• 40 brain breaks

Brain Breaks for Adults at a Desk, in a Meeting or on a Call

One press brings up a break for a desk, a staff meeting or a video call, timed to its length.

Brain Breaks for Adults at a Desk, in a Meeting or on a Call

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  1. Borrow an expert2 minutes. Ask the PE teacher, the choir director or anyone on staff who coaches to lead the room through 2 minutes of the warm-up they use every day. Arrange it before the meeting, never on the spot. Rotate the expert each month.

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All 40 brain breaks

Alone at your desk 13

  • 20-20-20 eye rest 30 seconds. Look away from the screen at something about 20 feet away, such as the far end of the corridor or a building across the street, and keep your eyes on it for 20 seconds. The American Optometric Association suggests this every 20 minutes of screen time. Blink a few times before you look back.
  • Book one good thing 2 minutes. Open your calendar and book one thing to look forward to in the next 7 days: a walk with a friend, a film, an hour with a book. Give it a time and a place, the same as you would a meeting.
  • Clear one surface 2 minutes. Pick one surface: the desk top, one shelf, the top of the filing cabinet. Take off everything that does not live there, then wipe it down. Only that one surface, however tempting the next one looks.
  • Close ten tabs 1 minute. Count your open browser tabs. Close 10 you have finished with, without reading them again. Skip any with unsaved work. With fewer than 10 open, close half.
  • Five minutes of a paper puzzle 5 minutes. Keep a printed crossword or sudoku in your desk drawer. Work on it in pen for 5 minutes and stop when the timer ends, in the middle of a clue if need be. Paper only: a puzzle on your phone comes with the rest of your phone.
  • Jaw, shoulders, hands 30 seconds. Check the three places that tighten while you type. Unclench your teeth and let your tongue drop from the roof of your mouth. Let your shoulders fall away from your ears. Open both hands flat on the desk.
  • One line by hand 2 minutes. Pick up a pen and copy one sentence you like onto paper in your best handwriting: a line from a book, something a student said, a note to yourself. Go slowly enough that every letter is fully formed. Keep the paper or bin it.
  • One thing before lunch 1 minute. On a sticky note or scrap paper, write the single task that would make this morning count. Put the note where you can see it. Then close or hide everything on the screen that is not part of that task.
  • Refill your water the long way 2 minutes. Take your glass or bottle to the tap farthest from your desk, not the nearest one. Walk back by a different route. Your phone stays on the desk.
  • Screen off, one minute 1 minute. Turn the monitor off or close the laptop lid. Sit back with your hands in your lap and look at anything that is not a screen, your phone included. Before you turn it back on, decide which one thing you will open first.
  • Snack away from the screen 5 minutes. Take your snack or your coffee somewhere with no screen: a window, a bench, the break room. Leave the phone behind. Do nothing but eat, drink and look around until the timer ends.
  • Two minutes outside 2 minutes. Go to the nearest outside door and stand in the open air. Find the farthest thing you can see, then the nearest thing that is alive. Go back in when the timer ends.
  • Two-line thank-you 2 minutes. Think of someone who made your week easier: the colleague who covered for you, the custodian who found your keys. Write them 2 lines that say exactly what they did and what it saved you. Send it before the timer ends.

Up from the chair 8

  • Doorway chest stretch 1 minute. Stand in a doorway with your forearms on the frame at shoulder height and your elbows bent. Step one foot through until you feel a gentle stretch across your chest. Hold for a slow count of 15, step back and do it once more. Stop short of any pain.
  • Fists and fans 1 minute. Make two fists, then spread your fingers as wide as they go, 10 times. Touch each fingertip to your thumb in turn, from the index finger to the little finger and back. Finish by shaking both hands loosely for 10 seconds.
  • One flight of stairs 2 minutes. Find the nearest staircase. Walk up one flight and down again at an easy pace, holding the rail, and then do it a second time. In a building with no stairs, walk to the farthest exit and back.
  • Stand for one task 5 minutes. Pick one small job that does not need a chair: a phone call, reading a printout, sorting a stack of papers. Do it standing, at a counter or a windowsill if there is one. Sit down again when the timer ends.
  • Standing side reach 30 seconds. Stand with your feet apart. Reach your right arm up and over toward the left until you feel a stretch down your side. Hold for a count of 10, then change sides. Stop short of any pain.
  • Walk a message over 3 minutes. Pick one message you were about to type to somebody in the same building. Walk to their room and say it in person. If they are busy, leave a note on the door and enjoy the walk back.
  • Wall slides 1 minute. Stand with your back, your head and your elbows against a wall, arms bent like goalposts. Slide your arms up the wall as far as they will go without losing contact, then back down. Do 8, slowly. Stop short of any pain.
  • Window loop 3 minutes. Walk a loop of your floor and stop at every window you pass. At each one, find something that has changed since you last looked: the light, the weather, which cars are parked. Come back to your desk by the longest route.

