So what kinds of distractions do work well during a 5-10 minute work break? Intuitively, I think we have a pretty good sense of some things that work well:

meditating

getting a glass of water

eating a small snack mindfully

going for a walk outside or around your office

stretching

Some that might be less obvious:

dancing

doing a mini-workout

free association (just letting your mind wander)

napping (better for a slightly longer break, but I want it in the list)

cleaning your room/desk

There might be some other ones that work well for you individually. I’ve really enjoyed playing a single song on my guitar, or doing a bit of juggling or devilstick-spinning. Practicing physical skills intensely for 5-minute chunks can be a cool way to see rapid improvement when you’re almost a complete beginner.

Anyway, like I said, you basically know this. I did too. What was more of an aha moment was learning to call these distractions. Because they are. They’re a drawing of the mind away from what it was previously doing. This drawing away is valuable for allowing your brain to do some offline processing of the stuff you’ve just been working on. However, unlike the divergent distractions, these centering distractions don’t draw your mind away too far. By contrast, I sometimes find that after a few minutes of doing them, that my mind tends to naturally drift back towards the work that I’m in the middle of

Mike Jarema • What Kinds of Distractions Are Good for Your Productivity?