A 3 minute interruption e.g. a phone call risks dropping the context. But if I just step out of my office chair and do some excercises I'm sure I could keep the context in my head while making a few pushups. Since I'm not really distracted perhaps the break can be a thinking break. Some times it's hard to avoid "thinking with your keyboard" and use your head. When I'm stuck on a really hard problem I go for a walk or take a shower or something. I think this could be the same thing.
Taking a short exercise break like this is also a great procrastination killer for me.
When I feel the urge to distract myself I'll just get up and do some kind of light bodyweight exercises that require coordination and balance, and then I'm ready to continue the work I was starting to dread.
It could be even better than that, it could be used to solve distraction problems we already have: if, during compile breaks (I'm sure some other professions have similar downtime), instead of slacking off on hn or trying to squeeze in some multitasking productivity we'd just do some body stuff, our brains would retain focus much better than without that exercise.
It could be even better than that: if, during compile breaks (I'm sure some other professions have similar downtime), instead of slacking off on hn or trying to squeeze in some multitasking productivity we'd just do some body stuff, our brains would retain focus much better than without that exercise.
If anyone reading is into launching maker stuff: consider putting some hardware/software pair on crowdfunding where the hardware connects to a workout detector (kettle bell with accelerometer, treadmill, DDR mat, whatever, my personal favorite would be a comically big crank on a resistance unit, even just a smartwatch with an accelerometer would do) and the software hooks into the computer's power management, detecting heavy load and enforcing some extra throttling unless the workout detector is worked. I believe that this could fool our motivation/reward system quite nicely.
