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On Deep Breaks

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A Break to Discuss Breaks

After last week’s post on attention residue, multiple readers have asked about taking breaks during deep work sessions. These questions highlight an apparent tension.

On the one hand, in my book on the topic and here on Study Hacks I often extol the productive virtue of spending multiple hours (and sometimes even days) in a state of distraction-free deep work. As I emphasized last week, these sessions need to be truly free of distraction — even quick glances at your inbox, for example, are enough to significantly reduce your cognitive capacity.

On the other hand, in my Straight-A book (published, if you can believe it, almost exactly a decade before Deep Work), I recommend students study in 50 minute chunks followed by 10 minute breaks. I cite some relevant cognitive science to back up this timing. Similar recommendations are also made by adherents to the pomodoro technique, which suggests short timed bursts of concentration partitioned by breaks.

Which idea is right?

Deep Breaks

The short answer to the above question: both.

Deep work requires you to focus intensely on a demanding task. But few can maintain peak cognitive intensity for more than an hour or so without some sort of relief.

This relief is necessary. But it’s also dangerous.

Most types of breaks you might take in this situation will wrench your attention away from the task at hand and leave you with a thick slather of attention residue.

If you’re careful, however, it’s possible to take a so-called deep break which will allow your mind a chance to regroup and recharge without impeding your ability to quickly ramp back up your concentration.

Anyone who regularly succeeds in long deep work sessions is almost certainly someone skilled at deploying deep breaks to keep the session going without burning out or losing focus.

There’s no single description of what constitutes a deep break, but here are some useful heuristics from my own experience:

  • Deep breaks should not turn your attention to a target that might generate a professional or social obligation that you cannot completely fulfill during the break (e.g., glancing at an email inbox or social media feed).
  • Deep breaks should not turn your attention to a target that your mind associates with time-consuming distraction rituals (e.g., many people have a set “cycle” of distracting web sites they visit when they surf that has become so ingrained that looking at one site sends their mind the message it’s time to look at them all).
  • Deep breaks should not turn your attention to a related, but not quite the same, professional task (e.g., if you’re trying to write a report, and you turn your attention to quickly editing an unrelated report).
  • Deep breaks should not turn your attention to a topic that is complicated, stressful and/or something that will sometime soon need a lot of your attention.
  • Deep breaks should not usually last more than 10 – 15 minutes, with some exceptions, such as for meals.

Breaks that avoid the above warnings should probably be okay. For example, here are some of my standard deep break activities:

  • Taking a short walk to get more water or coffee while trying to just observe my surroundings.
  • Day dreaming about the good things that could come from succeeding with the deep work task at hand (e.g., when working on a proof, I might day dream about how I would describe the result if I ended up publishing it).
  • Summarizing to myself what I already know about the task at hand and what I’m trying to accomplish.
  • Reading a book chapter or magazine article that has nothing to do with the deep task at hand.
  • If I’m working at home, doing something fun with my boys (who, fortunately for me, rarely bring up distributed algorithm theory when we play).
  • Complete a household task or short errand.

I don’t want to be too rigid in my description of these breaks. The key message is that when it comes to deep work, you shouldn’t feel like you’re required to maintain peak concentration for hours on end. (If you try to, you’ll fail.) On the other hand, be mindful about how you take your cognitive breathers as they play a key role in whether the deep work session as a whole will succeed.

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Thank you to the 200 – 300 people who showed up last night to listen to Scott and me discuss learning strategies. I enjoyed the discussion and your questions. If you missed the webinar, but want to learn more about Scott’s new rapid learning course (which was the inspiration for the event), you can visit the course website

(Photo by Ghislain Mary)

63 thoughts on “On Deep Breaks”

  1. Some clarification on how reading a book chapter or magazine article does not leave a cognitive residual. Are you requiring the piece read to be of fiction in nature?

    I have previously found reading non-fiction leaves me thinking about it, on some level, when I move onto something else. Or is this just a habit I need to break?