Staff meetings 11

  • A1, B2, C3 2 minutes. Go around the table pairing each letter with its number: A1, B2, C3, D4. One pair per person, at a steady pace. A mistake sends the table back to A1. A perfect run ends at Z26.
  • Borrow an expert 2 minutes. Ask the PE teacher, the choir director or anyone on staff who coaches to lead the room through 2 minutes of the warm-up they use every day. Arrange it before the meeting, never on the spot. Rotate the expert each month.
  • Dramatic reading 2 minutes. A volunteer reads the driest item on the agenda aloud in a voice the room chooses: sports commentator, bedtime story, film trailer. Volunteers only, and 30 seconds is plenty. Then deal with the item in a normal voice.
  • Drumroll good news 2 minutes. Ask for 3 volunteers who each have one piece of good news, however small: a student's breakthrough, a finished report, a new puppy. Before each one, the whole room drums on the table for 3 seconds and stops dead. Applause after each.
  • Know your building 3 minutes. The chair asks 3 questions that nobody can look up: how many steps are on the main staircase, how many doors open onto this corridor, how many chairs are in this room right now. Tables write down a guess for each. Send someone to count after the meeting.
  • Last-letter chain 2 minutes. Choose a category, such as foods or cities. Go around the table: each word has to start with the last letter of the word before it, so rice, eggs, salmon, noodles. No repeats. Anyone who takes longer than 5 seconds gets a drumroll to hurry them along.
  • Paper airplane contest 3 minutes. Everyone folds a plane from scrap paper in 90 seconds. Line up along one wall and throw on the count of three. The plane that lands farthest wins, and its builder chooses who collects the rest.
  • Pen balance 1 minute. Balance a pen across one fingertip for a count of 10. Then try the back of your hand, and then your other hand. For the final round, stand up and pass the balanced pen to your neighbor without either of you gripping it.
  • Standing agenda item 3 minutes. Everybody stands up, pushes the chair in and takes the next agenda item on their feet. Whoever is presenting it keeps to 3 minutes. Sit down again when the timer ends, whether or not the item has.
  • Two-word check-in 2 minutes. Go around the table. Each person says how the week is going in exactly 2 words: barely afloat, surprisingly fine, report cards. No explanations and no replies. Anyone may say pass.
  • Worst idea first 3 minutes. Take a real problem from the agenda. Each table has 2 minutes to list the worst possible solutions to it, the more expensive and impractical the better. Each table reads out its proudest one. Then return to the agenda item.

On a video call 8

  • Backdrop round 2 minutes. If your call software has virtual backgrounds, everyone gets 60 seconds to set one on a theme: where you would rather be right now. Go down the participant list, and each person names their place in 3 words.
  • Cameras off, stand up 2 minutes. Everyone turns the camera and the microphone off. Stand up, walk away from the screen, stretch, look out of a window, fetch some water. Cameras come back on when the timer ends, and nobody has to report what they did.
  • Chat waterfall 1 minute. The host asks a quick question: the best thing you ate this week, or the first job you ever had. Everyone types an answer in the chat but does not send it. On the count of three, everybody presses Enter at once and the answers pour down the screen.
  • One object, twenty seconds 3 minutes. Ask for 3 volunteers. Each holds up one object within reach that has nothing to do with work and gets 20 seconds to explain why it is there. One question from the group is allowed per object.
  • Out of my window 2 minutes. Each person looks out of the nearest window and describes the view in one sentence, without naming the town. Go in the order of the participant list. People with no window describe the most interesting thing on the wall.
  • Rename yourself 1 minute. Everyone changes their display name to answer a prompt: your first name plus the job you wanted at age 8, or the last thing you cooked. Read the gallery together. Change the names back before the next agenda item.
  • Thirty-second fetch 1 minute. The host names something to find: something yellow, something older than you, something you would grab in a fire drill. Everyone has 30 seconds to leave the screen and come back with it. Hold them all up to the camera at the same moment.
  • Thirty-second sketch 2 minutes. The host names something to draw: a cat on a skateboard, your commute as a map, the building you are sitting in. Everyone draws on paper for 30 seconds and holds it up to the camera at the same moment. Having no skill is the point.

How it works

These brain breaks for adults are 40 short changes of activity, 30 seconds to 5 minutes long, for people who sit at desks and in meetings. Pick another brain break brings a new one. None needs an app.

Read the full guide

Brain breaks for adults at work, sorted by where you are

The menu that reads All brain breaks sorts by place: Alone at your desk, Up from the chair, Staff meetings, On a video call. Just for a laugh marks 10 funny brain breaks for adults, none of them at anybody's expense: Paper airplane contest, Worst idea first, Rename yourself.

Let the clock end it

With one break on screen, the timer button over it is already set to that break's length, from 30 seconds to 5 minutes. Press it; it stops at zero.

  • On the projector, choose Staff meetings, deal three and let the room vote.
  • Five minutes of a paper puzzle needs a puzzle. Keep a few printable sudoku sheets in a drawer.
  • If choosing is the hard part, take the first break the button gives.

Questions and answers

Which are virtual brain breaks for adults on a video call?

Choose On a video call in the menu. Those 8 need only the camera, the chat and whatever is within reach: Chat waterfall, Thirty-second fetch, Rename yourself. Cameras off, stand up suits the second hour of a long call, because it asks nothing of anyone.

What is the 20-20-20 rule?

The American Optometric Association's advice for screen users: every 20 minutes, look at something 20 feet away for 20 seconds. The first activity is exactly that. It is general advice, not a treatment, so take sore or tired eyes to an optometrist.

Which brain breaks for staff meetings avoid the groans?

Short, optional ones, and go first yourself. Anything that asks an adult to perform is volunteers only: Dramatic reading, Drumroll good news, One object, twenty seconds. Two-word check-in allows a pass. Start with Standing agenda item, which asks for nothing personal.

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