[HN Gopher] Study shows how taking short breaks may help our bra...
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Study shows how taking short breaks may help our brains learn new
skills
Author : hhs
Score : 56 points
Date : 2021-06-08 21:34 UTC (1 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.ninds.nih.gov)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.ninds.nih.gov)
| bichonnages wrote:
| I wonder what are the best ways to take breaks when you're on the
| computer for 7 hours or more a day without losing your
| concentration when you have to go back to the screen (NB: I often
| have several client projects to manage in the same day, my brain
| goes crazy)
| dstick wrote:
| The Pomodoro method jumps to mind.
|
| But I'm with you - if the work at hand isn't stimulating, any
| break will take a long while to "recover" from.
| tenken wrote:
| mental burnout is a thing. The best way to take breaks ... Is
| to take breaks! :D
|
| Benefits of taking breaks are many. Such as getting up and
| moving, increasing blood circulation. Also relieving eye strain
| by focusing on far away things, rather than your close-up
| monitor.
| iscrewyou wrote:
| > "An experiment began when a subject was shown the code "41234"
| on a screen and asked to type it out as many times as possible
| for 10 seconds and then take a 10 second break. Subjects were
| asked to repeat this cycle of alternating practice and rest
| sessions a total of 35 times."
|
| I was hoping this would be about taking a few days or weeks off
| from whatever you are learning and have that break strengthen
| that skill. It's worked for me for several things in the past
| when I get bored or burnt out. When I get back to the task after
| about a week or so, I instantly understand the task I was
| learning. Also, some things that weren't clear before suddenly
| make sense.
| LegitShady wrote:
| >"An experiment began when a subject was shown the code "41234"
| on a screen and asked to type it out as many times as possible
| for 10 seconds and then take a 10 second break. Subjects were
| asked to repeat this cycle of alternating practice and rest
| sessions a total of 35 times."
|
| To me this doesn't sound like it's testing a skill at all. It's
| testing short term memory, maybe. 10 seconds on 10 seconds off
| to test your ability to memorize a string of numbers and type
| them out isn't the same thing as testing a skill.
| matwood wrote:
| I recognized this is how I best learn a long time ago. It meant
| that I could never cram for tests. But, once I learn something
| I usually really learn it. You're right though that days or
| weeks is usually my timeline.
|
| For example, if I want to learn some new tech I will jump in
| and tinker until I get to some spot that is beyond what I
| understand. Take a few days or weeks, and when I come back the
| base has solidified making it almost trivial to move on.
|
| I also just noticed the same thing with training Jiu-Jitsu. I
| had to take a long break because of covid. While I was
| obviously rusty on my return, I had a bunch of skills solidify
| while I was gone leading me to see many more details than
| before I had to take a break.
|
| Learning is a lot like weight lifting. It's the breaks between
| sessions where the strength gains occur.
| johnmaguire wrote:
| I have experienced this as well. Similarly:
|
| - Learning controls in a new-to-me video game can be tough
| (e.g. Rocket League, Quake Live, games with lots of mechanics.)
| Playing daily can slowly improve the ability. However, taking a
| few days off can sometimes result in a dramatic improvement
| upon return.
|
| - Entering a flow state of code is great for churning out a lot
| of lines of code quickly. However, sometimes I see that while I
| am objectively achieving my goal, the code feels messy and hard
| to follow. At this point, I aim to just get it working by the
| end of the day, then stop. In the morning, I usually have a
| much better sense of how to refactor the code.
| shoto_io wrote:
| I will read this article now and then take a (long) break...
| tudorw wrote:
| Not knowing how long a read it is, I'm going for the break
| first, just in case.
| [deleted]
| KiranRao0 wrote:
| Don't forget to take breaks short breaks while reading this
| article, which itself is a long break from doing other
| things.
| datameta wrote:
| Looks like this gives credence to the efficacy of the pomodoro
| technique.
|
| Similarly, exercise (including walking) plays a role in learning,
| memory consolidation, and novel thought process formation.
| heroHACK17 wrote:
| Taking a 10-20 minute break to practice non-sleep deep rest
| immediately following a period of intense focus (~90 minutes or
| so) has been shown to increase rates of learning of whatever you
| were doing during the period of focus.
| EADGBE wrote:
| I'm most productive on my 10-minute walk during the work day when
| I rubber ducky to myself about the problem I'm working on.
|
| I haven't kept exact track, but I'm definitely hitting over .500
| with that specific technique.
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