    Reply
  2. “Reading a book chapter or magazine article that has nothing to do with the deep task at hand.”

    Do you talk about novels, poems, etc, right? What do you read if I may ask?

    Reply
  3. Thanks Cal – great article.
    One important problem with the way we work (deeply or otherwise) is the long periods of holding a static posture (usually sitting). This can be helped with a dynamic workstation (which could just be moving your laptop to a high surface to stand and a low surface to sit on the floor for periods of time), and regular breaks to stretch and move (and relax the eyes by looking into the distance).
    I think the best break activity is qigong – it’s basically a practice that combines postural work, stretching, deep breathing and mindfulness. Unlike other practices with similar benefits (like yoga and tai chi), it’s easier to learn the basics and doesn’t require much space or a change of clothes.
    Of course, you might not do this during every break, but it’s certainly an efficient way of getting the benefits of a mental break, stretching, movement and other health benefits in a short period of time.

    Reply
    • Music can help during deep work if you have trained yourself to get used to working with the noise (at which point it acts like a distraction blocker and can ritualize your concentration). Music is immediately helpful in deep breaks, even without practice, as it can help occupy and soothe your mind in a now residue-generating manner.

      Reply
      • Does all music fall under this or just certain kinds? I can understand classical/soundtrack/ambient music, but I’m uncertain how compatible other genres would be with deep breaks. Is it dictated by each person, or is there research to suggests some basic guidelines for this?

        Reply
  4. Cal, I devoured “Deep Work” and then went back and read “So Good They Can’t Ignore You” I work with Jay Papasan a best-selling author (The ONE Thing) like yourself. There is a synergy in both of your work. Jay would love to have you as a guest on his webinar. We know that you are serious about “Deep Work” and don’t often do this but the message is so important. Would love to discuss further with you. Thanks for all the great work.

    Marvin

    Reply
  5. Thanks for clarifying this important issue. I think examples for this kind of issues helps a lot. I can see how you behave in certain cases and this makes me understand your approach deeper.

    Reply
  6. Great post, Cal.

    I however wouldn’t prefer reading a book or a magazine for my deep breaks. As a couple other readers have pointed out, that leaves an attention residue when you switch back to deep work.

    My rule of thumb would be that a deep break should not involve information consumption of any kind, be it books or music. Letting your brain cool down by not channeling any more information into it helps, in my view.

    Reply
  7. Hi Cal, I don’t usually point out grammatical errors (I don’t want to be THAT person) but there’s a mistake I think you’ll want to fix. You say, “Thank you to the 200 – 300 people who showed up last night to listen to Scott and I discuss learning strategies.” What you mean, is “Scott and me.” This is the kind of error that can lead people to assume that you’re not as smart as I know you really are. (You can tell it’s an error because if you deleted the word Scott, the sentence would obviously be wrong. You’d never say: “who showed up to listen to I.”)

    Reply
  8. I have a 55-pound kettlebell in my office that is perfect for Deep Work breaks. I can work for hours upon hours on end with Bulletproof Coffee, the kettlebell, and a standing desk. 50 minutes on, 10 minutes of kettlebell swings….repeat x 10.

    Reply
      • I’ve experimented with HITT, mainly short sprints to activate my mind and body especially if I’m feeling a bit sluggish. Exercise seems to leave you with more energy, not less which is a common misconception

        Reply
  9. Hi Cal,

    Can you please elaborate how this compares with the research on:
    interleaved vs. massed/blocked sessions.

    I believe interleaving introduces what researchers call desirable difficulty, where the extra effort required after attention has switched, is helpful.
    (It’s like a mini spacing effect within the session itself).

    Would appreciate your comments. Thanks.

