Standard advice clauses: This is going to apply more to you the more similar you are to me: A young mentally and physically healthy introvert knowledge worker who works on his laptop.

When I am at the library, the modal person seems to be sitting in their chair for 3+ hours without getting up and walking or stretching for a little. I think that's not optimal so this post has some tips on how to do better than that.

• Why do I think taking breaks is good (and more specifically why walk in your breaks (ideally outside))
  • Common wisdom is breaks are good for you.
  • Common wisdom is moving is good for you.
  • Empirically for myself, since I have adopted the habit of walking in my breaks I don't get neckpain anymore even if I don't occasionally switch to a standing desk.
  • There is something about walking where it takes away just enough of my mental capacity to push me out of thinking loops I am stuck in, so it helps me gain perspective. I don't seem to be the only one whom this is true of. I think I read about it in thinking fast and slow and Deep Work also had a whole section on taking walks.
  • Empirically I get stressed and clench my jaw if I don't take breaks.
  • Walking outside feels wholesome. Trees and running water and good weather are a plus. Sometimes I just walk back and forth in whatever building I am in though if I really don't want to go outside.
  • Idk man I am myself confused why breaks work similar to Robin hanson. Below is an image from the results from Robin Hansons poll on which activities people find restful (I think Robin Hanson flunked his Twitter survey there. Taking breaks during work and in your free time are different. I don't think people in that poll were suggesting Playing a video-games is a good break activity at work, but what people find fun to do in their free time). Something something default mode network? Feel free to share your theories in the comments.
• How to take breaks
  • How often to take breaks?
    • Pomodoros are great because breaks are great, but I am not religious about the 25 minutes of work and 5 minute breaks. Taking a break every 25-60 minutes makes sense depending on what type of person you are and what type of task you are working on.
      • If you have a hard time focusing for an hour, perhaps do 15 minutes. If you have an even harder time, the most radical I've ever read was in a book on adhd which suggested 5 minutes of work and 15 minutes of break. If you do high context tasks like programming and you find breaks to interruptive perhaps only take a break every 1h.
  • Suggestions for activities to do in short breaks (combine as you like)
    • Get up from your chair and walk (go outside! If it is raining or snowing put on a coat!)
    • Drink some water (or some other beverage)
    • Look into the distance
    • Stretch
    • do 10 pushups
    • eating a snack
  • Suggestions for longer breaks
    • more high intensity exercise (I like combining this with listening to music)
    • eating a meal
    • taking naps
    • talking to people? (presumably more useful for extroverts)
  • Suggestions for activities to try to not do in breaks
    • browse the internet
    • going on social media (tends to derail my focus completely)
• What I usually do
  • I have a pomodoro timer in my timetracking app running on whatever I am currently working on. My work timer is 35 minutes, while my break timer is 7 minutes. (I just checked I've been using roughly this system since January 2021)
  • The timer has a visual cue to let me know how long it has been since I have taken a break before.
  • I used to have my phone make a buzzing sound once the break timer was up. This often interrupted my focus and led to a mixed relationship between me and my break timer.
  • I now just leave the timer silent and use the visual cue. Usually when there is a natural break point because I don't know what to do next, I look at my break timer and when it is at 30+ minutes then I decide it is time to take a break. Now I have a more friendly relationship with my break timer.
  • Sometimes I use TDT to decide to skip a break timer. I used to skip my break timer consciously more often when I still had the alarm that was interrupting me, but I prefer the new setup.
  • I don't stick religiously to anything here, but I try to not start the break timer in the break app if I don't actually intend to take a break. When I see the time is up and I am second-guessing myself whether I should press the break timer it tends to be a good time to take a break.