Usually when I take a break I'll check HN, Twitter, text messages, YouTube, etc. I think these activities are fine on occasion when you need to just unwind for a bit and not worry about productivity. But when I follow the pomodoro technique, a 5 minute break every 25 minutes, that's almost 1.5 hours in a workday or around 16 days a year if you work 5 days a week. That's a lot of time. I'm interested to read what you spend your break time on that has more value. More value break activities I've thought of is trying to answer questions on Stack Exchange or read a book.
I was never able to commit to Pomodoro mainly because those 5 minutes are not a lot to commit to anything.<p>For small breaks, I will just get up, do some stretching, have a snack (usually an apple with peanut butter or another fruit, maybe some dark chocolate). If I really want to get out of the zone, I will open HN/SO and will spend more than 15-30'.<p>For my lunch break, I will put a podcast/book on and will cook with that on the background.