Taking Breaks

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This note is based on brief research on taking breaks.
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Taking Breaks

Summary

(This summary was published on its own as a blog post.)

Take breaks every 20 to 70 minutes. Finding the right frequency for you may take trial and error. Multiple sources agree that something near 50 minutes of work with 10 minutes of break works well. The Pomodoro technique combines more frequent shorter breaks with infrequent longer breaks, and is commonly used. The longer you go between breaks, the longer your breaks should be.

A break is only effective when you do something different from what you're doing now. The primary differences that matter are using different areas of the brain (or not trying to utilize your brain during a break), a difference in eye-focus (stop looking at screens if you were, look far away if you were focused on something right in front of you), and a difference in physical activity (move more if you weren't moving, or stop for a bit if you were).

(Vacations have beneficial effects, but these seem to be limited in scope and duration. I believe this take is missing important nuance.)

Sources / Primary Notes

The Inc claims every 50-90 minutes, with a break lasting 15-20 minutes. They source an Army research project on "ultradian cycles" and The Atlantic claiming a perfect balance of 52 minutes of work followed by 17 minutes of rest.

  • Peretz Lavie claimed 20 minutes throughs exist in the 90-minute ultradian cycles. (So they're more like 70 minutes work + 20 minute breaks or are they 90 mins + 20 mins? The first aligns more with other sources.)
  • (DeskTime tracking probably formed a source for The Atlantic's claims.)
  • "Ultradian" just means "more frequent than 24 hrs" but is being used as if it is a more specific neurological rythym.

Pomodoro claims a cycle of cycles: 5 min breaks every 25 minutes, but after 4 of these cycles, take a 15 minute break.

It can depend on the type of work, but 90 minutes as a total cycle length is a maximum that should not be crossed.

A 20-30 minute break before a test increases scores dramatically.

American Psychological Association's "Give me a break":

  • Enjoyment and stress reduction are not equivalent. A technique may be more effective for reducing stress even if you don't enjoy it as much as a different activity.
  • Stress reduction is also not always associated with better performance (don't let the capitalists see that).
  • Enjoyment is usually better for overall benefit even if it does not reduce stress as much?
  • Vacations offer small temporary benefits (a couple weeks' vacation only provides benefits for a month after returning to work).
    • Vacations do not compensate for bad work habits.
      • Neither does sleeping more on weekends.
    • Vacations that do not prioritize rest and fun are not vacations.
  • Natural environments make more effective breaks. (But did the study check if this is true when the work environment is already natural? Since difference is important in effectiveness of breaks, would taking a break from work in a natural environment in an unnatural environment be more effective?)

PCMag claims 12% of work-day should be breaks. They mention The Muse claiming 57-mins work followed by 17-mins break is ideal, but this is not well-supported. They also claim a break every 20 minutes is important.

  • They claim a good way to use 12% of an 8-hour day for breaks is 5 breaks of 12 mins each.
  • They point out tech that can help kick you into a break or moving when you've been too sedentary.

TODAY is only looking at negative health effects of sitting for too long, but highlight that standing or taking a break from sitting every 30 or 60 minutes (with 30 being better, obviously) reduces or eliminates increased risk of cardiovascular disease.

Longer breaks can help with decision fatigue?

One of these sources (though I forgot which) included reference to a study showing better decision-making when interruptions were present, theorizing that due to being force to de-focus from a task (thus "taking a break"), the benefits of a break were realized despite not explicitly including one.

  • I believe a similar idea has been used effectively in education, where lesson plans are designed to have fake interruptions to offer a break (or even just to add a sense of novelty to otherwise "boring" work).
  • It's important that an interruption is triggering a difference in work. If you interrupt calculations with more calculations for example, that isn't a break, that's just more work.

What to do during a break

It needs to be different from what you were doing.

  • Movement is healthy and often lacking, so prioritize movement in a break.
  • Combat eye-strain by focusing at a different distance than you were.
  • Concentrating will undo a lot of the benefit of taking a break.
  • Seek nature, doodle or daydream.
  • Play a game. (Journaling games may help with self-reflection. Gratitude journaling is personally very important.)
  • Meditation is oft-ignored despite high benefit..
  • (You might need to eat or drink something!)
    I don't particularly trust these suggestions, because they conflict with the most important part of taking a break to be doing something different:
  • Help a colleague.
  • Set a goal / think about the future. (Feels like supporting hustle culture, which is detrimental.)

If you are doing a lot of mental work, doing physical work as a break is effective. (The reverse is true too.)

Psychology Today claims that participating in creation based on a fandom is very beneficial (more beneficial than other breaks?). Don't feel guilty for "wasting time" on fan-creation!

  • They consider 3.5 hours per day of free time ideal, but also only say that more than 7 hours of free time per day is associated with lower well-being. Note that this claim says nothing about the magnitude of these differences.
    • They also cite that when abundant free time is used productively, this does not decrease well-being! (Use free time for good, whatever that good is for you.)
  • They also highlight that taking a gap year between high school and college is highly beneficial. (I don't instantly trust this claim, but it seems reasonable.)

Avoiding stimulation is probably important. (That source feels like it might encourage unhealthy ideas? Be careful citing it.. It has vibes of "everything must be productive" / hustle culture.)

If you are having trouble not thinking about work, distraction is key.

Naps: A nap can be a good use of a break, but it's important to make sure that the timing of the nap works within your sleep cycles. (Sleep cycles start shallow and brief, but get progressively deeper and longer. A nap should only go through 1-2 cycles, taking somewhere between 20-60 minutes. If you wake up feeling bad, you woke up at the wrong part of a cycle, and should adjust your timing to be earlier or later.)

  • This is a whole separate topic that I don't yet have notes on.

A Brief Note on Boredom

Some sources (like this one) claim that boredom is bad, but I also think of daydreaming as an activity that involves boredom. I think my definition is different and this causes the disconnect. I think of boredom as a useful tool for ideation when I associate it with things like freewriting, creation, and daydreaming - all activities that involve some form of expression. Boredom seems to be defined more as a sapping of mental energies from the way it was referenced in a few things I read today (or as equivalent to being unfocused - which is exactly where boredom as a beneficial force in breaks is useful..). Ultimately, I need to research boredom as a concept.

  • (I've had this nagging feeling that my life is reduced in creativity by the fact that I fill every moment I can with more entertainment than anything else. I am hiding from my emotions and boredom, when my most creative ideas came from powerful emotions and boredom.)

Sources not already linked above

#psychology #science

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