Does this approach consistently ward off burnout? I was considering doing something like not using a computer at all for an entire day each week (probably Saturday).
I have no concrete data or articles to support this notion, but I truly have found I need to give my brain a little bit of breathing room to work through a problem. Walking outside, when I can be actively distracted by my surroundings but not so much that I have to burn a lot of active energy, helps me to process this background data. This is totally a YMMV suggestion, and I want to toss out a huge caveat that this is an anecdote and me spouting personal pseudo science :)
The last two weeks I've been trying to wake up with the sunrise along with my wife. She wanted to start waking up earlier, and is a horrible snoozer. So, I wake up (I have a good internal clock so I can tell myself to "wake" at a certain time and usually do), and then I get out of bed and open the blinds. This gets my wife up and gets me moving.
My morning ritual right now entails me waking up, getting my dog on her leash, and walking to Groundwork coffee on Main Street in Santa Monica. It's about a 15 minute walk from my house, depending on how often my dog feels like stopping.
I get an iced coffee (preferred beverage of choice in all weather conditions) and then walk down to the beach, which is a block away from their location. There's a small hill with some benches which overlooks the ocean and, if it's not a smoggy day in LA, a clear view of the Santa Monica mountains and Malibu. I'll sit there for an indefinite period of time and just take in the scenery, and observe the people walking nearby on the beach, or watch the waves on the ocean.
When I was working (I'm currently 'funemployed' as part of some time off between ventures), I would often take morning calls from this spot or respond to any emails that came in from the east coast since I went to sleep. My personal favorite was to coordinate this time with a daily meeting I had with some other peers from other departments. It was a general coordination meeting that didn't require any prep or meaningful energy, but was filled with some of my favorite people on the planet. It was my daily chance to talk to some of my friends spread far and wide.
I then walk home along the beach, either down on the bike path area or up on the nearest road. Sometimes I'll listen to a podcast or a book on tape. Other times I'll walk in silence. I try to be receptive to where my mood takes me.
My therapist back in Boston helped me learn how to sleep more effectively through a series of routines before bed. It turned out, for me, that bookending the start and ends of my days with routines proved valuable and welcome. As with all routines, I do add small variations from time to time to keep things fresh and reduce complacency, but I am fairly consistent.
What were you doing before being 'funemployed'? I wish it was easier for me to wake up in the morning sometimes I need to try to get on a better schedule, but I enjoy being up later, yet I somehow still enjoy the morning if I get adequate sleep.
It's my first time off, where I wasn't employed and had minimal obligations, since I was 15. I'm an advisor to vid.me, an awesome company based in LA that is hiring front-end and backend PHP engineers, which has helped to keep me busy and occupied. It's always nice to visit with humans (https://vid.me/lwGS) when your primary sounding boards are a cat and a dog.