According to a study from the University of Sydney,1 a five-minute break can restore your focus. You don't need to go for a walk or retreat somewhere into nature.
Here is what the study did. It had 72 university students solve difficult math problems for 20 minutes. Then it split them into the following three groups.
- No break, moving straight on to the next stage
- Doing nothing for 5 minutes, with only the remaining break time shown on the computer screen
- Watching a rainforest video for 5 minutes
In the next stage, they were taught a strategy for doing two-digit multiplication in their heads. Group 1 came to this stage right after solving the difficult math problems.
After that, they rated how well they had understood the strategy (a self-report) and then actually solved 20 problems. The result: groups 2 and 3 performed far better than group 1.
Breaks Are Easy to Forget When You're Busy
When you work busily, you forget to take breaks. Whether because of pressure or because you're absorbed in the work, time just keeps flowing past.
If you're reading this, you're probably a knowledge worker. You often learn new things and make something out of them. Focus matters for that, and even when you're busy, it needs managing. You need to pace yourself.
Looking at your phone or surfing the web as a "break" doesn't count either. According to the study above, you should either do nothing or watch a nature video. You have to take your hands off your phone and computer and zone out.
The Classic but Effective Pomodoro
The Pomodoro method probably needs no explanation, since everyone knows it. It's a technique where you repeat a cycle of working for 25 minutes and resting for 5. You can set the times differently for each person.
Honestly, I haven't used the Pomodoro technique much until now. I was too busy. Even with the timer on, I often just kept working. So I would quickly stop using it.
But lately I've gotten so busy that I found the biggest bottleneck in my productivity. It was energy. When I lacked energy, results fell short of my expectations, and then my mood collapsed too. Everything got tangled up in a chain reaction, and my productivity dropped.
After seeing the study's results, I thought I should consciously try the Pomodoro method again, and I've been using it. As a result, I've been able to extend how long I can focus in a day. For reference, I use Focus To-Do as my Pomodoro app. It works on every platform.
These days I've set it to 20 minutes of work and a 5-minute break. There's a 20-20-20 rule for eye health, and thinking about my eyes, working for 20 minutes seems optimal. At first 20 minutes seems short, but as the session goes on, my energy drops and even 20 minutes starts to feel long.
Many people probably know all this already, but there may be some who haven't made use of it, like me. To make the technique more credible, I introduced the Pomodoro method together with the research.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/20590776.2023.2225700