The value of doing nothing

Plus more health news |

Email not displaying correctly? View it in your browser.

Doing nothing can make you more productive By Rachel Sonis Associate Editor, Ideas In a world ruled by screens, the 3 p.m. work slump—in between Zoom meetings and emails and Slack messages—can feel like an inevitable part of our daily routines. To combat it, we might seek a brief reprieve on social media, which means even more screen time. That moment of supposed “rest” is followed by immense regret for not completing all the day's tasks. What if we reframed how we thought about our relationship to screens, and perhaps even carved out time without them? In a new essay for TIME, human-computer interaction researcher Gloria Mark, author of Attention Span, explores how taking time away from screens and doing nothing can actually make us more productive. Among her most intriguing points: Each time we switch from one screen task to another—which happens, on average, every 47 seconds—our brains recreate an internal representation of the task at hand. When we shift gears so rapidly, our mental resources get drained. Consistently not getting enough sleep can decrease attention span and propel us to do more mindless activities, like scrolling through social-media apps. Carving out empty space during the day—for example, by taking a 20-minute walk outside—can help us de-stress. It also promotes divergent thinking, which creates higher quality ideas and better work. READ MORE   Share the story

What else to read Teen Girls Report Highest Levels of Sadness and Sexual Violence in a Decade, CDC Says By Madison Muller/Bloomberg Almost three in five U.S. teen girls reported feeling sad or hopeless in 2021, nearly twice the rate among teenage boys. Read More » Lead in My Pipes Taught Me How Little America Does to Protect Children By Adam Benforado America needs to do much more to focus on the wellbeing and health of children. Read More » The Hazards of Searching for ‘Marriage Material’ By Myisha Battle Whether it's app dating or meeting someone in real life, we are always bargaining for love, writes Myisha Battle. Read More » How to Lower Your Cholesterol Naturally By Markham Heid Changes focusing on what and how you eat, as well as your exercise habits, matter most. Read More » How to Survive on Less Sleep By Abigail Abrams It's possible to train your body to need less sleep, some research has found. But it won't work for everyone. (Originally published in 2017.) Read More »

ONE LAST READ Seniors are increasingly left to protect themselves Paula Span's piece for the New York Times details the persistent anxieties many seniors still have about COVID-19, even as the rest of the U.S. population moves on. Older Americans are most at risk for COVID-related hospitalizations and deaths, but younger generations don't view that as an imperative to help protect them. Still, there's more seniors can do to protect themselves. Most haven't received a bivalent booster—one of the best ways to ward off the worst effects of the disease. Read More »

If you were forwarded this and want to sign up to receive it daily, click here. Today's newsletter was written by Rachel Sonis and Mandy Oaklander and edited by Angela Haupt.

Want more from TIME? Sign up for our other newsletters. Subscribe to TIME

TIME may receive compensation for some links to products and services in this email. Offers may be subject to change without notice.   Connect with TIME via Facebook | Twitter | Newsletters       UNSUBSCRIBE     PRIVACY POLICY     YOUR CALIFORNIA PRIVACY RIGHTS   TIME Customer Service, P.O. Box 37508, Boone, IA 50037-0508   Questions? Contact health@time.com   Copyright © 2023 TIME USA, LLC. All rights reserved.