8 Things You Can Do Instead of Staring At Your Phone During 15-Minute Breaks
Puzzles, stretching, and more things you can do by yourself
Staring at your phone isn’t necessarily a waste of time, but it depends on what you’re doing. If you’re gorging horrific news that will destroy your mood and productivity for the day, that’s probably not a good use of your time. If you’re mindlessly scrolling, you might be giving your brain a break at best; more realistically, you might be potentially destroying your eyesight, ruining your posture, or making yourself vulnerable to injuries.
It’s so easy to reach for our phones. For many of us, it’s probably become a habit.
Here are some healthier ways to fill breaks throughout your day:
Whether you work from home or the office
Stretch
Stretching keeps us nimble, thereby reducing the risk of injury. It can also improve blood circulation and help us feel attuned to our bodies.
Start with your outer extremities: hold one hand out in front of you palm up and pull your fingers down with your other hand to stretch your forearm; try it again with your hand facing palm down. Then work inwards: reach up and behind your head and touch the opposite shoulder, then use the opposite hand to pull down on the elbow above your head to stretch your tricep.
Try drafting a stretch regime and giving each stretch 30 seconds. At the end of your session, you can shake your limbs lose just to jolt your circulation. Admittedly this is easier at home, but maybe it’s time office workers get used to the sight of workmates stretching. If your work culture isn’t amenable to that, you can always dash off to the bathroom.
Do your reps
Strength conditioning doesn’t always require weights. You can do the following without any equipment: squats, push-ups, crunches, and lunges.
A good rule of thumb is to crank out 3 reps of 20. Again, take your work situation into account if you decide to do this at the office. I find squats to be the most realistic because they don’t require a ton of space or contact with the floor; you could also do them in a restroom stall. If you have a desk, squats could convincingly look like you’re just sitting up and down in your seat.
When I used to go into the office I would duck behind my desk and crank out some push-ups when I felt myself getting drowsy. I didn’t have room for lunges, and I only did squats when my coworkers were out.
Go for a walk
Get out and get some fresh air and a change of scenery, maybe even some socialization. Whether it’s raining, sunny, or windy, walking improves our circulation, gets us off our tailbones — strained from sitting all day, and provides a different type of stimulation than staring at a screen.
It might be better to schedule your walks for certain parts of the day, but you can also leap out of your seat whenever you start to reach a limit. You can also use walks to reward yourself for getting through certain tasks.
Identify 15-minute routes around or even inside your workplace (I used to make rounds around different floors) or try wandering around for about 7 minutes, then turning back when your 7 minutes is up.
Meditate
Meditation is a way to clear and quiet your mind. The practice may be awkward or difficult at first, but just like any other skill, the more you practice, the easier it gets.
There are plenty of guided apps and even YouTube videos spanning 5 to 15 minutes. Once you find a particular guided meditation you like, you can meditate on your own while roughly following that format.
Although I support any method of meditating that works for you, monks have developed, with years of careful experimentation, the following protocol. Split your meditation into 3 parts:
- Focus on your breathing
- Visualize
- Recite a mantra
Set a timer, then focus on your breathing. I find that if I breathe deeply 20 times (in through your nose, out through your mouth), then scan my body from head to toe, then back up, that takes up about 3 minutes.
Once your timer goes off, restart the timer, then visualize. My favorite visualization is to imagine a pool of energy around me that’s of a certain color, like blue. As I breathe in, I imagine the blue energy entering my body through the top of my head. As I breathe out, I imagine something else, like a black sludge, exiting my body through my mouth (open in exhalation) or the skin of my feet (if my mouth is closed in exhalation). Other visualizations include imagining yourself in a peaceful area, like a mountaintop, at the beach, or at your childhood home.
When your timer goes off again, restart the timer one last time, then recite a mantra. Make sure it’s something you believe and need in that moment. The quintessential mantra is, “Ohm.” You can also use a series of affirmations.
