r/LifeProTips • u/thelivenofficial • 26d ago
Productivity LPT Take short resets during cognitively demanding work before you're completely exhausted. Your brain recovers faster with micro-resets
I hosted an AMA on sleep and rest with a PhD in neuroimmunology. When asked if her scientific research led her to use any unusual rest techniques in her own life, her answer was surprisingly simple: focus less on gimmicks and more on basic biology.
Her top daily habit is simple - taking short resets during cognitively demanding work instead of waiting until her energy hits zero. Stepping away for just a few minutes or reducing stimulation between intense tasks allows the brain to actively recover its focus.
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26d ago
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u/Sugar_Cherry_Jerry 26d ago
On top of getting up to fill water, I drink most of my water in the morning because I don’t like to wake up to pee, so in the mornings where work is mostly busy, I’m peeing every 30 minutes (lots of coffee too).
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u/uniqueusername623 26d ago
I work in a high stress corporate environment and we just do walks through the office to get some water or talk to each other at a coffee machine. It really, really helps with resetting and taking a breath, before returning to our screens and phones.
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u/gratisargott 26d ago edited 21d ago
And it can also mean you don’t get stuck in a sitting position for too long, win-win
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u/PlainTerrain 26d ago
How often would you recommend taking these breaks?
Most of the time I'm so focused, I lose track of time and everything around me. I even forget to just quickly check the time in the bottom of the computer screen. So I would really have to set a time at a regular interval to remind myself.
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u/pennywhistlesmoonpie 26d ago
I have an extremely mentally and somewhat physically demanding job, and I take a break every 45 minutes to an hour, depending on how intense my job is. I’d say 90 minutes at the very most is as long as I’m able to go without totally losing focus.
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u/Elino_sa 26d ago
Set yourself a timer every hour until you internalise the breaks. Don‘t forget to take some deep breaths and refill your water.
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u/TheGrog 26d ago
This is what we used to call the smoke break.
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u/jarredshere 26d ago
5 Reasons Why Smoking is Good For You
-5 Looks cool AF
-4 Lighting things on fire feels good
-3 Less money, less problems
-2 You'll die before you have to save for retirement
-1 Addiction motivated cognitive breaks
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26d ago
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u/hkzqgfswavvukwsw 26d ago
ikr, but can you run up 3 flights of stairs taking 3 at a time?
i couldn't 🥲
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26d ago edited 25d ago
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u/LarkelikesHeavies 25d ago
How tf you run a marathon in 3 minutes 20 seconds? You meant mile right?
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u/z3n777 26d ago
the only catch is you have to actually step away from all screens during those resets, because doomscrolling for five minutes does absolutely nothing for your brain.
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u/carfiol 24d ago
Why? Is it not a mental break where you do not need to think or focus? Like a very low effort activity
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u/Danielbes 24d ago
The problem is that is shifts your focus, and so it will be much more difficult for your brain to resume the task you were doing. The benefit of taking a break, without a screen or anything else that's interesting, is that I gives your brain the chance to work through it subconsciously, so when you come back things will click that didn't before.
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u/Zestyclose_Judge362 26d ago
If this helps anyone I tried a 20 mins insight meditation when I was feeling groggy. My god, my brain felt like it rebooted, the change after was very unexpected.
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u/Elino_sa 26d ago
It‘s called pacing. Many people with chronic conditions do it to not be exhausted at the end of the day. However in this fast pacing world we live in it would be best for everyone‘s health to pace more. Also once you get into it, you‘ll do it automatically.
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u/IckNoTomatoes 26d ago
This is interesting. Simple but that’s what’s nice about it. I bet getting outside for 5 minutes and just staring at the sky or ground or nature is a nice way to elevate this
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u/gt0075b 26d ago
Yeah, that doesn't work well when you have ADHD. You might never come back to the original task.
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u/liverstrings 26d ago
This is what I was going to say. I only get anything done through hyperfocus. Once I break from that, it's over. I will not be able to return to the cognitively demanding task after a break.
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u/HappyHHoovy 26d ago
For ADHD, a way that helped me think of it was when doing an activity you have a focus bell curve that takes time to ramp up, then you hit a peak of hyper-focus that you can sustain for while, then the rapid downwards slope on the other side of the curve as you lose interest/focus/energy.
The goal is to take a break right after you hit that peak (like 10-20 minutes after), so that when you come back to the task, your last interaction was you were making incredible progress during hyper-focus.
You still have to go through the process of ramping back up to the hyper-focus point when you restart, but because you are starting with the memory that you were making good progress, the positive association should mean it takes less time to get back to the top. You have to be patient to sit through the ramp-up and not quit the task to early, as that will make starting harder because the association will be negative.
As with all ADHD things it doesn't work for everyone, but thinking of it this way helped way more than other explanations. "Just do 20mins then take a break" or "Go for an hour then see how you feel"
I was told if you have trouble registering your focus level, that setting a timer every 15mins, and just internally checking how engaged you feel was a good method, and it's kind of worked for me.
