I recently read a study about mice. During experiments, every so often, mice simply stop in one place and lick their paws for a while. The researchers had no idea why this was, until one creative gee-whiz thought of using brain scans on those mice.
He discovered a surprising thing. There was some serious activity going on in the mouse’s brain. In fact, it was replaying backwards its recent activities, reinforcing the neural pathways.
In other words, it was learning.
Humans taking breaks
Humans experience the exact same phenomenon. No, we don’t lick our hands every few minutes. I’m talking about the “taking-break-to-learn” part. Ever tried doing mental work for two hours without a break? It’s not easy. It’s not hard either. It’s flat out impossible. It’s like trying to go without sleep for two weeks, or like holding your breath for half an hour. Your body just won’t let you do it.
Your body will force a break, no matter how hard you resist.
The break is needed to process and sort information. Unfortunately, a lot of people don’t recognize this natural break, and instead try to force themselves harder. They try to overcome the natural mechanism, and end up being tired and unproductive.
Often it’s others who force us to work hard without breaks. Especially at school or in the workplace. But there’s one group of people that has managed to escape this pressure.
Smokers.
Smokers get to take a break every 90 minutes or so. Incidentally, that’s about as often as your body requires a long, 20-minute break. You also need shorter, 2-3 minute breaks every 15 minutes, but you can sneak those in almost anywhere. Plus, those shorter breaks are good to have, but not essential – you can voluntarily skip them.
Taking a smoking break
I’m a non-smoker. I don’t recommend you start smoking just to be able to take smoking breaks. (Though you might try pretending. Maybe go take a break with other smokers, stick a cigarette in your mouth, but don’t light it? Anyone tried that?).
But I do recommend you take regular smoking breaks, every 90 minutes or so. There are several clear benefits of taking a smoking break:
1. You will be more relaxed
2. Your concentration will improve
3. You will accomplish more
Just recognize your body’s natural need, and go with it. The benefits are worth it.
Shorter smoking breaks
During brain-intensive work, you need more than the long 20-minute breaks. You also need short smoking breaks of 2-3 minutes as well. A classic example is learning.
When you’re learning something new, take a 2-3 minute break every 15 minutes. You won’t believe the difference it makes.
When I first heard about this, I talked to a friend, a brilliant Othello player (Othello’s similar to chess). He told me: “Well that’s interesting. After every practice game, I just sit around for a few minutes and chat before starting the next game.” A clear example of a smoking break improving learning.
You too can leverage this to learn much faster and better. In fact, I’ve got a post on that topic coming up. Stay tuned.
So remember, next time you’re just sitting there with your eyes closed (without a cigarette nearby), taking your 20 minutes of rest, and someone asks why you’re slacking off, tell them the truth. “I’m taking a smoking break. You should too. Join us. Don’t be afraid. It’s good for you.” (Try adding wide open eyes and a big grin. They won’t disturb you again anytime soon.)
{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
You poor devil. You’ve been propagandized and you’ll never know the heavenly pleasure of taking a smoking break while actually smoking a cigarette.
You’ve heard how hard it is to quit smoking.That’s because smokers don’t WANT to quit. Do you want to quit copulating or eating watermelon?
@anonymous: Hey, if you like smoking, that’s cool. I used to smoke myself, but I stopped. I hated the smell from my mouth and all over my clothes.
The point with my kind of smoking breaks isn’t the smoking… it’s the break. I just call it a smoking break for the same reason I call taking action before being ready a “70% solution”. Because I feel like it.
amazing, really life-changing tips!! thank you! just I hope if I could send it to all teachers!!
Rest isn’t the only advantage of these “Smoking Breaks”. By changing your environment, you encourage a different set of memories and thoughts to emerge, leading to broader links relating your recent experiences to existing memories.
I personally find that different types of study are most suited to specific environments and situations. For instance, I am best at programming while at a desk, either in the computer labs at uni or at work; I am best at investigating a new topic during the day time with a steady noise of IMs and RSS items coming to me in front of my home computers; and I am best at writing reports during the quiet and cold night phase of my biphasic sleep cycle.