One of my favorite mantras is, “As I surrender to the uncertainty, I am calm, I am peaceful, I am in control.” But I change it up each day depending on what I need. I use the first half as an anchor, starting each mantra recitation with, “As I surrender to the uncertainty…” Then, I take a moment to let whatever message I need for that day come to me, choosing 3 affirmations, like, “I am strong, I am competent, I am in control.”
The best part about meditation is that without blocking off huge chunks of time, you can incorporate it throughout your daily life. I shoot for 15 minutes of meditation before writing my to-do list in the morning (the repeating timer is set for 5 minutes), but when my brain is foggy I meditate for as little as 3 minutes (the repeating timer is set for 1 minute).
Because I’ve made it a practice, whenever I start to get anxious or stressed throughout the day, it’s become a habit to just close my eyes and meditate. Even without making it through a formal 3-part session, doing whatever I need in the moment (some combination of breathwork, visualization, mantra recitation) helps me calm down and clear my mind.
That’s often the opposite of what would’ve happened if I had instead used my phone.
If you work from home
Practice your scales
Whether you’ve been a musician for decades or picked up a pandemic hobby, practicing your scales is a great way to fill 15 minutes. Not only do you keep yourself nimble, but you get to delight in watching yourself make measurable progress. Increase the tempo about 8 beats per minute (BPM) every session.
Similarly, 15 minutes is enough to solidly learn 8 measures of music. Focusing on just 8 measures means you have time to slowly learn the piece and work out whatever trips you up. Once you’ve worked out the kinks, end your session by playing the phrase through perfectly, as slow as you need to at first, then faster. Repeat this every day, and soon you’ll be able to perform an entire piece with minimal mistakes.
Work on a puzzle
Leave a puzzle out on some surface away from your workspace, like your kitchen table, and walk over to fit together a few pieces during your break. I’ve found that 1000-piece puzzle can keep me occupied for a couple weeks.
Puzzles can be a lot more fun and gratifying than staring at a phone because they visually record your progress. They can also be collaborative if you invite others to place a few pieces.
If puzzles are too large to leave lying around, there are also compact puzzle games you only need a small corner for, like a Rubik’s cube, Chroma Cube, Katamino, and Kanoodle. If it’s hard to step away from your desk, try looking up a free memory game online.
Dance
Turn on a song and dance. Then dance to two more songs. Dancing is not only aerobic exercise but creative expression. You can elevate your heartbeat and increase circulation while having invaluable “play” time to reconnect with your inner child and express your emotions in a non-verbal manner.
If you want more structure, try learning a routine. 15 minutes gives you time to repeat a standard 3.5-minute song 4 times with 1 free minute at the end to freestyle.
Work on that coloring book
Whether you’re working on a coloring book or your next acrylic paint masterpiece, color your canvas for 15 minutes. Work on a small sections each 15-minute session (working 2-by-2 inch squares to perfection), or pick one color to fill out all the places you need it.
Figuring out what works best for you
If you’re taking a couple breaks throughout the day, I strongly recommend using at least half of them for physical activities like stretching, walking, and doing reps. These have universal benefits.
If you need something rote, logical, or mechanical, puzzles and scales might be for you. If you’ve had enough rote, mechanical tasks, dancing, coloring, painting, or drawing might be nice creative, open-ended, and artistic breaks.
If you are frustrated or burnt-out from long-term tasks, small puzzles, a couple levels of Chroma Cube, reps, or scales might give you the satisfaction of completing short-term tasks.
If you want to feel tangible progress towards a longer goal, tasks that let you record your progress like a large puzzle, larger artworks, a piece of music, or a choreography might be better.
Feel free to switch up the routine day by day or season by season. You have have a large puzzle piece going while learning a short dance choreography and also running your scales. The goal is to stay away from your phone, so the best thing you can do is keep yourself happy, occupied, and committed to the activities you choose.