    Reply
  10. Hi Cal,

    This is off-topic from your post, but I’m curious if you’ve heard about bullet journals and what your thoughts are on them. They seem to be the next big pseudo-productivity craze, endorsed by Vogue and WSJ and Marie Kondo of “The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up.” As someone who’s been using your techniques for nearly ten years, the bullet journal method seems needlessly complicated. I can only imagine the *hours* spent on all the designs and colors and layout planning, but I wonder how much is actually being translated into productive output and goal accomplishing. It seems like a topic that’d be right up your alley to explore in a future blog post.

    Reply
    • It feels a little lightweight to me. The idea that you can capture everything relevant to running your life in a single notebook curated with special symbols is optimistic. Also, as you know, I am fan of time blocking and so will be somewhat wary about any task-centered approach to managing your day.

      Reply
  11. Hi Cal, it is suggested in your book Deep Work that you time block every minute of your day, including breaks. In the book it is suggested that these time blocks should be no shorter than 30 minutes unlike the 15 minutes suggested here for breaks? In the book David DeWayne is also referenced suggesting 90 minute deep work sessions followed by a 90 minute break. I am a huge fan of your work and it has made a big difference to my life, I would appreciate it if you could clear this up for me. Would it better to try and reach the 4 hour mark with one hour deep work sessions and 15 minute breaks all at the start of a day, or should I be spreading the work out more evenly throughout the day or does this all just depend on my personal preference and what works best for me? Thanks

    Reply
    • Deep breaks are implicit in scheduled deep work sessions. That is, if you block out four hours for deep work, that is four hours that will be punctuated, as needed, by deep breaks. You don’t have to actually schedule the latter.

      Reply
      • Just to cement the explanation given:

        * Time-blocked 4 Hours of Deep Work

        * Individual decided to take deep breaks after each round of deep work for 30 minutes

        1 Hour Deep Work
        30 minute Deep Break
        1 Hour Deep Work
        30 minute Deep Break
        1 Hour Deep Work
        Total: 4 Hours

        Would this be a basic example of a 4 hour deep work session?

        Reply
  12. Hi Cal, I’m a college student studying computer science, and I was wondering what your thought on caffeine is.
    Do you think drinking coffee is conducive to deep work?

    I was not a fan of caffeine for boosting productivity because it felt like an illusion of focus and jitteriness seemed to distract deep work. But recently, I’m trying to take the optimum amount that would strike the right balance.

    Do you drink coffee at all?
    If you do, which time(s) of the day and how much do you drink?

    Reply
    • You might want to look up videos and forums discussing the Überman (sleep) adaptation challenges. I recall one guy mentioning he really got to notice the effect of caffeine, and that he could feel the effects up over the next 24 hours, cognitively speaking. It wouldn’t surprise me if, deep down, we’re all affected in this way (regular users, myself included, will deny this at first, understably).

      Reply
    • I drink lots of caffeine. Probably five or six mugs or so a day at least. My simple rule is to stop drinking caffeine at lunch (so it doesn’t impact my sleep).

      I don’t think it’s a necessary for deep work in the abstract. I’m likely addicted so if I went cold turkey I’d probably be worse at deep work for a while.

      Reply
      • Thanks!
        Then I guess you drink five~six mugs of coffee all in the morning. I wake up at 5:50 and try to get at least seven hours of sleep, so I have been experimenting with various dosage. Does the effect last until the afternoon for you if you drink in the morning?

        Also, what kind of benefits do caffeine provide for us? Does it make us concentrate better (additive) or make us more alert by inhibiting sleepiness (subtractive)?

        Reply
  13. Great post Cal with practical tips on how to take a break.

    There seems to be three things here: (1) Deep Work (2) Deep Breaks (3) And the ability to develop the skills of “Deep Work” and “Deep Breaks”.

    My question: Is practicing “Deep Work” the best way to develop the concentration for “Deep Work” or do you get there through another path like meditation, breathing, practicing mindfulness, etc.?

