It’s an option, but it’s worth noting that you’re not always idling your brain in quite the same way unless you happen to work somewhere were there are no roads to cross, cars and cyclists to dodge, nor other pedestrians to navigate around.

I sometimes find toilet breaks or coffee breaks (waiting for kettle to boil) fill the “daydream debugging” requirement. But that depends on having a clean bathroom with enough stalls, or an empty kitchen without other people making drinks.

Working from home definitely helps here. Though significantly less so during the holidays when kids are off.

Edit: just in case there’s any misunderstanding, I’m not suggesting having the kids around is a bad thing. I love my kids. Just that they have an obvious impact to my concentration.

Kids are like management that way. Tough to get work done efficiently when they’re around.

But unlike management, you get to tuck them in and “I love you” for no reason is a standard bonus with a free hug.

I think they’re saying that you could say “I’m going for a smoke break” at work and it was at least tolerated. I don’t think you can say “I’m going for a walk” the same way.

"i'm going to go get a coffee" works fine in my experience

We still use the same phrase today "Smoke break?" "Yep" though none of us smoke any more, and some never did.

Why not? Ive been doing it for years, when I worked in office. Get someone to go with you. Or walk to get food/coffee/whatever.

We had 3pm coffee club at a previous job. It was great. Had our own slack channel(public). As the minutes counted down people would post gifs counting down (/giphy 4, /giphy 3). Most of the dev team would go. We’d go a heavy coffee shop. The talks there and back were great.

The perfect work ritual: fresh air, banter, coffee.

That doesn't sound so bad. I like chatting with people I know. I like coffee. Food is nice.

Except: My involvement in these activities doesn't leave much, if any, room for the kind of detachment that daydreaming requires.

The group needs to be big enough (6+ people) that you’re not just chatting with someone; you’re part of a group and can drift in and out .

Indeed.

It has varied a bit depending on the timeline, but: Going out for a walk (or to just change environments and very passively stare at nothing) has been less socially-acceptable than going out for a smoke, in my experience.

One of these things is weird, or perhaps inducing of ire ("How dare he just go outside when he feels like it! What is he even doing?").

The other is, at worst, both understandable and disgusting ("Of course he's out there again with that filthy habit!").

Smoke breaks used to be acceptable because your boss probably took them also.

Now that few people smoke, I don't think they are seen as a valid excuse to duck out for a few minutes.

"I need to stretch my legs" is probably better these days.

I've worked a number of places where smoking on site wasn't allowed, and it was well accepted that if you wanted to just disappear for 30 minutes once or twice a day no one would care.

A cigarette to doing nothing, is like a dog to walking pointlessly.

Almost. Nicotine does a lot of work in a short smoke break. Gotta walk for a lot longer to get close.

I have been doing this new practice I heard on some podcast or something - taking a short brisk walk like every thirty minutes. It was promoted for cardiovascular health, trying to compensate for sitting too much, but I also find it is incredibly good at letting me concentrate hard through more hours of work than without. I sometimes check the news or whatever but often just walk and listen to music or chat. I walk strictly five minutes, almost to the end of my block and back, and continue on. The timing ties in with my meditation training, Maezumi lineage, where we sit for 25 minutes then walk (first slowly and then quickly) for five minutes. In meditation it really allows one to sit with energy and focus all day long; also for software development, it turns out.

I also take a longer, 5 km, walk most days, as a way to control type 2 diabetes. This short regular walk is quite different.

Honestly the biggest issue is that the increased focus means I can get into a zone and two hours go by without pause, so every thirty minutes is not always met.