What to do on a Pomodoro break

By G, founder of Memenmo Studios · 6 October 2026

A good Pomodoro break gets you out of the chair and away from the work. Stand and stretch, look at something far away, refill your water, step outside, or walk a dog to the gate. Leave the phone for later if you can. Save food, a proper walk and fresh air for the long break.

What makes a good Pomodoro break?

One that’s different from the work. If you’ve been sitting, stand. If you’ve been reading a screen, look at something that isn’t one.

Francesco Cirillo was specific about this in his original paper. In the short break, “you can stand up and walk around the room, have a drink of water”, or daydream about your next holiday. What he warned against was anything that needs real mental effort: talking shop with a colleague, writing important emails, making difficult calls. Those belong in a pomodoro of their own.

The University of Rochester’s Learning Center puts it more bluntly: “Taking the wrong kind of break is like not taking a break at all.” The Pomodoro Technique guide has the rest of Cirillo’s rules.

What can you do in a five-minute break?

Plenty, as long as it’s small and physical. Some ideas that fit:

walk to the furthest window in the house and look out of it
roll your shoulders, do a few calf raises, stretch the back of your neck
refill your glass and drink half of it standing up
step outside and check what the weather is actually doing
water a plant, or wash the mug you’ve been ignoring
take the dog as far as the front gate, if there’s a dog to take
lie on the floor with your eyes shut for two minutes

Pick one before the round ends, so you’re not deciding when you’re tired. The 5 minute break timer will keep it to five.

Why does moving help on a break?

It changes your state more than sitting still does, and there’s some evidence it helps your thinking too. In a set of experiments at Stanford, Marily Oppezzo and Daniel Schwartz found that people came up with more creative ideas while walking than while sitting, and the boost lingered for a while after they sat back down.

That was about creative thinking, measured in a lab, so it isn’t proof that a walk makes you better at your spreadsheet. But walking to the kitchen and back is also the cheapest break there is. Your body gets to do something, and your head gets to stop for a minute.

Why get outside, or at least look out?

Because a change of scene is part of the rest, and green places may help a bit more. In a 2008 study from the University of Michigan, people did better on a test of attention after a walk through an arboretum than after a walk along city streets.

Be honest about the scale, though. That walk took nearly an hour, which is a long break, not a short one. Five minutes on the back step won’t do the same thing. It will get you out of the chair, into daylight and away from the work, which is most of what a short break is for. If you can’t get out, a window with a tree in it is a fair second.

Is scrolling your phone a bad break?

Often, though the research is mixed. In a 2019 study of 414 students, people who spent their break on a phone felt the most mentally depleted afterwards, and did worse on the rest of the puzzles than people who took their break on paper or a computer.

A 2026 study found no difference in later performance between phone breaks and quiet ones, and people felt more positive after the phone break.

So the five minutes themselves may not be the problem. The trouble is that a scroll rarely stays five minutes, and the feed is built to keep you there. If you do reach for the phone, start the break timer first, and put it face down when it goes.

What should you do on the long break?

Something with more substance: food, fresh air, a proper walk. Cirillo’s long break runs 15 to 30 minutes after every four rounds. He suggested tidying your desk, a quick walk, or simply resting, and added that “the important thing is not to do anything complex”.

Ideas that suit a long break:

eat something, away from your desk
walk around the block, or to the shop and back
give the dog a proper walk, not just a lap of the yard
do a chore that uses your hands rather than your head
talk to someone about something other than work
sit in the sun with a cup of tea and nothing to read

After about three hours of hard study, Rochester suggests a bigger stop again, of at least 30 to 60 minutes. Lunch counts.

Where does a dog fit into the break?

A real dog is the best excuse there is to stand up. They don’t care about your deadline, they’re always keen on the gate, and they’ll make sure you go outside.

In Doggydoro, the dog is the other way round: it keeps you company during the focus round, and often dozes off. When a session ends, a card says how it went, and sometimes the dog has found you something. Have a look, then put the phone down. App blocking only runs during focus sessions, so breaks are always yours, which means the choice of what to do with them is yours too. And if your rounds keep leaving you too tired for any of this, it may be time to check how long your pomodoros are.