Typically, international breaks are not exactly welcomed within the FPL community. Not only do they deny us this game that we love (to hate), they always seem to come about just as things are getting interesting. On top of that, there are the invariable curveballs they throw with respect to injuries or drama they create as to whether or not certain players will make it back in time for the next Gameweek.

But, and maybe I’m just speaking for myself here, this one feels almost… welcome? Maybe it’s the relentless past few months of fixtures, cancellations, rescheduling, Double Gameweeks, Blank Gameweeks etc… but, honestly, I could do with a breather. While some FPL managers will no doubt be using the break to fine-tune their strategy or plan their Wildcard, there’s an argument for also taking the time to switch off and that doing this, might actually benefit your rank more so in the long term.

The benefits of taking a break will be the focus of this week’s article.

Why are Breaks Useful?

There are a few reasons why taking a break can be useful, whether that means effectively logging out of FPL until the day before the next deadline or just taking a few moments away from your Wildcard planning and the hundred or so tabs that you probably have open on your computer.

The first reason why taking a break can be valuable is that it helps to replenish you physically and mentally. I’ve spoken in this column before about ‘decision fatigue’ and how having to make too many decisions can become detrimental to our ability to make good ones, and taking a break is one way to stave this issue off.

Productivity

Equally, taking breaks has been proven to improve productivity and this is something we all experience intuitively, whether it’s writing an essay, weeding the garden, preparing a presentation, beating a boss in Elden Ring or smashing a Wildcard draft. The problem is that, when you’re in ‘the zone’, taking a break is often the last thing you want to do, so we tend to plough on regardless of whether it’s the most effective path or not

But thinking is, in itself, literally exhausting. The brain uses 20% of the body’s energy, more than any other organ. Even when we’re highly motivated or packed full of caffeine, there is a point during its constant use when the brain’s performance starts to temporarily decline. It is at this point that we make less-considered decisions and end up with Shane Duffy (£4.1m) as our Triple Captain. Taking even a five-minute break from a big task can help avoid this kind of thing.

Motivation

Speaking of motivation, breaks are great for renewing this. However strong our desire or sense of purpose, motivation itself is a finite resource and there is only so long that it can keep propelling us forward. This is true even for the things that we enjoy, like Fantasy Football. 

While I do miss FPL each year once Gameweek 38 is over, it doesn’t take me long to appreciate the opportunity for a break and I know this is true of many FPL managers, especially content creators or those heavily involved in the community where FPL enthusiasm has become part of our identity. But then, as soon as the new game launches, I’m right back at it with renewed vigour. Absence makes the heart grow fonder, as they say.

Letting your Subconscious Take Over

Finally, taking a break can be helpful not just because it gives the active mind a break but because it gives our subconscious mind an opportunity to take over. Everyone has probably heard the phrase ‘sleep on it’ but there’s a lot more to this than just a hackneyed phrase. Just because we’re not consciously thinking about a challenge or problem doesn’t mean we’re not thinking about it at all. In fact, our subconscious mind has far greater capacity to process information than our conscious mind does.

If you’ve ever dreamt in spreadsheets, riddles or equations (or about that boss in Elden Ring), there’s a good chance that this is a manifestation of your subconscious attempting to process a problem that you are facing in your waking world. It’s why we can bang our heads against a wall for hours trying to solve a problem only for the solution to appear seemingly out of the blue once we’ve taken a break from thinking about it.

With this in mind, if you do have big FPL decisions to make this international break, it’s worth not leaving them all to the last moment but, instead, giving them time to percolate over a few days. You might be surprised by how much better your ideas become given time to develop and evolve.

Summary

Taking breaks, big or small, can help make us sharper and more motivated FPL managers and are likely to improve the quality of our decision-making significantly. While I don’t imagine many of us are pulling 16-hour shifts of thinking about FPL during the break (though, having got to know some of you, I wouldn’t entirely rule it out either), actively inserting breaks into the time you do schedule for FPL can really pay off. For those of us who don’t have big decisions to make during this period, taking a short break from FPL altogether may well be the best thing for us.

Full-year memberships, monthly subscriptions and a FREE trial are all now available.

Join now to get the following:

• Plot your transfer strategies using the fully interactive Season Ticker.
• Get projections for every Premier League player provided by the Rate My Team statistical model.
• Use Rate My Team throughout the season to guide your selections and transfers.
• Get access to over 150+ exclusive members articles over the season.
• Analyse our OPTA-powered statistic tables specifically tailored for Fantasy Football Managers.
• Use our exclusive tool to build custom stats tables from over 100 OPTA player and team stats.
• Enjoy our Flat-Track Bully feature which introduces an opposition filter to your tables.
• View heatmaps and expected goals data for every player.
• Use our powerful comparison tool to analyse players head-to-head.

ALREADY A USER? CLICK HERE TO UPGRADE YOUR FREE ACCOUNT

NEW TO SCOUT? CLICK HERE TO START A MEMBERSHIP ACCOUNT