Stop and take a real break when output quality degrades…
When cognitive output quality begins degrading (increased rewrites, slowed pace, rising error rate), stop work and take a 10-15 minute break with genuine disengagement even if the task is incomplete, because work produced during depletion has lower quality than work produced after restoration despite shorter total time.
When This Fires
- You're rewriting the same paragraph for the third time
- Simple operations (naming variables, structuring arguments) become surprisingly difficult
- Your error rate visibly increases (typos, logic mistakes, missed steps)
- You notice you've been staring at the screen without producing anything for several minutes
Common Failure Mode
Pushing through because "I'm almost done." Almost-done during depletion takes 3x as long as it would after a break, and the quality is lower. The feeling of being "almost done" is unreliable when depleted — your planning capacity is degraded along with everything else, so "5 more minutes" becomes 45 minutes of low-quality grinding.
The Protocol
When you notice depletion signals: (1) Stop immediately — mid-sentence, mid-function, mid-thought. (2) Write a one-line ready-to-resume note (see Write a one-minute ready-to-resume note before every task…). (3) Take a 10-15 minute genuine break with soft fascination — no screens. (4) Return and observe: the task that felt impossible before the break often resolves in minutes. The difference is the resource state, not the difficulty.