All truly great thoughts are conceived while walking.
~ Friedrich Nietzsche, Twilight of the Idols
Movement promotes cognitive performance. Either take breaks and exercise, as you already do, or set up your reading in a way that allows you to move while you read:
- take your book or paper in your hand and walk around in your room or garden while you read, or take it to the park; here is a how-to, if you need one: http://www.wikihow.com/Read-While-Walking, and you can find a lot of essays on "Reading while Walking" through Google
- some books are available as audiobooks and easy to walk or exercise to
- buy or build a standing desk and stand while you read or type; even though you don't move around much, your posture is more healthy and you need more muscle to stand than slouch, so you are in fact active in a less obvious way
- sit on a big exercise ball; similar to standing, this induces you to move around a bit more and use more of your musculature; but keep your regular chair and move back to once you get tired, because slouching on an exercise ball is even worse for your back than on a chair with a supporting back
- knead something with your hands; there are special balls and other objects for this, like therapy putty, hand exercise kits etc.
- chew gum; see http://cogsci.stackexchange.com/questions/4299/does-chewing-gum-mentally-help-basketball-players-make-foul-shotshttps://cogsci.stackexchange.com/questions/4299/does-chewing-gum-mentally-help-basketball-players-make-foul-shots
Some of my emotional unrest while reading and writing day in, day out comes from the fact that reading and writing are lonely, unsocial activities. Being a person who feels most alive when interacting with others, I simply cannot bring myself to work at home or alone in an office. I find working in the university library to be a partial solution for my need for human company.
The quiet atmosphere doesn't distract me, the other people working there even amplify my own motivation, indeed the relaxed and quiet movements of those taking a break or picking up books gives me enough necessary distraction from my own wandering thoughts to remain focussed on my reading (similarly, I'm unable to sleep in a quiet room, I need the window open and outside sounds to listen to, for my mind to stop circling the same thoughts for many sleepless hours).
And of course you can talk and smile to the other people to the degree that you find comfortable. I often chose a place at an occupied table when I take a break in the cafeteria, smile at people that I meet on my way to the restroom, help those who look lost. At home I would eat alone and look at the wall even when I don't work.
I also like to have the window open and children playing outside. What you like, you'll surely know yourself.
