as we learn and engage with more play activities.  Needless to say regular holidays can help us ‘top up’ not only our play quota, but also provide the opportunity to learn new play activities and even begin to draw the entire family together in joint fun and skill development.

The Need For Play

There are factors that can exacerbate your stress and strain levels.  The bottom line is that the more the factors below apply to you the more you will be in need of quality play time.  Consider these and if you are high on them then your required play to work ratio may be nearer one third (14 hours per week) or if you are low then you may be closer to a ratio of a fifth (8 hours per week).

The Need For Play Factors are:

• How routine/ stressful your job or daytime activity is:
  Jobs with variety and change tend to be less stressful as do jobs with moderate demands on you.
  
  
• Interpersonal relationships and attitude to others:
  Poor work and home relationships add to stress.
  
  
• Seriousness and obsessiveness:
  Your attitude to relaxing makes a big difference to how you experience it.
  
  
• Separation of work and relaxation:
  How well you keep play away from work and vice versa.