Please give your brain a break from time to time. It’s important.

Like many I often find myself in the endless cycle of what I call the Distraction Wheel. Those times when we are trying to focus on work while receiving texts from friends and our wives, while at the same time dealing with all the other distractions of daily life. We’re taking a ride on the Distraction Wheel and it kills our productivity.

The sheer mount of information that is at our fingertips from social media and news feeds? Another ride on the Distraction Wheel. How often do we actually give our minds a break? Just like we relax the body after a long day at work or a killer workout we need to be just as aware of the importance of relaxing the mind.

This need has led to a surge of interest in the practice of meditation. Meditation has dramatically improved my performance and focus, relaxing the mind, creating mental clarity and allowing me to focus on gratitude and what is in front of me, not somewhere out there on social media. It’s no surprise that people like Dan Harris from the 10% Happier podcast have called meditation a superpower.

Whether you use meditation or other forms of relaxing the mind it’s important to recognize and manage how the Distraction Wheel can impact our lives.

Here are some suggestions:

Airplane Mode is your friend: Unless you have a job where you absolutely have to receive phone calls or you’re waiting for an important message that directly impacts your day, it’s OK to use Airplane Mode. Not only will it save your battery, it will stop you from reacting to every incoming text and social media app notification. You have all the time in the world after you’re done with that important proposal or other action item to respond to those texts and social media posts. It’s scientifically proven that multitasking is impossible anyway; our brains aren’t designed to work that way. So in the name of mental clarity and focus, use airplane mode to concentrate on the task at hand. Not only will the completion of that task have positive benefits on your mood, you’ll find yourself shockingly efficient.

You really don’t need to check email that often: Email is both the greatest productivity tool in business history as well as the worst time suck ever for all of us. A quick glance at my phone shows 56,479 unread emails, and that doesn’t include the thousands of emails from Nigerian royalty sitting in my spam. We all receive way too much email and the worst thing we can do is to let it control our day. Unless you’re in the midst of a critical deadline or it’s month or fiscal year end in your business, those emails aren’t really that important. Close your email and re-open it at top of the hour, or leverage one of the many tools designed to restrict how often you look at your email.

Napping isn’t just for your five-year-old self: Napping is making a comeback. Some call it a Power Nap. JJ Watt calls it a Productivity Nap. The attitude about naps has changed dramatically in the past few years. Do you admire Winston Churchill or JFK? They both napped, nearly every day, because a thirty-minute nap in the afternoon is effective. It’s important to listen to your body. The belief has long been that the afternoon tiredness that we all get around 2:30 is based on poor diet or a lack of sleep. The reality is that just about everyone deals with it and it’s part of our natural circadian patterns. Research shows that a thirty-minute nap is much more effective to enhance cognitive tasks then coffee. So when you get tired, rather than reach for that coffee, find a quiet place and take a nap. Not only does it rejuvenate, it clears your mental space and gives your brain a break from the distraction wheel.

Stop the aimless surfing: How many times do you go to your favorite website per hour or per day? Is is really that important to check ESPN.com or CNN.com fifty times per day? The access to endless information and the 24-hour news cycle has created a dynamic where we obsessively read the news— all day long. All that meaningless sports information and the latest shocking thing POTUS did? Studies have shown that Internet addiction is associated with structural and functional changes in brain regions involving emotional processing, executive attention, decision making and cognitive control. We aren’t just raising a generation of Internet addicts, we have multiple generations of Internet addicts who spend valuable corporate work time aimlessly surfing the Internet. Beyond the productivity factor that companies deal with the long term impact on the employees consuming this data isn’t a positive.

Moderation is always good, no matter what your vice is. Just like you rest your body, rest your mind. Get rid of those distractions and achieve a higher level of focus as a result.