Take A Break (infographic) - breaks increase productivity | Hacker News Reader

Take A Break (infographic) - breaks increase productivity

learnstuff.com

15 pointsadaria8 comments

I've heard that reading strange fonts on bright orange, blue, yellow and pink backgrounds is bad for your eyes, too.

I totally believe this. Whenever I'm being unproductive or battling an idea/problem I'll go outside - walk around or bike, do something. Taking your mind off things allows it to come back stronger than ever when tackling the problem again. At least for me, anecdotally, this is true.

I'm in the same boat. Anytime life presents a problem that I can't seem to wrap my head around I get up from my desk, take a short walk, and it usually comes to me.

As an added bonus I've discovered that there's a small lake less than a mile from my office that I never knew existed(part of a planned housing community) and I've seen all kinds of things I wouldn't have otherwise.

Yes yes yes yes yes. Discovery/play is crucial to expanding creativity, and creativity is crucial to solving problems, especially really hard ones.

Take breaks and do stuff to break the norm. Of course, rigorous scientific literature on this topic is kind of lacking. But if anything, it keeps life interesting.

I'm not surprised that people who work the same job for a long time are more likely to have breast or prostate cancer. BECAUSE THEY ARE OLDER. I don't like this infographic, even if the final message is good.

Ask any smoker, and they will tell you that their best ideas came to them when they went out for a cigarette. That's why they love their breaks and even advocate for having them.

The myth about ideas striking people while taking shower is of the same nature.)

It has something to do with taking a fresh look, another perspective and just reducing the level of stress which accumulates after a 40-50 minutes of some boring activity.

It is an example how a change in the physical behavior can influence one's mental processes.

> The myth about ideas striking people while taking shower is of the same nature

I don't know how much of a myth that is. I can say with 100% certainty that most of my good ideas come in the shower. Probably because it is the ONLY time of day anymore where I'm not connected to my phone, class, the computer, tv, other people, etc.

This is why I always walk half a block to pick up a cup of coffee rather than just get one in the cafeteria (also it tastes better). For some reason taking a ten minute walk every now and then and getting some fresh air might be frowned upon, but getting coffee / smoking is a socially accepted reason to do so.

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