What to do during breaks

[lion]

What do you guys do while you want to take a 5-10 minute break from work. I'm a student and follow the recommendation to study in blocks of 20-50 minutes with 5-10 minute breaks. I usually go for 45-50 minutes, then take a 5-10 minute break, but I usually find myself walking around thinking, "hmmm... this is interesting, there's nothing to do..." My question is, what do some of you do if you ever take 5-10 minute breaks?

[kewms]

stretch
play with the cats
get something to drink (preferably water or juice)
get a light snack
sort through the (paper) mail
load or unload the dishwasher
sort or fold laundry
take a walk
make a social phone call

The key for me is to do something physical--so surfing the Internet doesn't count--that isn't too mentally demanding.

Katherine

[Day Owl]

Exercise: hand weights, yoga stretches, anything that gets the body moving and provides a complete distraction from brain work.

[Rolf F. Katzenberger]

I've blogged about 15 habits that you can develop to fill exactly such pauses. Please find the list here: http://www.evomend.net/en/home-2minutes-15-new-habits-you.

[mmurray]

I've blogged about 15 habits that you can develop to fill exactly such pauses. Please find the list here: http://www.evomend.net/en/home-2minutes-15-new-habits-you.

Nice list. I would add

Put one DVD back in its case. :-)

Michael

[Rolf F. Katzenberger]

Nice list. I would add

Put one DVD back in its case. :-)

Michael

Thanks, Michael! :-)

[Brent]

Great list! A few more suggestions:


Meditate
Brainstorm on another project
Think up ten questions about something (birds, house building, wood; whatever)
Observe your work from a higher level. Is it useful? How useful? Could you be doing it better?

[Rolf F. Katzenberger]

Great list! A few more suggestions:


Meditate


That one sounds incredible: is there a way of meditation that specializes on 2 minutes or less per session? I'd be very interested to link to it on the @Home.2Minutes list!

Rolf

[Brent]

There's no specific meditation system I know of that specializes in two-minute increments, but I certainly do it.

Imagine a particular object. Choose something simple and calming, like a candle flame or a wooden box (or nothing at all). Try to think only about that object. As other thoughts surface, re-center your mind on that object.

Or, look at everything around you. Don't categorize it or label it, just look at it. Experience it. Pretend you're an alien who's never seen anything like it.

The human mind loves cataloging things. It looks at a bird and says, "That's a bird." Ignore that categorization and look at it as a creature. What is it doing right now? Why? What might it do next?

[darlakbrown]

Here are some of mine:

Drink a glass of water
Go for a walk
Do a headstand or shoulder stand - this gets the juices flowing - you probably shouldn't try this unless you do yoga or gymnastics
Organize a drawer
Water a plant
Floss my teeth

[dschaffner]

is there a way of meditation that specializes on 2 minutes or less per session?

Simply counting the breath can be practiced for 2 minutes.

http://www.mro.org/zmm/teachings/meditation.php

- Don

[WebR0ver]

Put my feet up and read in my current recreational book.

[pascalvenier]

This leaves just enough time for a quickie! ;)

[Rolf F. Katzenberger]

@Brent: thanks for your pictured explanation - added your suggestions to the list.

@darlakbrown: copied 4 of your ideas to the list, thanks!

@dschaffner: added. Thanks for the nice link!

[Barry]

According to Neil Fiore, even just switching to a different, less demanding form of work could serve as a good break from the main task and a way to refresh and reset your mind.

[DStaub11]

For a quick meditation, try Ten Zen Seconds by Eric Maisel www.tenzenseconds.com. I love it.

I make lists of things to do that only take a few minutes but either give me pleasure or advance a creative project, specifically for breaks. "Take charcoal to living room drawing table" was one of those. Take a look at some of your "want-to-do" projects and see if there's any way to dip in.

Something that helps immensely with this is making "set-ups" (Barbara Sher's term from Refuse to Choose). Make a place in your house where the project is all ready to go whenever you walk by. For instance, my painting in progress is always available on a drawing table with all materials (colored pencil is an easy medium to do for a few minutes, too!). For music study I have a keyboard, CD player, music theory book, music writing paper, and old guitar laid out in the guest room. And so forth.

Have fun!

Do Mi