    Reply
    • Embracing boredom can be good training for building tolerance for a lack of distraction. Exercises meant only to stretch your concentration are also helpful, and this covers many different things — from skilled sports, to card games, to music, etc.

      Reply
  14. Hi Cal. I really enjoyed reading this post. You write that in your book, Straight-A, you recommend that students study in 50 minute chunks of time, followed by a 10 minute break.
    I am a psychotherapist. I was trained to do 50 minute therapy sessions, followed by a 10 minute break. When I do several sessions in a row, I always follow these time frames. Some therapists do 45 minute sessions, especially psychoanalysts. I was in psychoanalysis for a few years as part of some training I did. It was very valuable both emotionally and professionally. That said, 45 minutes never felt long enough to me!

    Reply
  15. We’ve been talking about this concept, as well as the whole Deep Work book this week in an online co-working space that I host. It has been really helpful for many of us (especially me, who officially quit social media last week and am now looking for more intentional ways to find community).

    Anyway, thanks so much for putting this body of work out there. It’s really encouraging to find new distraction-free ways of being, interacting, and working.

    Reply
    • Regular and frequent exposure to boredom (in the sense of lack of easily digestible novel stimuli) lays a great foundation. So does music and/or sports training once they move past an introductory level. This all starts young.

      Reply
  16. I am reading Deep work ,I reached to 4 types of deep work .

    In one of those examples you stated that for experts doing 4 hours of intense concentration is limit whereas for novice its one hour.

    I got confuse over this sentence as I do not know what to do if we chooses second type of Deep work i.e., “Bimodal Philosophy of Deep work scheduling”. I am planning to do 5 days continuous deep work followed by 2 days for rest/shallow work. But considering your point shall I only do 4 hours work on those Bimodal days?

    Reply
  17. Hi Cal,

    Big fan of your work!

    This is a little unrelated but what Deep work practices do you use not only to prepare for your lectures for students but also to improve your skill at delivering your lectures.

    Thank you again for all the great content.

    Best regards,

    Chris

    Reply
  18. Yes! I was waiting for this topic…
    I just submitted my doctoral thesis – quite relaxed and happy, although I have been working intensely towards a strict deadline.
    I think this was possible because of deep work – and the sustained deep work was possible because of regular deep breaks.
    For the breaks, I was switching my focus to my body – having a little walk outside, breathing deeply, stretching, and meditating for few minutes.
    These breaks helped to keep my body fine (e.g., stretching preventing back pain due to long hours at the computer), to relieve stress and pressure from the approaching deadline (deep breathing & meditation), and supported, maybe even allowed, the “deep work” necessary to finish my thesis on time (via supplying my brain with fresh blood and oxygen).
    So I can only recommend such “physically focused” breaks as a counterbalance to intense mental work.

    Reply
  19. I’ve been reading your book about Deep Work and read a few posts on this blog. I understand the basic concept of deep work, which is working for a long time on a single task without any distraction. But this brings me to a question “Is Pomodoro Technique a deep work?”, as the technique include breaks every 25 minutes which can be distractive. Can I achieve deep work using the Pomodoro Technique?

    Reply
  20. Are DeepWork + DeepBreaks compatible with Deliberate Practice? The latter, to me, is like sprint (track and field, not IT) training, while DW+DB is more like marathon training and pacing.

    Reply
  21. Hey cal,

    I was working in solitude on making a software.
    Every evening , i would cringe at my productivity being destroyed by breaks that started being harmless but robbed my day.
    Fb, twitter, youtube , browsing sucked up time.

    Your ideas , posts have been godsent for me.

    Thank you.

    Thank you

    Reply
  22. Any advice about downtime when your partner is an academic in the same discipline and they just love to chat about work all the time? I don’t want to simply impose a rule on them (“no work talk after hours or when I’m on a break”), it’s not right since the importance of deep breaks is not their philosophy (yet…). I was wondering if you ever came across some technique to use during downtime/deep breaks that numbs triggers to thoughts about your own work. (So if my partner wants to mention a fun fact from his subfield, I don’t start thinking about the consequences to my subfield or my own research.)

