Speaker 1: Pushkin. Welcome to a special set of episodes of the
Speaker 1: Happiness Lab. The now global spread of coronavirus is affecting
Speaker 1: all of us. This disease has brought a host of medical, economic,
Speaker 1: and political problems, but it's also given us a ton
Speaker 1: of uncertainty and anxiety, which are beginning to have an
Speaker 1: enormous negative impact on our collective. While being but whenever
Speaker 1: I'm confused or fearful, I remember that looking for answers
Speaker 1: in evidence based science is always the best way to go,
Speaker 1: and that's where I'm hoping this podcast can help. For
Speaker 1: the past month, screens have been the lifeblood of my
Speaker 1: social connection. They've allowed me to see my family, chat
Speaker 1: with friends and colleagues, run my lab meetings, and even
Speaker 1: conduct the podcast interviews you've heard over the past few weeks.
Speaker 1: Screens have also been my key to entertainment, news, and
Speaker 1: even exercise while I'm stuck inside the house. But if
Speaker 1: I'm being honest, staring at a screen all day over
Speaker 1: the past few weeks has also made me more depleted
Speaker 1: than usual. Just yesterday, I realized I'd been sitting in
Speaker 1: the same chair for over six straight hours of Zoom meetings,
Speaker 1: which made my brain and my body felt kind of gross.
Speaker 1: The lockdown has also up the amount of time I
Speaker 1: spend looking at scary news on Twitter, or apathetically scrolling
Speaker 1: through a sea of Netflix options, or peeking at Reddit
Speaker 1: when I should be chatting with my husband. I started
Speaker 1: to realize that surviving this lockdown with my mental health
Speaker 1: intact requires taking a good, hard look at my own
Speaker 1: screen time. So I decided to put a call out
Speaker 1: to an expert, Katherine Price. Katherine is a science journalist
Speaker 1: who wrote a book called How To Break Up with
Speaker 1: Your Phone. Ironically enough, the only way we could connect
Speaker 1: during the lockdown was over zoom Sweet. So once it's once,
Speaker 1: you hit record, let me know and then we can
Speaker 1: get started. I have hit record, so gatherin. I feel
Speaker 1: like I've spent pretty much the entire last three weeks
Speaker 1: just staring at a screen. I mean, is this just me?
Speaker 1: Or is this something you can relate to? I certainly
Speaker 1: can relate to it personally, and I can tell you
Speaker 1: for sure You're not alone in terms of the general population,
Speaker 1: because I've been hearing from lots and lots of people
Speaker 1: about how they feel that their screen life balance has
Speaker 1: gone out the window since all of our work life
Speaker 1: is now even more on screens, and our personal life
Speaker 1: has shifted onto screens, and our leisure time is in
Speaker 1: large part spent on screens. So yeah, it's something everyone's
Speaker 1: struggling with. And so you've argued that screen life balance
Speaker 1: is important in general, but talk about why it's really
Speaker 1: essential during this time of COVID nineteen. Well, I think
Speaker 1: it's even more important to think about screen life balance
Speaker 1: during COVID nineteen, specifically because we're spending so much time
Speaker 1: on screens. So to be clear, I think we need
Speaker 1: to realize that there's nothing inherently wrong about this. I
Speaker 1: hear from a lot of people who are talking about, Oh,
Speaker 1: I should spend less time on screens, or I should
Speaker 1: do this. You know what we should be doing right
Speaker 1: now with social distancing and like watching our hands, That's
Speaker 1: what we should be doing when it comes to our
Speaker 1: as screens. Don't need to be critical of ourselves or
Speaker 1: restrictive just for the sake of being critical or restrictive.
Speaker 1: What's really important is to ask yourself, Okay, well, since
Speaker 1: I am spending so much time on my screens, how
Speaker 1: can I make sure the time I am spending on
Speaker 1: them is making me feel productive part is necessary, and
Speaker 1: which part is actually making me feel good or connected
Speaker 1: to other people, because that's the parts you want to keep.
Speaker 1: That's the beauty of technology is that we are able
Speaker 1: to stay connected and be productive during a time like this.
Speaker 1: But there's also lots of uses of screens that are
Speaker 1: making us not feel so great, like getting sucked into
Speaker 1: endless cycles of checking the news over and over again,
Speaker 1: or getting into social media spirals that go beyond just
Speaker 1: kind of a pleasant distraction and more into mind numbing
Speaker 1: kind of self medicating territory. I think this is really
Speaker 1: critical because your argument isn't that it's the amount of
Speaker 1: time we're spending on screens it's a problem. It's not
Speaker 1: that we need to reduce our screen time generally. It's
Speaker 1: just that we need to start paying attention to how
Speaker 1: these screens are making us feel. Yeah, you need to
Speaker 1: be intentional about your screen time. That's what I keep
Speaker 1: coming back to. So I wouldn't get hung up on
Speaker 1: the number of ours that your iPhone is telling you
Speaker 1: that you've spent on it per week, because it's very
Speaker 1: likely to be higher than normal. But I think you
Speaker 1: instead can just ask yourself Okay, Well, which parts of
Speaker 1: that screen time felt good and which parts didn't, And
Speaker 1: that's the place to start to get curious about it.
