My Nontraditional Stress Management Routine

Introduction

Stress management is crucial to maintaining optimal cognitive performance, which is great to maximize as a programmer. While building my first product, Voyage, I gradually built a stress management routine that works for my 6-7 day workweeks. I refined this routine, thinking mostly in terms of percent reductions on my baseline cortisol levels.

The Routine

• HIIT (High-Intensity Interval Training): 20-25% reduction to baseline stress levels (source). Weightlifting in addition to this should also provide an additional reduction to baseline stress levels.
• Laying down: this was my own stress reduction idea that I came up with (this study shows that higher self-discipline/perfectionism can lead to physiological problems associated with stress such as burnout). This is the closest study I could find that shows a quantified effect of laying down (~7.6%).
• Following Cal Newport’s advice: it’s difficult to sustain high-performance work for many hours at a time so I work in Deep Work blocks. I intentionally take breaks and go for walks.
• Dedicated entertainment time (TV/movies/video games): This study shows an association between having a passive leisure hobby and a 4.1 point reduction (on a scale of 0-100) in stress levels. This was the best data I could find on the topic.
• Taking half-days off, a single day off, or days off of coding specifically. Doing this has reset my stress levels when I notice signs of burnout.

Conclusion

This was a summary of the most important things I do to manage my stress levels. I look to optimize baseline stress levels rather than accumulate high stress and reactively try to fix the stress. This has helped me prevent negative effects of burnout – bad sleep, loss of focus, and low motivation – and maximize my productivity.

Edit (Oct 23, 2025): Added reference to a Frontiers in Psychiatry (2022) study showing a 4-point reduction in stress levels among healthcare professionals with passive-solitary leisure activities.

Edit (Oct 25, 2025): Added a link to a study showing that high discipline demands can lead to burnout.