How to Take a Good Break and 10x Your Coding Productivity
As a full-stack developer, you know how cognitively demanding coding can be. It requires deep focus, complex problem-solving and long hours sitting at a screen. After a few hours of debugging a nasty error in legacy code, your mental batteries are drained.
Many developers power through this depletion with caffeine and stubborn persistence. They see breaks as a sign of weakness, laziness or lack of commitment.
But science shows the opposite is true: strategic breaks are a secret weapon for boosting productivity and doing your best work. Especially for knowledge workers like coders, stepping away from focused work gives your brain a chance to rest, recharge and tackle problems from a fresh angle.
The High Cost of Powering Through
Research confirms that grinding away for hours without breaks is counterproductive, unhealthy and unsustainable:
- A study of office workers found that the most productive 10% worked for 52 minutes, then took a 17-minute break.
- Another study found that mental performance quickly declines after 90 minutes of continuous work.
- Prolonged periods of sitting are linked with a host of health problems including heart disease, diabetes, depression and muscle degeneration.
- Staring at a screen for hours strains the eyes, leading to blurred vision, headaches and trouble focusing.
As a coder, you need your brain operating at full capacity to solve complex problems, learn new skills and deliver high-quality work. But long stretches of makeshift work drain your mental energy and dull your cognitive edge.
What‘s more, the fatigue and frustration from skipping breaks fuels burnout, a growing epidemic in the tech industry. A 2018 survey found that 57% of tech workers reported feeling burnt out. Another study found that 68% of developers have considered quitting their job because of poor work-life balance.
The Science of Strategic Breaks
On the flip side, a wealth of research points to the power of intentional breaks to restore energy, productivity and wellness at work:
- Brief diversions vastly improve focus on a task according to studies dating back to the 1920s.
- Downtime replenishes attention span, motivation, creativity, and the ability to learn and retain new information.
- Movement breaks featuring walking, stretching or strength exercises boost mood, reduce stress and pain, and increase blood flow to the brain.
- Time in nature quickly restores depleted attention, working memory and cognitive performance.
- Naps as short as 6 minutes have been shown to significantly improve declarative memory performance.
- Frequent short breaks (microbreaks) can reduce or prevent fatigue, eyestrain, and upper limb discomfort without impairing productivity.
In particular, breaks play a crucial role in the intense mental work of coding, as software engineer Itamar Turner-Trauring points out:
Effective breaks will allow you to spend more hours per day producing high-quality code. They‘ll reduce your frustration, improve your ability to solve problems, increase your learning and retention, and in the long run allow you to get more done in less time.
Breaks are especially important for tackling the thorniest coding challenges that rely on insight and creative problem-solving. As computer scientist Joscha Bach explains, complex problems often can‘t be solved by powering through. The solution comes when you let go:
Usually, the most effective way to solve a problem is to take your mind off the problem and let the underlying processes do their work…Taking a break and coming back to it allows your mind to connect ideas in different ways and integrate new observations.
Optimizing Your Break Timing and Activities
To make your breaks as impactful as possible, it‘s important to be intentional about their timing, duration and content. Here are some guidelines backed by research:
Timing and Duration:
- Aim for a 5-minute break every 30 minutes, a 15-minute break every 90 minutes, and a 30-minute break every 3 hours.
- Use the Pomodoro Technique: work in focused 25 minute sprints broken up by 5 minute breaks. After 4 cycles, take a longer 15-30 minute break.
- Find your Ultradian Rhythm, a recurrent 90-120 minute cycle during which the body and brain move from higher to lower alertness. Work with these ebbs and flows rather than fighting against them.
- Honor your personal circadian rhythms and schedule your most demanding coding for your peak energy hours. Take breaks during your typical afternoon slump.
| Work Duration | Break Duration |
|---|---|
| 30 minutes | 5 minutes |
| 90 minutes | 15 minutes |
| 3 hours | 30 minutes |
Fig 1. Recommended work duration to break duration ratios
Break Content:
- Get moving! Take a quick walk, do some stretches, squeeze in a few pushups. Physical activity boosts blood flow to deliver oxygen and nutrients to the brain.