I think the lesson that can be derived from this is that if you’re having trouble studying a particular topic, find somewhere else to study. You may find the best place to study psychology is in a busy cafe, or find that you can pay much more attention to report writing in the middle of a boring lecture.
That’s an awesome piece of info, I’d like to know more about how the action these rats take related to their mental patterns (what activities allow us to let the mind reinforce our thoughts).
If I stop trying to think more about something for a few minutes, and instead just think over the stuff I have already thought over, then that should be the same effect right? I’m thinking that way there’s less tendency to let the break go too long, then again maybe resting the thoughts is necessary.
Lets not encourage smoking though huh? “I do recommend you take regular smoking breaks” …. whew, no thanks. I know you meant just the break though.
Also would be good to know more about the signs that might indicate we need this sort of break.
Nice one, looking forward to the next episode.
I agree pretend smoking breaks are a great idea. I used to go out for a “smoke break” even though I never smoked in my life. That 20 min break was just the ticket I needed to continue on with my day. More than one. That would be great too.
Great post on improving your concentration. I used to have concentration problems. Here’s a website that I thought I might share with you. This informative website offers more than just simple tips and guides to improve concentration. It’s at http://www.attention-deficit-disorder.net
It never stops to surprise how little people know about learning processes.
I read a few books on the topic when I started university because it was clear to me that the way of learning I had used at school will no longer be feasable.
I always think that a one or two hour introduction to learning techniques would improve the situation of so many people in schools and institutions of higher education.
Regarding the breaks, I’ve become pretty good at finding the “dead point”, when you’re just staring at the screen but actually not seeing or thinking anything. A few years ago I would have needed 5-10 minutes for that, now I realize it in about a minute, which saves a lot of time seen over a whole working week
@feng: speaking of education, I’m preparing a blog post on that – it will be ready in a few weeks. There’s a lot more we could improve than just taking breaks.
@lachlan: interesting observations. I noticed that for creative work (brainstorming etc.) I prefer places full of distractions. For orderly, organized work, I prefer a quiet place.
@tim: I think the break is more about letting your thoughts run free. Just thinking about anything or nothing at all.
I also noticed I usually snap out of this daydreaming when my mind is ready for more action. It normally takes about 20 minutes. Give it a try and see if you get the same effect.
@mark: Cheers! I’m happy that someone out there had the same crazy idea
@markus: I totally agree with the bit about learning processes. You could try giving a lecture on it. I’m sure you can somehow rent a lecture hall.
If you try it, just two hints:
1. Create demand first – talk about it to everyone you know, put up some posters with contact e-mail etc. before you even book a time and place
2. Price it high. It makes people think it’s more valuable. Which it is.
Cheers everyone, I’m glad you liked the article.
Very interesting Post. Reminds me of something I used to experience upon playing hours and hours of NES/Sega Genesis/Nintendo 64/PS2 (between the ages of 8 and 23 when there was little else that demanded my time!). I would get stuck on a very hard level, and would retry and retry over and over, and it would seem as if there was no possible way I could beat the level.
Eventually in a fit of frustration I would walk away from the controller for a few hours, and when I returned to give it another go (bracing myself for another marathon of repetitious failure) something amazing would happen. I would beat the previously impossible level the very first attempt after my break.
I was always amazed that simply breaking was far more effective than, for lack of a better term, “jumping right back on the horse”.
Great writeup. I’m a “meditator” – I don’t know if that’s even a word, and I quit smoking about 2 weeks ago (which is an amazing accomplishment for me after 12 years of being a smoker). Anyway, I realized one day that going out “for a smoke” is actually an excellent meditation technique. Not only do you take a break from what you are doing, but you stop, essentially, to do nothing except focus completely on your breathing – albeit for just a couple minutes. The inhalation/exhalation pattern of smoking is an excellent breathing technique to promote immediate results. I would advise anyone to take a 2 minute break and just breath as though they are smoking. The stress relief from that alone is great, and the rejuvenating effect is quite palpable.