
How I Force Myself to Take Breaks - weslly
http://www.miniarray.com/blog/how-I-force-myself-to-take-breaks
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bromagosa
My trick may sound stupid, but it does work and is beneficial in two senses.
What I do is to drink quite a lot of water while coding.

I have a 1 litre bottle that I must empty and refill at least twice a day.
Every time I need to refill the bottle or... empty myself, I seize the
opportunity to rest for 5 minutes. That's all.

I _guarantee_ you _will_ get up from your chair and leave everything you're
doing.

~~~
Dirlewanger
If one drinks caffeine, alternate with coffee and water. Both will guarantee
to get you up at least once an hour and the water replenishes water lost from
the caffeine.

~~~
NegativeK
Caffeinated drinks are always a net gain in water in the body.

Otherwise, individuals who drank nothing but caffeinated sodas would die of
dehydration.

~~~
MSM
I agree with you, however a sizable portion of water you take in comes from
the food you're eating as well.

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lucb1e
How hard is it to just walk away when a script tells you to or even forces you
out for 1 minute or so? And besides that I know dvorak (I could pick another
lay-out), most of my passwords are muscle-memory. I don't actually know them.
I once saw a password of mine somewhere in a saved passwords list, thinking it
was one I must have used once and then forgotten, but it turned out (after
trying it) that I type it almost every day. It also wouldn't be the first time
that I have to lookup a keyboard layout to login to our router.

Yes, passphrases are probably a better idea, but by the time I realized this I
already had enough strong passwords remembered. Most of my passwords are also
designed to be fast to type (on a qwerty keyboard, that is) while still
providing enough entropy, so passphrases would be slower.

Anyway, this tool won't work for me, and it looks a lot like addiction to me
if you can't walk away when someone or something tells you to. I forget the
time often enough, but unless playing in a clanmatch or something, I don't
need a screensaver to blank my screen and lock me out.

~~~
recycleme
I'm getting off topic, but I'm amazed that you don't actually know some of the
passwords you are typing. Also, if your passwords are becoming muscle memory,
isn't it time to change them?

> Anyway, this tool won't work for me, and it looks a lot like addiction to me
> if you can't walk away when someone or something tells you to.

That's an interesting thought because people actually do go thru working
addictions (aka workaholics). However, I don't know any workaholics that
install this kind of software or monitor when they should take breaks. Perhaps
this could apply to a recovering workaholic though.

~~~
lucb1e
> if your passwords are becoming muscle memory, isn't it time to change them?

Somehow I feel they're safer in muscle memory than in 'normal' memory. There
has been a research project once which stored the password in muscle memory by
using some sort of game. It got quite a lot of attention, but I don't remember
what it was called or anything...

Passwords in muscle memory are quickly and easily typed on almost any normal
keyboard. It's actually harder to type them slowly. Like with phone numbers
that you know by heart, you need to recite it from the beginning (without
pausing for too long) if someone asks the last five digits. This fast typing
makes it harder for onlookers to figure out what it is, although most people
are probably able to type quickly enough that you can't make out their
password regardless.

But yes, it is impractical at times. On the other hand, what new password can
I easily use? It's not that easy to remember a randomly chosen sequence,
passphrases are not accepted everywhere (needs digits, or are too long,
or...), and it only adds to the list of passwords to try before I can login
somewhere.

Right now I have a few classifications for passwords. Unsecure sites (no
https, unimportant, or bad storage like LM hashes) get a low-grade password,
and the best passwords are used only on extremely high profile websites and
accounts (like my e-mail password). When I get more new passwords, I'll have
to somehow remember if the account was before or after the switch. That's
gonna be messy, and I prefer not to try too many passwords. The website could
log invalid logins or even collect passwords, and the connection can usually
get intercepted (https is not as widespread as I would like). And there is the
problem of getting locked out after too many invalid logins. I have enough
passwords and variations that 3 times just aren't always enough attempts.

~~~
recycleme
> Somehow I feel they're safer in muscle memory than in 'normal' memory.

From my understanding, muscle memory is formed when a task is repeated
frequently. It's basically like your "normal" memory caching these motions.
So, in theory, you should at least _know_ your memory cached passwords.