- Get outside in nature, even just for a few minutes. Exposure to trees, plants and sunlight quickly restores attention and relieves stress.
- Do a mini-meditation or deep breathing exercise to calm your mind and body.
- Take a power nap (10-20 minutes). Napping boosts alertness, sharpens memory and lifts mood.
- Connect with a friend in person for a quick chat to fulfill social needs and process challenges.
- Listen to music that makes you feel positive and energized.
- Work on a quick creative task in a different medium like writing, sketching or making something with your hands.
- Expose yourself to novel ideas and experiences during breaks to trigger fresh insights for your coding challenges. Read an article outside your field, visit a new neighborhood or chat with someone from a different department.
| Most Effective Break Activities | Least Effective Break Activities |
|---|---|
| Walking outdoors | Checking email/Slack |
| Stretching/yoga | Scrolling social media |
| Power napping | Doing errands or chores |
| Meditation | Reading industry blogs |
| Listening to music | Video games |
| Creative hobbies | Watching videos |
| Social connection | Eating junk food |
Fig 2. Comparison of break activities for coders
What to Avoid:
- Digital distractions like email, social media and YouTube will leave you more drained than before your break. Avoid trading one type of screen time for another.
- Stress-inducing activities like paying bills, doing chores or having a difficult conversation. Break time should feel restorative, not taxing.
- Unhealthy habits like smoking, excess caffeine, alcohol or junk food may deliver a quick mood boost but will ultimately sap your energy.
- Noisy, crowded break environments that overstimulate rather than calm the mind.
How to Prioritize Breaks as a Developer
Despite overwhelming evidence of the benefits, many developers still struggle to prioritize breaks. It goes against the cultural programming of the tech industry which glorifies long hours and personal sacrifice.
That‘s why it‘s crucial to treat effective breaks as a skill that you purposefully develop through practice and iteration. Start by scheduling breaks into your daily calendar like any other essential task. Treat them as unbreakable appointments, not optional extras to fit in if you have spare time.
It also helps to get explicit buy-in from your team. Initiate a conversation with your manager about the productivity benefits of breaks and ask for their support in creating a break-friendly culture.
Some companies are leading the way in prioritizing breaks and employee wellness:
- LinkedIn has a dedicated "quiet room" for meditation, prayer, or just silent breaks from the open office.
- Asana encourages employees to take naps and provides nap rooms in their offices.
- Buffer has "No Work Wednesday" once a month where the whole company takes the day off.
- Balsamiq holds an annual company retreat in the Italian Alps to unplug and recharge.
You can also look for opportunities to take productive "work breaks" that blend rest and work. For example:
- If you‘re stuck on a coding problem, take a documentation break. Writing about your approach can provide distance and a new perspective.
- If you‘re mentally fried, take a code review break. You‘re still being productive by helping a teammate but giving your problem-solving brain a rest.
- If you‘ve just shipped a big feature, take a celebration break. Acknowledge your progress and hard work before diving into the next task.
A 2014 Stanford study found that walking, whether indoors or outdoors, significantly boosts creativity. The effects even lasted after the walk was over. Next time you‘re stuck on a difficult problem, take a walk to shake up your thinking!
An Investment in Your Best Work
Ultimately, embracing breaks is about having a long-term perspective. Grinding away for 12-hour days may feel productive in the moment, but it‘s borrowing energy from your future self.
Conversely, prioritizing renewal in the midst of your hardest coding challenges is an investment in your ability to sustainably deliver top-tier work. You‘ll write better code, generate more creative solutions and build a reputation as a developer who can solve the thorniest problems.
In the race to keep up with the relentless pace of change in tech, it‘s easy to neglect the habits that fuel your success. But by treating breaks as an essential practice, you give yourself the best chance of bringing your A-game when it matters most.
Your body and brain know what they need to function at their peak. It‘s up to you to listen and respond with intentional breaks — even when deadlines are looming and everyone around you is also heads down.
The developers who rise to the top aren‘t the ones who put in the longest hours. They‘re the ones who take care of their most valuable resource: themselves! When you protect your mental and physical health with thoughtful breaks, you set yourself up to make your greatest contributions over the course of a long and impactful career.