Why I take sketch breaks instead of surfing the Internet

I do this too. I also take off my shoes and do little toe-tap drills with a soccer ball. (Which can become a respectable work-out in 6 square feet.)<p>They're both non-verbal, I can almost feel myself using a different part of the brain. It's a good little rest, and erases my mental "context" of the problem -- I catch a lot of silly errors when I return to work.

There is a dead comment here that mentions meditation and as this is my main method for taking breaks I thought I'd share (as I doubt the comment is dead for mentioning it). When I find I'm stressing over a project too much I just put whatever I'm working on away and meditate until my thoughts aren't being pulled all over the place. The word "meditate" can have a lot of different meanings but basically what I do is just focus on something like the breath entering and leaving my body; doing so consistently (and going back to it whenever my thoughts wander) always clears my head and makes whatever I was working on a lot easier to do.

I write with my hands on paper as much as I can to get my eyes off of the monitor and my hands off the keyboard. Yes taking notes on something like evernote is more useful down the road, but for me there is something more free about jotting notes on paper. It gives me a mental break, a physical break, and if I come up with something really useful, I'll type it in a note program. As an added bonus, the retyping of it usually lets me come up with something new to add.

My G&#38;L Tele is out of its case leaning against the wall most all the time for this very reason. 5-10 minutes of working on my Knopfler bends and I'm good. Time well spent.

There is a Ted talk that goes over why Doodling should actually be encouraged: <a href="http://www.ted.com/talks/sunni_brown.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.ted.com/talks/sunni_brown.html</a>

It would be interesting to know what other people in the technology industry do during their breaks. I usually go for a smoke and a cup of coffee, and maybe getting to know what other people do could inspire me to avoid this bad habit.

I study art and freelance as a designer. As you can tell, sketching is a big part of my life. Doodling, sketching, brainstorming, laying out wireframes on paper, value and abstract studies all involve touching some sort of a pen tool, be it a tablet pen or a graphite stick.<p>From what I found, I prefer sketching with a 2H pencil to tablets. There is just a lot more feedback, and like the author describes it, I'm a lot less likely to get unfocused when sketching on paper than when sketching in Illustrator.

A good book on sketching and it's application as a business communication tool is Dan Roam's <i>The Back of the Napkin</i>.<p><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Back-Napkin-Expanded-Problems-Pictures/dp/1591843065/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&#38;qid=1319827762&#38;sr=8-1" rel="nofollow">http://www.amazon.com/Back-Napkin-Expanded-Problems-Pictures...</a>

There is some interesting reading about relations between drawing, perception and various modes of brain operation in "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain" by Betty Edwards (excerpt here: <a href="http://drawright.com/drsbread.htm" rel="nofollow">http://drawright.com/drsbread.htm</a> )

Am I the only one who first read the title of the post as "stretch breaks" instead of "sketch breaks"?

Problem with using physical media - STORAGE.<p>Trust me, I have literally 1000's of pieces of paper lying around here with ideas, sketches, the works, built up over 15 years. I'm never going to scan any of it.<p>Get a tablet before it's too late.

When I was a student I found juggling to be a useful distraction when taking a break. It kept the mind engaged but took my focus completely away from my studies. I think this the key to a good break activity. You want to stay sharp but completely distract yourself. There are probably also benefits that come from using your motor skills, different parts of the brains and even shifting your focus to follow moving objects.<p>It was also quite rewarding to slowly see myself improving.

A recent article in "scientific american mind" argues that our sub-conscious mind solves problems when we sleep or daydream. I see no reason to think that when you are scribbling some doodles, the same thing isn't happening in the back of your head. This also probably helps to rest your ocular muscles and gives your retinas a break.

I use a pomodoro timer to prevent breaks from lasting too long or being too infrequent. (It's important to rest your eyes!) I like this idea though, it would be less, irritating to have your break end when you're in the middle of a doodle than when you're in the middle of an article.

Excellent! It has an implicit deadline AND its actually relaxing. Surfing the net, unless its social, does a little to relax your eyes, your brain, or your body's posture.<p>I don't have any physiological proof but moving <i>away</i> from the screen is the first step to a purpose-seving 'break'.

If you're not into pen and paper, there are a bunch of cool sites that let you doodle in the browser. I've been using this one for a few weeks and it's actually pretty cool: <a href="http://doodle.ly/" rel="nofollow">http://doodle.ly/</a>

In terms of eye health, it's beneficial to get outside and look at things in the distance. Constantly focusing on something right in front of you sucks. doodling is awesome but doesn't provide the variety your eyes need.

Unfortunately, I live in a small apartment and the only desk I have has a computer on it, which makes it hard for me to concentrate on sketching or anything else. I guess I should go to the library more.

scratch that, just doodling is enough <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ik2CZqsAw28" rel="nofollow">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ik2CZqsAw28</a> no need to even pretend you know how to draw

The first word of your post needs another vowel :)

I do origami. I especially find modular polyhedra, folding simple one piece over and over to assemble something beautiful.

doodling , or wishful-writing conveys a very nice feeling of letting your brain 'be himself', and often surprise yourself.<p>On the musical side, odd time 'swing' drum rudiment at slow pace , while sustaining a deep breathing pattern is very relaxing. ( actually it's something close to what steve gadd advice for learning/enjoying drumming )

Try juggling. What's interesting about it is that I have to consciously turn my forebrain off to juggle successfully.

I've been doing this for a few months. Painting would be ideal, but my new location doesnt allow for it.

Did anyone else read it as stretch breaks? I think that would have been quite relevant too.

Relevant NPR story: <a href="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=101727048" rel="nofollow">http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1017270...</a>

and the first to do about that is blogging about it.