Speaker 1: And I think also it's a really useful skill to
Speaker 1: develop that you will be able to take with you
Speaker 1: after this, because if you start to just pay attention
Speaker 1: to how you feel in the moment when you're engaging
Speaker 1: with a particular behavior, whether it's on or office screen,
Speaker 1: you'll be able to make more intelligent choices about just
Speaker 1: how to spend your time. So it can actually be
Speaker 1: just really helpful. And if you just have a little
Speaker 1: trigger in the back of your mind to be like, huh,
Speaker 1: how am I feeling right now? Does this feel nourishing
Speaker 1: and good or productive or helpful? Or is this making
Speaker 1: me feel anxious or upset or depressed or scared or
Speaker 1: sad or even more of those things? And if you
Speaker 1: do have a choice in that moment, then just simply
Speaker 1: consider taking the other fork in that path. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: think that's lovely. You also use this wonderful analogy in
Speaker 1: one of your recent articles that the way we think
Speaker 1: about screens should be kind of the way we think
Speaker 1: about food, nutritious eating. Do you want to just explain
Speaker 1: that analogy a bit. Yeah, I've been thinking about screen
Speaker 1: time in terms of food in the sense that there's
Speaker 1: many different types of food. So when people say, always
Speaker 1: spend too much time on my screens, that's the same
Speaker 1: as just saying, oh, well, I eat too much food, right,
Speaker 1: But there's different types of food, and you also well,
Speaker 1: in the case of food, you do need some of it,
Speaker 1: but some of our screen time is necessary for our
Speaker 1: careers or what have you. So I like to instead say, well,
Speaker 1: what are your kind of food groups for screen time?
Speaker 1: You know, how can you break it down to think
Speaker 1: about which parts are the than good for you foods
Speaker 1: that kale and the vegetables whatever, Which parts of the
Speaker 1: total junk foods that maybe do comfort you and make
Speaker 1: you feel better in small quantities, but then make you
Speaker 1: feel really gross. You know, how can you actually take
Speaker 1: care of yourself and nourish yourself with screen time with
Speaker 1: a similar similar approach that you take towards food. And
Speaker 1: for me, that's been really helpful because it's been able
Speaker 1: to break you have a visual in my head kind
Speaker 1: of like one of those food pergrameds of the different
Speaker 1: types of screen time that gives me a tool with
Speaker 1: which to just make smarter choices for myself. And I
Speaker 1: love that analogy because I feel too. I feel like
Speaker 1: the nutritiousness of my panic. Scrolling on Twitter is just like,
Speaker 1: you know, that's just like the most gross thing, especially
Speaker 1: if I too a ton of time. But like a
Speaker 1: zoom call with my mom or like doing an online
Speaker 1: yoga class with friends, like that's the kale, Like I
Speaker 1: need more of that in my life, especially during COVID
Speaker 1: nineteen or that's like like kill doesn't seem as pleasant
Speaker 1: enough for what you just described. It's like, I don't know,
Speaker 1: some kind of yeah, it's really it's like a nice
Speaker 1: sie bowl, but yoga classes with friends, Oh my god.
Speaker 1: Keena is definitely involved in like a really tasty way.
Speaker 1: So one of the other things about noticing how we're
Speaker 1: feeling online is that you know, what we experience online
Speaker 1: in terms of our emotions can enter our real life too.
Speaker 1: I mean I noticed this myself when you know, I'm
Speaker 1: just scrolling on Twitter and I see some scary article
Speaker 1: about some twenty year old who's caught the virus and
Speaker 1: in the hospital. Now I'm anxious and panicked, And then
Speaker 1: I walk into the room with my husband and I'm
Speaker 1: transmitting all that anxiety and that panic to him when
Speaker 1: you know I didn't really need to do that. And
Speaker 1: so talk a little bit about how how the kind
Speaker 1: of the stuff we catch online can come can become
Speaker 1: part of our normal lives in a way that we
Speaker 1: might not anticipate. I think we need to be very
Speaker 1: conscious about what we're exposing ourselves to in general, because
Speaker 1: just as exposing yourself to a virus can make you
Speaker 1: physically sick, exposing yourself to stressful or anxiety producing content
Speaker 1: can really have an effect on your mental state, and
Speaker 1: that in turn can be transmitted to the other people
Speaker 1: that you're self isolating with right now. And if you
Speaker 1: do have a choice of exposing yourself to content that
Speaker 1: makes you feel calm versus Twitter, then maybe we could
Speaker 1: choose the calm content. It's kind of like a person
Speaker 1: making a movie who's choosing where to turn their camera.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of different things we could be choosing
Speaker 1: to put that camera on right now, whether it's on
Speaker 1: our screens or off of our screens, and it's up
Speaker 1: to us to choose where that focus is going to be.
