Why It’s So Hard to Take a Break—Even When We Know We Should

Whenever my timer signals that it is time to rest my eyes, stretch, or get water — I notice a paradox. While I absolutely believe in taking regular breaks, it is hard to act on that belief. This problem is urgent because I have seen too many colleagues and friends suffer serious health consequences in the name of productivity.

A new research study in the UK and Australia reports that our behaviors are driven by habits and not conscious intention 65% of the time. We all understand that sustaining peak performance over time requires regular maintenance rests, but forming new habits and disrupting old habits will require intentionality, artistic vision, and a combination of diverse tools.

This month, I use my failure to take breaks, along with Beethoven's innovative Op.111 Piano Sonata, to research possible psychological solutions. Here are my findings.

1. Use Breaks as Part of the Rhythm of Time Management

When I get deep into a train of thought, I don't want to lose my connection with a complex web of ideas. Taking a break can feel like a risk I can’t afford.

But pausing regularly to check my course and track my priority in this modern landscape of contingencies is crucial for my larger goals. A break is not checking social media — it is assessing whether I have gone off course or spent too much time fixating on a single problem. A break can create the negative space for more definition. It can aerate and integrate my thoughts, keeping them from stagnating.

The tradition of classical Western music organizes time around a pulse, like our heartbeat, that can be subdivided or combined for metric groupings. Through all the emotional variations, this underlying pulse provides cohesion from the first note to the last. It is the rests and pauses within this rhythmic structure that shape the flow of our output.

2. Force Quit by Closing Your Eyes

My visual tie to a digital device is an exclusive experience. Unlike being in expansive nature, this close-up focus excludes all other senses and disconnects me from real-world awareness. In today's device-dependent work style, when I set off to look at one thing, the screen draws me in deeper to look at other things.

I have started practicing closing my eyes to visually "force quit," just like my laptop sometimes does. Research has found evidence that eyes-closed rest improves motor skills and procedural memory (such as used for playing an instrument) in a way similar to deep sleep.

This is so easy to do, and it makes me more mindful of my agility to let go of muscle engagement at will, even in the midst of intensity.

3. Use Disruption to Allow Pivoting

It is tempting to want to delay taking a break so I can close out windows on my screen and finish to-do lists. The satisfaction of finishing a task is its own reward. However, the opposite may also be true. The ability to leave a task unfinished and take a break to air out my thoughts might sometimes lead to a greater final outcome.

The first movement of Beethoven's last piano sonata Op. 111 starts with a few chords and then BOOM – a loud chord abruptly silenced, unresolved and unrooted, intensifying the uncertainty of the moment. (See the picture of the piano score with rests.) This moment demonstrates the “Zeigarnik Effect” — we pay more attention to open-ended loops than to resolved events.

We have all heard the cliché that chaos leads to opportunity. Choosing a path with delayed resolution may be more emotionally chaotic, but it may allow the flexible pivoting that leads to greater impact.

4. Build an Identity That Transcends Temporary Productivity

Our expectations for productivity are more often tied to an emotional sense of identity and how we are perceived by others than to immutable deadlines. “What can wait until tomorrow?” doesn't always mean laziness – making the time to take a break can also be an effective way to improve our agility and agency.

Time Management Essential Reads

How to Set Boundaries With Your Smartphone

Why "Just Five Minutes" Always Takes More Like 20

How well we navigate around the psychological icebergs of time scarcity, limits, fear of disruption, and digital overload has cumulative consequences in our quality of life as well as our capacity for more ambitious projects.

This navigation requires conscious listening — combining multiple layers of understanding and emotional maturity to reconnect to our work, the world, others, and ourselves. Every physical body will have its own style of connecting with the concept of rest. As the Feldenkrais Method suggests, don’t let the need to strive get in the way of progressing.

How fascinating that we as humans can observe and hack our own patterns to create a better tomorrow.