Maybe most importantly, I’m not sure the premise of “it’s good for breaks to be proportional to the time you worked” actually applies to me? It’s certainly a reasonable hypothesis for how mental energy works, and it’s true to some resolution (if I do basically no work then I need basically no break, and if I work three days straight on a big project I’m definitely taking a big crash afterward) but I’m not sure it’s true on the scale of a day’s work.
If I’m doing some kind of physical or ops related work, then I can go all day—breaks seem like a waste. For computer work I occasionally do Ultraworking’s Work Marathon, and thus far when I’ve done that I’ve managed to solidly do 21 pomodoros every day, with a strict 30⁄10 duration. These things make me think that in order to do more work, I need the right environment, and not that I need to fine-tune my breaks.
It may be short breaks would be beneficial without your realising it. I read some research somewhere which showed that people often flag without realising it (or before they realise it), ie they don’t notice that their concentration declines.
Maybe most importantly, I’m not sure the premise of “it’s good for breaks to be proportional to the time you worked” actually applies to me? It’s certainly a reasonable hypothesis for how mental energy works, and it’s true to some resolution (if I do basically no work then I need basically no break, and if I work three days straight on a big project I’m definitely taking a big crash afterward) but I’m not sure it’s true on the scale of a day’s work.
If I’m doing some kind of physical or ops related work, then I can go all day—breaks seem like a waste. For computer work I occasionally do Ultraworking’s Work Marathon, and thus far when I’ve done that I’ve managed to solidly do 21 pomodoros every day, with a strict 30⁄10 duration. These things make me think that in order to do more work, I need the right environment, and not that I need to fine-tune my breaks.
It may be short breaks would be beneficial without your realising it. I read some research somewhere which showed that people often flag without realising it (or before they realise it), ie they don’t notice that their concentration declines.