    Thank you very much, and thank you for your wonderful book!

    Reply
  23. Dear author,

    Feeling passioned about the idea of deep work – a truly great book and a concept. I have a question regarding the deep work practice that bothers me a lot.

    I find it entertaining listening to podcasts (lectures on literature) while taking a walk, or driving. However, I’m not sure will this undermine my ability to go deep? Does music (whether repetitive or not) have a similar effect on the skill of depth?

    Overall, thank you for a great book and, hopefully, a response (although I know your responce is not expected to come very soon)!

    Reply
  24. Hey Cal,
    I was wondering if 90 minute bursts of studying with 20 minutes break of power naps is a good idea for a whole day of studying?

    Reply
  25. Hi Cal,

    I’ve been reading your books and you’ve been an inspiration in changing the way I approach college life. I would like to ask a question regarding studying hacks though. Would you recommend deliberately practicing past year papers to ace exams?

    Reply
  26. Very interesting post and definitely something I would have loved to see outlined in the deep work book.

    You seem to be very much against the network technologies and things like buzzfeed, reddit or mini games on a smartphone are things I would put into that category for simplicity. But especially very simplistic games like doodle jump or angry birds seem to qualify as deep break activities, even more than some of your reccomendations like thinking about what you know about the topic, or reading an article which could both violate one of your “to avoid” criteria. I would love to hear your thoughts on this and specifically, if those are not suitable breaks, which criterion they violate or wether there may be an additional point that should be added to that list.

    Reply
    • >But especially very simplistic games like doodle jump or angry birds seem to qualify as deep break activities

      I think one big issue with such games, though, is that you will use your smartphone. For me at least, that is a deal breaker.

      Reply
  27. Hey Cal!

    I wanted to know, what about weekends? How do you rest when you take days off?

    I was thinking through it but was unsure. But something I was thinking:

    – it probably needs to be stress-free.
    – it needs to be unrelated to work.
    – with physical exercise.

    but I was unsure of the following:

    – is a relax day do you not engage in ANY sort of deep work/concertation?
    – probably should not be in a constant state of distraction.

    Anything else you would add? Any comments? What are your thoughts? Even if you just share how you do your relax days/weekends would be great.

    E.g. what do you do after your shutdown ritual?

    Reply
  28. Hi Cal,

    Knowledge about “Deep Break” is crucial in properly implementing daily time blocking. “Deep Work + Deep Break” concept was something that I missed while reading many related articles in this blog and your books. Without this insight, two issues arise:

    1. Time blocking becomes more difficult as one needs to allocate (based on pure guess) some time for deep work and 10-15 min for refreshment. However, it happens that during the deep work block, you need to refresh, walk, drink water, use the washroom, etc., then the daily plan needs to be updated many times, leading to a messy analog time blocking.

    2. Separate small deep work blocks encourage to deliberately become distracted by the mailbox, phone, etc., in between each block.

    Now, with the insight obtained from this article, I simply allocate 3-4 hours of deep work while taking many breaks within which continue thinking about the work I was doing, digesting the reading, and still staying in the deep work mood with no distractions mentioned in the above article. This also makes a good feeling of accomplishment as I obtain a better DW tally.

    Thanks, Cal. I would recommend emphasizing this in your podcasts as this clarifies the concept of the “Deep Work” and simplifies the process of Time Blocking.

    Reply
  29. Hi Cal, I’ve recently become a big fan of journaling and before I became more interested in Deep Work, I replaced texting/messaging friends with journaling during my breaks from studying. However, I can see how there’s a slippery slope for this activity to turn into a destabilizing distraction. So far, it seems like these two bullet points could be a start: Day dreaming about the good things…, Summarizing to myself what I already know….Do you have any other prompts that I could use to take Journaling Deep Breaks?

    Reply

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