Get "being away" psychological distance
Use a setting that feels removed from your usual demands, not just physically different.
Key takeaways
- What it is: Use a setting that feels removed from your usual demands, not just physically different.
- Why it works: ART names "being away" as a key restorative quality — a sense of psychological distance from the routine that fatigues you. A setting that breaks the mental association with your obligations lets directed attention disengage more completely than simply moving to a different desk.
- Evidence: Plausible mechanism, limited direct outcome data.
- Avoid: Taking the break in the same environment full of work cues, so the mind stays tethered to the demands and never gets the psychological distance restoration requires.
Why it works
ART names "being away" as a key restorative quality — a sense of psychological distance from the routine that fatigues you. A setting that breaks the mental association with your obligations lets directed attention disengage more completely than simply moving to a different desk.
How to do it
- 1Pick a spot that does not remind you of your work or to-do list.
- 2Leave work cues behind — no laptop, no work phone, no task list in view.
- 3Let the change of place signal a genuine pause, not a relocation of the same work.
What the evidence says
Mechanistic"Being away" is one of the four restorative components Kaplan identified; restorative-environment research supports that perceived distance from demands contributes to recovery.
Honest caveat: The component framework is theoretically central and supported by perceived-restorativeness scales, but isolating "being away" from the other components experimentally is difficult.
- — Kaplan (1995), the restorative benefits of nature: a framework, J. Environmental Psychology
Common mistake
Taking the break in the same environment full of work cues, so the mind stays tethered to the demands and never gets the psychological distance restoration requires.
IX Coach helps you choose a break that creates real psychological distance from your obligations, not just a change of chair that leaves your task list in view.
Practice this with IX Coach →