Information for the brain during breaks between programming during the working day?

Question

Work organization

Since programming is hard mental work, you need to take a break from time to time. The problem is that during these breaks I go to the Internet: I read the news, social networks and watch videos on YouTube. And this is very addictive and quite often there are days when I spent more than a whole day on the Internet reading some information that I do not need and doing almost nothing of what I need.

I tried to fight this by blocking access to my favorite sites in the hosts file and password-protecting the folder where it is located with a long password. And what happened? I just walked around the apartment scrolling through thoughts about past events (often not very good ones) or my brain required light and interesting information and I slightly unblocked access to various sites, sometimes after a few hours, sometimes after a few days. But it always happened over and over again.

What kind of vacation would you recommend that will not be as addictive as surfing on different sites, but at the same time the brain will not rebel due to lack of information?

PS Half the days of the year in my city are either cold or rainy, so it's not always possible to go outside and provide the brain with information that is light and not addictive.

Answer 1

It just needs a working mode .
For example, I work from 10 to 17 and do nothing else. Before and after - anything, any entertainment at will (you can work again if you want, but you can’t be distracted during working hours). You can also allocate time not by the clock, but by the result - do not be distracted until the task is completed.
It is not necessary to block sites, you just need to be disciplined. Indeed, in the same YouTube there may be a teaching video for work or something like that. You decide what is work and what is not.
If the work is not connected with constant answers to calls, then completely put off the smartphone. Put it on do not disturb mode. The exceptions are only your significant other, mother, son and daughter, who can call at any time. This means that SMS and instant messengers are also muted. Looking at the phone is also prohibited. To reach out to him and check something - even more so. But if for work, then, again, you can. However, no social networks, habr and all that.
At work, especially in creative professions such as programming, concentration is important. So petty distractions, even if they don't take up much time in and of themselves, still take a lot of time away from the work itself. According to science, it is believed that if you are distracted without bringing the work to its logical end, then 23 minutes are deducted from the just spent working time, they are considered wasted. After the distraction, you will have to do about the same thing again, spending the same 23 minutes (approximately).
So draw boundaries between work and leisure, as well as between different jobs and between different tasks within the same job, and between different hobbies within leisure. Don't multitask, it's not only unproductive, it's bad for the mind in general (but that's another story). Make working time intervals large enough so that the “warm-up” before work (understanding the problem situation) is not wasted. And how to relax is not so important, choose according to your taste, try everything.

Answer 2

Start running.

Answer 3

If you are addicted, set an alarm or some kind of reminder.

Answer 4

Gym.