
Why I take sketch breaks instead of surfing the Internet - glenbo
http://blog.glenelkins.com/why-i-take-sketch-breaks-instead-of-internet-surfing/
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chernevik
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.)

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.

~~~
paufernandez
Same thing here, only with an instrument. I work at home a lot and have a
Clavinova in the same room as the computer. It's 10 seconds to change chairs.
It clears my mind, and it also helps my piano technique.

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wollw
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.

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bostonvaulter2
Do you ever feel awkward at work because you're meditating?

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wollw
I'm currently only in school but I've never felt awkward doing so in public.
It's not like you have to sit cross-legged or anything to meditate. Keeping a
good posture can help with meditation but it's really an entirely mental
thing. If I'm working in class I just stop working, sit back, and breath; I'm
sure I just look like I'm relaxing. If I looked like I was meditating the fact
that I would probably be pulling people's gaze might weigh on my mind a bit.
For this reason keeping an inconspicuous posture is something I find helpful.

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nosequel
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.

~~~
cpeterso
I write some of my best code with pen and paper. :) Stepping out of the
keyboard+screen context helps me focus and opens up more creative thinking.

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davesims
My G&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.

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biot
To save someone else as musically ignorant as I some googling: G&L is a guitar
brand. "Tele" is short for "Telecaster", a model made by Fender (who also
makes the Stratocaster) which is presumably used loosely for similar models
from other guitar brands as well.

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dhimes
Ahh- then "Knopfler bends" must refer to Dire Straights guitarist Mark
Knopfler.

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davesims
Yes, exactly.

Sorry for the guitar geek-speak. I guess for a second there I mentally
collapsed the distinction between one of my nerd communities and the other.

Maybe I'll go onto Harmony Central's guitar boards and start using acronyms
like DRY and OOP just to balance the scales...

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electromagnetic
I used to keep my bass guitar near me, but it got left behind when I emigrated
to canada. Being reminded by people like you and posts like this makes me feel
like going to a pawn shop and seeing if I can find a half-decent cheapie to
hammer some strings on.

I did the majority of my writing with a guitar strap on, so I feel like
picking one up to see if it could get me back into writing, something I've
struggled with ever since I moved.

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

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joeyespo
Awesome talk.

I'm guity of being caught doodling in class. As early as first grade. I still
remember one particular day long ago where a teacher noticed me doodling
during class. The lecture halted. My notes were confiscated. Then torn up and
tossed into the trash. I was horrified.

And yet, to this day, I've never stopped doodling. It's quite soothing. Some
of my best works of art started as "just a doodle."

~~~
georgieporgie
That just made me remember that I used to draw during class often. Over time,
teachers forced me to stop. Looking back on school, I started out as a well-
behaved, good student, and finished as disinterested, depressed, and
moderately disruptive. I wonder if there was a connection.

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rev087
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.

~~~
bufordtwain
I go for a walk outside.

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mannicken
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.

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.

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se1sm
Wacom Inkling promises the best of both worlds: draw on paper, upload the
bezier curves into Illustrator
[http://www.wacom.eu/index2.asp?pid=9226&lang=en](http://www.wacom.eu/index2.asp?pid=9226&lang=en)

I haven't tried it myself, but enjoyed using Logitech's early io Pen years ago
[http://www.logitech.com/en-us/support-
downloads/downloads/di...](http://www.logitech.com/en-us/support-
downloads/downloads/digital-pen)

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brudgers
A good book on sketching and it's application as a business communication tool
is Dan Roam's _The Back of the Napkin_.

[http://www.amazon.com/Back-Napkin-Expanded-Problems-
Pictures...](http://www.amazon.com/Back-Napkin-Expanded-Problems-
Pictures/dp/1591843065/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1319827762&sr=8-1)

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praptak
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: <http://drawright.com/drsbread.htm> )

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

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contentvoid
No

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brador
Problem with using physical media - STORAGE.

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.

Get a tablet before it's too late.

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tomjen3
You know you can get a scanner with a feeder right? You just have to drop the
paper in the feeder and it will produce a set of pdf documents.

It is more expensive than normal scanners but in your case it would properly
be worth it.

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ChuckMcM
This is so true, I've got a Fuju Scansnap 1500 and it really really made my
life easier. Drop pages in poof they come out as scanned on both sides or just
one (it figures out blank pages), as a pdf, with text ocr'd off if it can
recognize it so its searchable. They automatically drop into a shared folder
on a filer. Paper goes in box with a date, dates > 3 yrs go to shredder.

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parallel
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.

It was also quite rewarding to slowly see myself improving.

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Francon
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.

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docgnome
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.

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openczun
To combat that, I usually use my short breaks to collect articles using Read
It Later, or Instapaper... then use the longer breaks to actually read them.

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docgnome
Yeah. I should do something like that. What I end up doing is just not reading
stuff. Or taking breaks that are way too long.

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namank
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.

I don't have any physiological proof but moving _away_ from the screen is the
first step to a purpose-seving 'break'.

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radius
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: <http://doodle.ly/>

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skeletonjelly
I'd recommend going down the dead tree route, if only to rest your eyes, also
it helps walking somewhere else to sketch to get the blood flowing.

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justinj
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.

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jhuni
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.

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keithpeter
hard backed book? Clipboard with a few sheets attached? Window overlooking a
street?

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cshesse
Dyed black hair? Tight pants? Single speed bike?

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keithpeter
Nope, beard, loose clothing, bus pass as it happens. Its a UK thing.

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

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owlmusic
The first word of your post needs another vowel :)

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glenbo
yikes! Embarrassing, but fixed nonetheless. Thank you.

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

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agumonkey
doodling , or wishful-writing conveys a very nice feeling of letting your
brain 'be himself', and often surprise yourself.

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 )

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AceJohnny2
Try juggling. What's interesting about it is that I have to consciously turn
my forebrain off to juggle successfully.

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T-hawk
Juggling is good. I do that, and my other mental-break hobby is Rubik's cube
type puzzles. Sometimes spending five minutes deeply in thought but a
completely different kind of thought is exactly the right refresher.

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

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

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igorgue
Relevant NPR story:
[http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1017270...](http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=101727048)

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

