Comments on: Don’t Take a Break Unless You Need One

By: » The GTD Resource Motherload: 100+ Links

» The GTD Resource Motherload: 100+ Links — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 01:50:47 +0000

[...] Don�t Take a Break Unless You Need One: You�ll never get through your task lists if you keep breaking for a snack, a nap or a walk [...]

By: Bootstrapper » The GTD Resource Motherload: 100+ Links

Bootstrapper » The GTD Resource Motherload: 100+ Links — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 18:19:28 +0000

[...] Don’t Take a Break Unless You Need One: You’ll never get through your task lists if you keep breaking for a snack, a nap or a walk [...]

By: Yummykind

Yummykind — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 21:56:12 +0000

What a great name for a band “The Shoe Horned Robots”…..add the word sound system and you’ve got, “The Shoe Horned Robots Soundsystem”

Nothing but a global venue with that name.

By: Max Leibman

Max Leibman — Sun, 22 Jul 2007 20:44:21 +0000

I agree, and I would add another risk: The compulsory, scheduled break is just another “to do,” and lose it’s regenerative effectiveness.

If the break is something we feel we “have to do” or something that we’re “required to do,” we may be more likely to pass the time of the break more quickly and enjoy it less, to have anxiety about taking the break, and to spend the whole break thinking about and anticipating getting back to the “real work.” In the process, we miss out on the rest or relaxation or play that the break is supposed to give us; worse, we come back feeling like we’ve lost the time.

By: matt mcknight

matt mcknight — Fri, 20 Jul 2007 04:02:18 +0000

In Merlin Mann’s podcast on “work the dash, take the break” he says that the “hack within the hack” is that when you do truly get into the zone you won’t end up taking the breaks. However, when you are doing something unpleasant that is subject to high procrastination risk the real win here is limiting the breaks to a short time slice.
I have tried the (10 2)*5 occasionally, and it actually works pretty well in terms of getting things going.

By: Andreas Hofmann

Andreas Hofmann — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 23:00:47 +0000

I agree with your statement that if you get into the “flow”, you should not interrupt yourself artificially. But the purpose behind the whole “work for x minutes, do a y minute break” concept is to overcome procrastination. If you are in the situation that you cannot work well because you feel overwhelmed, it can be helpful to tackle your task in small steps. Concentrating on work for only ten minutes appears doable for even the worst of procrastinators. It’s only to encourage you, to get you started. Once you really get going, you won’t need to take these artificial breaks anymore, nor should you.

By: CynicalGeek

CynicalGeek — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 20:31:49 +0000

I agree with you. It seems that many people are rewarding themselves for working. The paycheck is the reward.