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's what the study did. Seventy-two university students were given 20 minutes of difficult math problems. They were then split into three groups:
- No break, moving straight on to the next stage
- Five minutes of doing nothing at all, with only the remaining break time shown on the computer screen
- Five minutes of watching a video of a rainforest
In the next stage, they were taught a strategy for mentally multiplying two-digit numbers. Group 1 came to this stage right after finishing the difficult math problems.
After that, they reported how well they had understood the strategy, and then solved 20 actual problems. The result: groups 2 and 3 performed far better than group 1.
The Break We Forget When We're Busy
When you're busy working, you forget to rest. Whether it's pressure or deep immersion, time just keeps flowing by.
If you're reading this, you're probably a knowledge worker. You often learn new things and make something out of them. For that, focus matters, and even when you're busy, it needs to be managed. You have to pace yourself.
Scrolling through your phone or browsing the web as a "break" doesn't count either. According to the study above, you should either do nothing or watch a nature video. In other words, take your hands off your phone and computer and just zone out.
The Classic but Effective Pomodoro
The Pomodoro technique probably needs no explanation; everyone knows it. It's a technique where you repeat a cycle of working for 25 minutes and resting for 5. The durations can be set differently for each person.
Honestly, I hadn't used the Pomodoro technique much until now. I was too busy. Even with the timer on, I often kept working, so I'd quickly stop using it.
But lately, as I've gotten even busier, I've realized the biggest bottleneck in my productivity. It was energy. When I run low on energy, the results don't come out as I'd hoped, and then my mood collapses too. One thing leads to another, and my productivity drops.
After seeing the study above, I thought I should try using the Pomodoro technique consciously again, and I've been doing so. As a result, I've been able to extend the amount of time I can focus in a day. For reference, the Pomodoro app I use is Focus To-Do. It's available on every platform.
These days I set it to 20 minutes of work and a 5-minute break. There's the 20-20-20 rule for eye health, and with your eyes in mind, working for 20 minutes seems optimal. At first 20 minutes feels short, but as the day goes on and your energy drops, even 20 minutes starts to feel long.
Many of you probably already know this, but some people, like me, may not have been making use of it. To make the technique more credible, I introduced the Pomodoro method alongside this research.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/20590776.2023.2225700