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 in terms of percent margins -- how to reduce 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 since discipline and stress exist on a continuum. 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.
Top comments (2)
love the quantitative approach here - most stress management advice is just "do yoga" without any actual data
the HIIT numbers are solid but what really caught my attention was optimizing baseline cortisol vs reactive strategies. been building mental health tech and that's exactly how the science works - preventing spikes beats trying to recover from them.
one thing I'd add: the deep work blocks you mentioned pair really well with what Cal Newport calls "shutdown rituals." I track my cortisol patterns (yeah I'm that person lol) and noticed my baseline stays way lower when I have a clear end-of-day routine vs just... stopping whenever.
also curious - have you experimented with timing your HIIT sessions? morning vs evening makes a huge difference for stress regulation. morning HIIT seems to set a lower baseline for the whole day in my experience.
Thank you – keeping low baseline stress levels is how I now avoid burnout.
It's great that you mentioned shutdown rituals. I also stop working after a fixed time.
I alternate between doing HIIT during the morning and evening. I don't notice a difference in stress levels after doing HIIT (if I'm showing signs of chronic stress I always reduce how much I work) but I think morning HIIT is better because of the effect of nighttime exercise on circadian rhythm/sleep quality IIRC.