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Put down devices, let your mind wander, study suggests

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Re: Put down devices, let your mind wander, study suggests

#171

Post by nvarsj »

abhaynayar wrote: post #127

I have stopped listening to audiobooks while I'm out for a walk. At first, audiobooks seemed like such an efficient use of time. But after finishing a couple of audiobooks on my walks, I felt that my brain and my ears always yearned for not listening to audiobooks and instead just wanted to enjoy the walk itself. Now I just walk. If I'm not feeling that well, I do put on some music for a while, but never an audiobook…

Walking without distraction is a pleasure that I rediscovered recently. It’s been great for my mental health. I also seem to solve problems out of nowhere on my walks.

Re: Put down devices, let your mind wander, study suggests

#172

Post by maneesh »

codetrotter wrote: post #116
gukov wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Go to accessibility settings and make the display grayscale.

Thank you. For anyone else on iOS you find this by going to Settings -> Accessibility -> Display & Text Size -> Color Filters -> On. The default color filter when turned on is grayscale.

I set the Triple Click function to automatically trigger grayscale -- very useful!

Re: Put down devices, let your mind wander, study suggests

#173

Post by ChildOfChaos »

abhaynayar wrote: post #127

I have stopped listening to audiobooks while I'm out for a walk. At first, audiobooks seemed like such an efficient use of time. But after finishing a couple of audiobooks on my walks, I felt that my brain and my ears always yearned for not listening to audiobooks and instead just wanted to enjoy the walk itself. Now I just walk. If I'm not feeling that well, I do put on some music for a while, but never an audiobook…

I too play around with this.

Even when cleaning or doing chores, I was listening to podcasts or audiobooks, I still like this, but I have also started to realise that I never just have any stillness or space and that is valuable too.

The amount of thoughts I have or ideas while showering or cleaning is great.

Re: Put down devices, let your mind wander, study suggests

#174

Post by fauxreb »

bamboozled wrote: post #51

Has anyone experimented with having a "dumb phone" and taking that with them just in-case people need to contact them or for emergencies? Lately, I've had a few times when I accidentally left my phone at home and after an hour or so realized how much fun I've had without it.

Yes, many many times. I used to work in Haiti and though we had wifi on base I relished any time away from it.

I used to hike between the villages there and carry a $20 dumb (dual sim) that only had two numbers: my wife and my work. Even having the work number was fine because the conversations were very simple: no images, no text, just verbal exchange.

Blissful.

Re: Put down devices, let your mind wander, study suggests

#175

Post by fauxreb »

jerlam wrote: post #31

There's also the long-standing idea that people come up with great/interesting ideas while in the shower (so much that it's an internet meme), and that's attributed to the shower being one of the few places where you don't have media or electronics trying to capture your attention.

It less about the devices and more about giving the mind some simple physical task.

I have the same thing with any solitary sport. Rowing/Sculling in particular. No phones in the boat (since they're very tippy), and an hour of reasonably delicate physical activity.

The rowing movement requires a little concentration so it absorbs say 40% of the mental activity, what's leftover flows into light thinking and connection-making, without much angst.

Re: Put down devices, let your mind wander, study suggests

#176

Post by pluijzer »

pj_mukh wrote: post #106
osamagirl69 wrote: post #26

There is some interesting discussion in the analysis portion of the paper that resonated deeply with me. >However, the fact that participants underestimated the potential task motivation during the thinking period may indicate that people avoid thinking not because it is aversive but because it is expected to be aversive. >Such an inaccurate expectation may lead people to unnecessarily avoid spending time thinking in…

What are other good mobile strategies? I need my phone to keep an eye on some work stuff + elderly parents on WhatsApp, but clearly parts of the phone are neurologically optimized to keep me distracted (and it works!) So what are other good ways to fight this?

Apart from the already suggested tip to make your screen B&W (which makes everything just a little bit more boring) I do the following:

- I have my phone permanently on "do not disturb" and only made exceptions for important colleagues, SO and parents. In those cases my phone actually makes a sound so I don't need to keep an eye on it. - I don't put any distracting apps (including browsers) on the home-screen of my phone. Making it a little bit harder to find them makes me often not bother. - No social media apps on my phone. - I used Leechblocker in the past to have me wait 30 seconds before entering sites like this. It worked but I started to find ways around it like using another browser.

Re: Put down devices, let your mind wander, study suggests

#177

Post by juve1996 »

ChildOfChaos wrote: post #170

I'm trying to do this more. It's a tough one, because with access to so much information, I feel like there are a lot of interesting things to see and learn which could impact my thinking and the stuff I do a great deal, but at the same time, all of that stuff and content seems to have crept into every spare moment of time, I am not sure how much I know how to genuinely think deeply about things for myself anymore. M…

> It's a tough one, because with access to so much information, I feel like there are a lot of interesting things to see and learn which could impact my thinking and the stuff I do a great deal, but at the same time, all of that stuff and content seems to have crept into every spare moment of time, I am not sure how much I know how to genuinely think deeply about things for myself anymore.

This resonates with me, not from an originality standpoint only, but from just a contentment standpoint as well. While there is this great potential for me to see interesting things or learn something new, I find my appreciation for a lot of things has also gone way down. Nothing seems to be special anymore. Even if I do find something cool, my appreciation for it is non-existent because "there could be something else."

Re: Put down devices, let your mind wander, study suggests

#179

Post by fatnoah »

commandlinefan wrote: post #178

It's really surprising how many things clarify for me when I take the dog for a long walk and have no choice but to think about random things for a half hour or so.

My ideal "day off" is basically aimlessly wandering around my city. During the walk, my brain just goes on its own adventure. After a full day of that, I'm always amazingly relaxed.
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