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Types of breaks

Sometimes when I'm stuck at a work task, I take a break by standing up and walking away (to go get food or go on a walk or something). Often, this produces a sudden helpful insight after I have taken a few steps.

Some other times, I take a break by staying where I am, changing tabs, and opening social media. This approximately never produces a sudden helpful insight.

I suppose this is a reason to take more breaks physically separated from my work space.

in reply to Daniel Filan

Satvik
Satvik
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One theory for this (mentioned in Your Brain at Work) is that when you've been working on a task for a long time, you tend to have a lot of blood flow in one part of your brain, and walking/doing something else gets you to reset, spreading it across. Then you're more likely to use a mental process that you didn't before.

I find the specific mechanic sketchy, but as a metaphor it works reasonably well: I definitely have different types of thoughts when on a walk or taking a shower than I do while at the computer, and these thoughts are usually at a higher level of abstraction and less specific/detailed.

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