what are boring breaks and how do they help you stay productive?


Boring Breaks is the idea that you spend your time doing menial chores instead of spending time on your phone. This allows you to get more work done and the boredom from doing a chore motivates you to come back and finish the actual work that needs your attention.

What is Boring Breaks and how does it work?

Boring Breaks in its essence is a two-pronged advantage that lets you:

  1. Get some side quests done.
  2. Bore you enough that you want to come back to your main work focus.

The Pomodoro Technique Issue - we are suckers for breaks

The Pomodoro Technique states that you work for 25 minutes and take a break of 5 minutes; there are various techniques that vary in their timing: 50 minutes of work and 10 minutes of break or 45 minutes of work and 15 minutes of relaxation.

Our biggest issue lies not in the time set for work our ability to honour breaks.

Let's say you are writing a 800 word blog post (like I am write now, ignore the pun thank you).

If you write for 25 minutes, that's from 4:01 PM to 4:25 PM IST.

Then, you decide to take a break at 4:26 PM which should end at 4:30 PM IST.

But my word here's where you mess up:

  1. You work for 25 minutes. Good.
  2. At 4:26 PM IST, you open your phone.
  3. After replying to people on a few tabs and checking notifications, you decided to scroll Reels on Instagram.
  4. Now the time is 4:37 PM IST.
  5. Instead of panicking, you don't even notice it.
  6. The comfort of sitting there doom scrolling while reading the comments as a side dish is sublime.
  7. You don't want to give it up.

This is where your break time affects performance and output. Now instead of getting back to it at 4:31 PM IST, you are waiting for 5:01 PM IST since it rounds off well. 

And even in that you will show some laziness, start at 5:07 PM IST and yet take a break at 5:26 PM IST because "hey, that's how Pomodoro works."

How does Boring Breaks help you save time?

If you are taking a 5 to 10 minute break, simply do something boring and distasteful that you don't like but has to be done.

Here are some examples of Boring Breaks:

  1. Hanging the clothes out to dry.
  2. Stretching or picking up weights.
  3. Washing your cup of coffee that's been on your work desk for three hours.
  4. ​Journaling about your day.
  5. ​Eating something healthy.
  6. Peeling fruits or preparing a light snack.
  7. Polishing your shoes.
  8. Setting up your washing machine.
  9. Folding your clothes.
  10. Trimming your nails.

Depending on your daily schedule and the tasks you have at hands you can complete multiple tasks per day as long as they are not out of sight and out of mind.

Why you need to practice Boring Breaks

what are the benefits of boring breaks


With Boring Breaks, firstly I get my micro tasks completed. When I am working on my SaaS or personal projects, I simply take a 10 minute break to water the plants, buy groceries or maybe even get a haircut.

Boring Breaks make you come back to work

I go outside to water the plants, love it for a few seconds before the heat tries to roast me and then I cannot wait to get back under the fan to work on my SaaS or design a few Framer templates.

Each time I have wanted to come back and keep my head down to focus on work.

Deep work is possible with your boring breaks

To get into a state of flow and focus on deep work, it is important to first not have any distractions around you.

Your phone is one of the biggest one; especially if you have constant pings on WhatsApp and other apps.

I personally don't think deep work solves everything but in case you want to stay focused for a project on a tight deadline you definitely want to avoid distractions.

Boring breaks bring the joy back in what you are working on

If you love what you do then it is likely that you will come back to it, especially when given a not so lovely task.

Imagine being asked to plough the fields at 3 PM when it's 33 degrees celsius vs working in a comfortable chair at home with the AC at your optimal temperature. 

Which one will you choose?

This line of thought is precisely why you opt in for boring breaks where you feel compelled to finish a task but also come back to what's important.

I hope you will love the idea of taking boring breaks every now and then.

If the idea of Boring Breaks help you I would love to hear about your progress: you can write to me on Instagram or X (Twitter): anthonysmendes​

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