donothingfor24hours.com
So to be a little tongue-in-cheek, and a little bit serious. I put this together quickly to get people thinking about Mindfulness, which has already helped me in the few short weeks I've practicing it.
Really, instead of doing nothing for 24 hours or even 2 minutes try to really concentrate on what you're doing for a change. People - all people, not just programmers - are wired to do stuff, not to do nothing. And it's surprisingly hard to give something your full attention.
We are far too easily distracted and 'doing nothing' is just as hard as concentrating on one task for the exact same reason: you are easily distracted.
The attempt to concentrate fully on a productive task is a far more useful way to spend that time, and it doesn't have to be some 'set' time either.
24 hours was never intended as a serious suggestion, it was supposed to be a hook to get people thinking about the very things you've mentioned.
Employers who have people working on their factories 16 hours per day must think the same thing.
My original intention was to be a bit tongue-in-cheek. But I decided instead to push people towards mindfulness, which i've only been trying for a couple of weeks but has already started to help me with some of my problems.
It's certainly not accomplishing anything very meaningful :P
Still, I could have gone with donothingfor120seconds.