Breaks, like the current Spring Break, allow me to see what a perfect day would be like.
First, go outside when it is nice, stay outside as long as it is nice, with brief breaks going inside.
Once it stops feeling nice, finally go inside. When inside, don't allow myself to sit so long that my body goes into a lethargic zombie mode. I used to solve this with the pomodoro method, but my problem now with the pomodoro is that it relies on focused work during that 25 minute block. Forcing yourself to do focused work on something that you aren't interested in enough to do anyway is really lame. Sure, the pomodoro method, with its frequent breaks, is a more humane method of personal slave-driving, but that just makes me wonder why you can't work on what you want to when you want to and make sure you take breaks for health, mental sharpness, and to prevent your body from stiffening? So that's now what I want to do with my indoor time. (With outdoor time I find am so inclined to move and rest in the right balance, that I don't need to give myself any external help).
So, after I am pushed indoors, it is all about doing whatever I want in a natural blob of work-as-play and play-as-work. I do this in 25 minute bits, and in that way basically organize my day by hours. This isn't really the pomodoro method because I am not making myself focus on one thing; I allow my attention to drift as much or as little as I want during those 25 minutes. On the first break of an hour, I make sure to get up and walk around the house at least a few steps. If I have something physical to do -- such as soak dishes, or do the litter box -- then I'll do it on the first break. Then I do 25 minutes more of worky-play. After that, an hour has passed, so I work on whatever physical challenge I am on. Right now, I am training to do a set of 100 push-ups using grease the groove. During the summer I think I might go for 25 pull ups.
I keep this cycle going day and day and then year and after year, enjoying the process all along, and then every now and then I get to look back and seeing I have achieved cool things.