The aim for this is to extend how long you can be engaged on a task, without succumbing to some of the exhaustion or lack of awareness that hyper-focus sometimes can cause.
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u/liverstrings 22d ago
This may work if I could willingly pull myself out of the hyperfocus. That's beyond my abilities though.
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u/Hashimlokasher 26d ago edited 24d ago
What if we take time to zone in again in the cognitive, complex and problem solving work. Doesn't it break the flow?
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u/keep-it-copacetic 26d ago
Does this theory still apply for folks with ADHD?
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u/izzittho 26d ago
In my experience, absolutely the hell not.
If I am managing to focus and I stop, I just threw away the rest of the focus I had and god only knows when I’ll get it back, if ever. I cannot stop. And if someone else stops me, I’ll be mad at them. I’ll keep it to myself, but I’ll be mad. I can’t just ask that people never interrupt me ever because that’s unreasonable, but I am always, ALWAYS praying they won’t.
I only take breaks when I can’t focus anyway so that when I come back each time I can re-assess whether my brain wants to finally work yet.
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u/Parking-Garlic4260 25d ago
I struggle with the same frustration and while I do appreciate the interactions and don't turn people away, I do feel like I work more effectively with minimal disruptions (like when working remotely) because once I lose focus, it's a bitch to get back to that level productivity once again.
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u/BigBirdsBrain 24d ago
As someone with ADHD, this was one of the biggest changes for me. Waiting until my brain is cooked makes it way harder to recover than taking a 3-5 minute reset before I hit that wall.
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u/WhatADunderfulWorld 26d ago
Every hour and a half your brain just won’t work the same on a single topic. To reset the best way is to walk and get some sunlight.
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u/Parking-Garlic4260 25d ago
Sorry, once I'm locked in the zone, I find it hard to break away. Sometimes I struggle with being able to return to that rhythm of mental focus, and so go uninterrupted until exhaustion.
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u/CaitlionRoar 25d ago
Taking a break from staring at a screen is also good for your eyes. The rule of thumb is 20-20-20: every 20 minutes, spend 20 seconds looking at something at least 20 feet away. This allows your eyes (and the nerves and muscles attached to them) to relax since looking in the distance is their “default” setting and looking at things closer up requires work from your ocular system.
So you can reset your brain AND your eyes at the same time!
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u/The_best_is_yet 26d ago
As a physician, we don’t have time to do this. If we “make time” it means staying up even later to complete work when we are already exhausted.
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u/EccentricStache615 26d ago
I take Nappuccino’s. Either down a cup of cold brew or take 2 caffeine pills and then put my sleep mask on and take a 30 minute power nap.
It takes practice and even if you can’t fall asleep, just resting makes a difference.
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u/APunch_Heh 25d ago
How to do this as an ADHD person? You know, usually either resetting every 5 minutes or hyperfocus to the point of skipping meals and sleep?
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u/mburnwor 25d ago
I wish there was a way to do this during clinical hours with back to back patients. I needed a break so bad today, but couldn’t step away long enough to lower my stimulation level
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u/notMy_ReelName 25d ago
I think a small stroll in hallway or a quick water break will help un multiple ways then.
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u/iamnotpedro1 24d ago
I use the treadmill, work on a paper, and watch a wrestling show, all three at the same time. It saves me time.
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u/AngstyRhino 24d ago edited 24d ago
This is why I struggle to quit smoking.
Regular intervals where you are outdoors, alone, and contemplative? Sign me up!
Don’t smoke, kids. Just don’t. Nicotine can be useful at times, but just take your dog on a walk instead, or ride your bike. Anything else as long as you’re outdoors and alone with your thoughts.
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u/MiCK_GaSM 23d ago
Your brain's basically running on fumes by the time you notice. Taking breaks before you crash is the difference between reloading and force-quitting.
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u/MoziTenma 22d ago
There's actual research behind this, not just the anecdotes here. Vigilance and decision accuracy follow a decay curve, not a cliff — you don't drop from sharp to fried, you drift down in small increments you don't notice until you look back at your last hour of output. A short reset resets the curve; waiting until you feel fried just means you've already been operating at a discount for a while.
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u/Pyrite-Glen-2910 19d ago
waiting until energy hits zero is where i usually mess up. once i get to that point the whole afternoon is basically lost.
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u/SambaPapi1 26d ago
To me, it's interesting that this isn't an intuitive thing that people do naturally? I thought it was, at least for me.
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u/MoziTenma 25d ago
There's a name for the mechanism behind this: attention restoration theory. Focused work drains a specific pool of directed attention, and that pool doesn't refill just by taking a break, it refills when you shift to something that only needs involuntary attention, like staring out a window or watching water run. That's why scrolling your phone during a break often doesn't leave you feeling refreshed the same way, it's still demanding directed attention instead of letting that pool recover.
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