While we all want to be as productive as possible, working 100% of the time will actually work against us in the long term. This chapter focuses on the importance of taking frequent breaks and how to know if you are overworking.
Studies tell us that taking frequent breaks improves our ability to focus and complete cognitively demanding tasks. This is reasoning behind the Pomodoro technique. However, many people report that they don't use the Pomodoro technique because they often forget to start a timer once they start working. This is because users have to mentally prioritize the technique over their work itself in order to remember every time.
Luckily, you can work in a Pomodoro-like fashion with Rize, but without needing to remember to set a timer. Rize simply detects when you start working and notifies you to take a break after you work a specific amount of time. You can customize this threshold by viewing your Notifications Settings and changing the threshold under "Smart Breaks".
Simply ensure that the toggle is set to "On", and choose a threshold of when to be notified to take breaks. Rize will only notify you if you work for more than this threshold in one sitting.
For example, if you have the threshold set to 45 minutes, you will not receive a notification if you work for 25 minutes, take a break, and then work another 25 minutes. Additionally, Rize will not notify you to take a break if you are actively participating in a meeting.
If you aren't quite ready to take a break when you receive the notification, you can snooze the notification by clicking the "Options" button in the notification and selecting "Snooze".
The snooze time is 5 minutes by default and is customizable in your Notifications Settings. The snooze feature is perfect if you are almost done with a task and just need to take a few minutes to finish up.