> And there is the problem of getting locked out after too many invalid
> logins. I have enough passwords and variations that 3 times just aren't
> always enough attempts.

Ah, I hate it when that happens. Have you tried using a password manager like
LastPass or 1password?

edit: <https://lastpass.com/>

~~~
lucb1e
I don't feel like storing my passwords anywhere but in my head. The rare case
that I do write them down, I make sure it's not easy to find what account it
belongs to and that it's stored securely. And it's usually only written down
temporarily until I remember it.

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unwind
The (rather convoluted) plan seems to consider Dvorak so fantastically hard,
that the user _never_ just learns to write his/her password using it, but
_must_ look up a reference on a different machine every time.

I've never used Dvorak, but I think I would be able to memorize _a single
string_ after having been forced to type it, after a while.

~~~
jacalata
Well, the idea here is that you are very rarely actually forced to type it
(most of the time, you go ahead and take the break). Let's posit a user who
_really needs_ to log back in within the timeout period once every two weeks
(which seems unreasonably often to me), has a reasonably complex password, and
changes their password every three months (normal workplace requirement, in my
experience). They will type the password 6 times, at widely spaced intervals.
I think most people would not memorise it under these conditions. And if you
find yourself going and spending time practicing, or you do end up memorising
it because you log back in every three days or more, it's time to admit that
either you are regularly literally dealing with fires at work and can't afford
to take breaks, or you have deep issues with just chilling for a minute.

~~~
simonwjackson
Well put. If you keep logging after this hack activates, then you know you
have a problem..

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jonheller
I'm a fan of the BreakTime app for something similar (and a bit easier). But I
find it very challenging to be forced into breaks, especially for how often
you are supposed to take them.

I think what would be ideal is a script that would detect when my system was
idle for, say, 15 or 30 seconds. It would then check the last time I took my
break. If it had been past a predetermined time, then it would prompt me for a
break.

With forced break apps I find it very annoying to be interrupted in the middle
of a thought, or line of code, and end up disabling those apps.

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jonknee
... I just set a timer on my phone. That way I can finish my thought (if
needed).

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nanoscopic
A couple of flaws with this: 1\. After being forced to type it in once, I
would remember the password in the scrambled form 2\. Cutting off active
thought processes during mid-thought would cause certain ideas to be lost 3\.
If you work for an employer who expects you to work constantly, they are going
to complain when you very clearly sit in front of a locked screen
periodically.

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GotAnyMegadeth
Looks like a good idea. Though I wouldn't want that to happen in the middle of
me explaining something important to a co-worker...

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RyanZAG
For people who don't need to be actively locked out of their computers in
order to have the sense to take a break, but still often forget to take a
break for hours:

Search for an 'hourly chime' app on your smartphone, have it go off every hour
on the hour with a nice big ben or similar sound.

This works for me, anyway. Most of the time.

~~~
neya
Thanks Ryan, such a simple concept, but easily over-looked! Will install it :)

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tbatterii
or smoke breaks. not the healthiest thing to do, but it does make you take
regular breaks.

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city41
Pomodoro was a popular technique for this, has it fallen out of fashion? I
used Pomodoro a lot and liked it quite a bit. At my current job we pair
program mostly, and Pomodoro doesn't work so well in that situation.

~~~
simonwjackson
I'm actually using some pomodoro software for mac to achieve this hack.

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bstpierre
Check out workrave: <http://www.workrave.org/>

Same idea, easier to set up, and includes some animated exercises you can do
at the start of your breaks

~~~
enraged_camel
I used it for a while and found it to be terribly annoying. The breaks tended
to come up right in the middle of my flow periods and interrupt everything,
costing me a ton of productivity.

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mike_esspe
I'm doing juggling breaks every time, when I'm stuck or need a time to think.
Not sure why it works for me, timers were not working, i just ignored them.

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karanmg
Have you checked out TimeOut <http://www.dejal.com/timeout/>

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carlisle_
This should be instead titled "How to force yourself to learn Dvorak."

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wikwocket
Hmm, I never seem to have this problem. ;) Clever solution though!

