How Deliberate Unplugging Boosts Your Mind and Mood

By now, you’re probably aware that spending too much time staring at digital screens can harm your health. The internet is brimming with studies linking prolonged screen use with obesity, cardiovascular disease, sleep disorders, myopia, and more. A 2022 meta-analysis found that screen time is a predictor of depressive symptoms across multiple age groups, while a recent Japanese study concluded that increases in screen time among children may be responsible for developmental delays.

Of course, even if you haven’t read the science, you’ve likely experienced a few uncomfortable side effects. Several of my clients notice that the more time they spend on their screens, the more difficulty they experience with core cognitive functioning—focusing, generating insights, advancing complex endeavors, making decisions, high-level problem-solving, and managing anxiety.

But screens are ubiquitous, and as a species, we’re only becoming more dependent on them. Many of our careers require spending a third of our waking hours in front of a computer, and we often spend our leisure hours engaging with social media, streaming movies or TV shows, and reading digital publications. So, what can we do to stave off the ill effects?

While it’s unrealistic for most of us to eliminate screens, scaling back isn’t impossible and can even be enjoyable. Here are a few exercises I share with my clients—and observe myself—to help reclaim more freedom from screens.

Get Up (and Preferably Go Outside)

This advice might sound trite, but it's rooted in science. Even if you can’t take prolonged breaks from your computer during the workday, research shows that stepping away from screens for short but frequent intervals can profoundly impact your mental and physiological health. According to a study published in Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, taking just a five-minute leisurely walk every half-hour can have a healthy impact on blood pressure and glucose levels. The study, led by Columbia University exercise physiologists, found that walking for five minutes every 30 minutes is more beneficial than a one-minute walk after every half-hour of sitting, a one-minute walk after one hour, and a five-minute walk every hour.

I find it best to spend at least a few screen breaks outside in natural surroundings, but when that’s not feasible, strive to stand up every 30 minutes and briefly walk around your home or office. You may be surprised at how much such short reprieves can impact your well-being.

Leverage Boredom

Research shows that boredom can boost creativity—which is excellent news for anyone struggling to reignite their creative spark.

Any ordinary “still” moment—waiting for someone, taking a walk, standing in line—could activate your brain’s daydreaming network, the default mode network. Similarly, when you’re tired after several hours of sustained work or focus, that fatigue and boredom could prime you for random creative associations or insights.

The problem is we have a 6.3-inch boredom killer at our disposal. The moment your mind feels still, your hand probably unconsciously reaches for your phone. Before you know it, your mind is being fed digital candy.

In his book Digital Minimalism, author and Georgetown computer science professor Cal Newport recommends that readers intentionally select a few online activities and “happily miss out on everything else.” For example, you might choose one or two social media apps to engage with and delete the rest. By clearing out the so-called digital clutter, you’ll have more space for the non-screen-related activities you enjoy and the valuable boredom that can jump-start your creative work.

Pick a Replacement that Adds Value to Your Life

Cutting clutter is important, but it’s often easier to add a new habit than to break an old one—which is why I recommend choosing a meaningful replacement for those moments of mindless scrolling.

Here’s how:

Take a moment to remember the last time you felt the most alive in body and mind—away from screens.
List as many details as you can remember: Where were you? What were you doing? Who were you with? (The goal is to determine what made the experience so enjoyable.)
After determining which life-giving activity lights you up, write it down on a Post-it and stick it to your desk, coffee table, or wherever you spend excessive time with screens. I find it helpful to write a directive like, “When I feel tired, bored, or anxious, I will drop the device and [LIFE-GIVING ACTIVITY] instead.”

Whenever I walk groups or teams through this exercise, people share that they feel their best when doing activities like rock climbing, playing an instrument, laughing with friends or family, or reading a great book. Unsurprisingly, no one says they feel most alive sitting alone in front of a screen.

Cognition Essential Reads

How to Shift Your State of Mind

The Psychology of Disliked Music

By replacing screen time with a habit you know will make you feel good, you’ll be more likely to stick with it.

Set a Timer

Social media apps, news sites, online storefronts, and streaming services are purposefully designed to hold our attention as long as possible. If you’ve ever lost an hour to a scroll session, you know how easily it can happen. This is why I like to use timers.

If I’m delving into something I know has the potential to hold my attention for a very long time, I’ll set an Enso timer to remind myself to take a break. When the timer chimes, I do a somatic check-in. That means I note whether I feel any discomfort in my body, any negative emotions brewing, or any other signals. If so, then the timer acts as a signal that it would be best for my well-being and cognition to walk away and do something else.

Of course, sometimes my timer ends while I’m in a flow state and not quite ready to take a break. But, so long as I’m checking in with myself and being deliberate versus default in my choice, I can avoid inadvertently losing precious time to unfulfilling and unhelpful distractions.

Choose to Connect in Person

The biggest downside to spending so much time connecting online is that we connect significantly less in person.

In my book Tracking Wonder, I identify connection as one of wonder’s six facets. In the chapter on connection, I talk about how, for millennia, human survival relied on real-time sensory contact and physical bonding. Now that we’ve replaced so many activities with digital counterparts, it’s no surprise that we’re amidst what some experts have labeled a “loneliness epidemic” and I refer to as the "belonging gap.”

While technology undoubtedly provides us with many wonderful conveniences and ways to communicate with people thousands of miles away, we sometimes use screens as an excuse not to connect in person, even with those nearby.

Next time you have an opportunity, I challenge you to resist the digital default. Instead of video-conferencing with a colleague, choose to meet for coffee. Or, instead of doing an exercise video on YouTube, sign up for a class at a local gym or yoga studio.

Everything I have proposed is offered in the spirit of experimentation. That means you can set your personal aim, identify an exercise here you want to test out for a certain duration of days, and track the results.

No perfection.

Whatever your work and life circumstances, you can reduce screen use, boost your cognition and well-being, and carve out space for more fulfilling and meaningful activities.