Speaker 1: So the goal isn't just to reduce our screen time
Speaker 1: generally or just for the sake of it. It's actually
Speaker 1: to use our mindfulness muscles to make sure we're strategically
Speaker 1: using screens in a way that's going to boost our
Speaker 1: well being rather than hurt it. And so when we
Speaker 1: get back from the break, I'm gonna have Catherine dive
Speaker 1: into some more specific tips about how we can all
Speaker 1: do that. The Happiness Lab will be right back. So
Speaker 1: I wanted to dig into some of your specific tips
Speaker 1: for how we can achieve some screen life balance during
Speaker 1: this challenging time, because our screens aren't going away. I mean,
Speaker 1: in some sense we need them even more now to
Speaker 1: work and connect with the people we care about, maybe
Speaker 1: even to just enjoy some Netflix companies. But we also
Speaker 1: need to use all this screen time a little bit
Speaker 1: more nutritiously. And so one of the first tips you've
Speaker 1: mentioned before is to set up a set of goals
Speaker 1: and principles for how we're using our screen time, almost
Speaker 1: like a daily screen time budget. In my normal non
Speaker 1: pandemic life, I like to think about screen time in
Speaker 1: terms of a budget in the same way that I
Speaker 1: think about money as having a budget, with the idea
Speaker 1: being that there's lots of powerful interests. I allowed the
Speaker 1: companies behind these apps who really want to take our
Speaker 1: time and attention from us, because that is how they
Speaker 1: make money. And so just as you'd protect your actual
Speaker 1: money from thieves, you should protect your time and attention
Speaker 1: from people who want to take it from you. But
Speaker 1: right now, I think that there's an extra element of
Speaker 1: necessity here because it's having such an emotional impact on you.
Speaker 1: For my own screen time, I've been thinking about it
Speaker 1: in terms of three c's, the consumption, creation, and connection.
Speaker 1: So consumption being just taking stuff in that could be
Speaker 1: reading the news, which for me is never a good idea,
Speaker 1: or watching something or reading something from someone else. And
Speaker 1: then creation, what can you actually create? And for that
Speaker 1: you know, some people may be like, I don't have
Speaker 1: any energy for creation. You have to be kidding me,
Speaker 1: Like that is ridiculous to even suggest that I create
Speaker 1: something during such a stressful time. But there are other people,
Speaker 1: myself included, for which that's actually like a self soothing mechanism,
Speaker 1: Like my brain needs to do something, so if I
Speaker 1: can do something creative, it makes me feel better. And
Speaker 1: then connection I think everyone can relate to because we're
Speaker 1: all desperate for human connection, right now, and so if
Speaker 1: you're using your screen in a way that's bringing you
Speaker 1: closer to someone else in a way that feels good,
Speaker 1: I think that's a beautiful use of screens. I love
Speaker 1: these tips for figuring out which of the different parts
Speaker 1: you're using and maybe to even balance them over time,
Speaker 1: like because I could imagine, even for me the connection part,
Speaker 1: if I do that too much, you know, it gets
Speaker 1: to kind of be a lot. You know, even the
Speaker 1: most healthy stuff, even like in excess, can be a
Speaker 1: little bit too much. I think it's interesting to realize,
Speaker 1: like you just pointed out, that you can have something
Speaker 1: positive in excess. You know, there's so many like zoom
Speaker 1: happy hours happening now or my husband and our social
Speaker 1: calendar is like packed because got all these people stranded
Speaker 1: at home with this desire to connect. So we've been
Speaker 1: trying to make a point of actually deliberately taking breaks
Speaker 1: from our screens. For example, just going for a socially
Speaker 1: isolated walk without your phone and just trying to be
Speaker 1: present in whatever surroundings you're in, just to take a
Speaker 1: break from this subconscious feeling of needing to respond and
Speaker 1: be available. One thing I really love is like taking
Speaker 1: a whole night where you turn off all of your
Speaker 1: screens and actually just be with the people that you're with.
Speaker 1: You might decide that maybe you don't want to do
Speaker 1: like full on no screens at all, Maybe you want
Speaker 1: to put away your individual devices and do something together
Speaker 1: like watch a movie where everyone is actually sitting together
Speaker 1: watching the movie instead of everyone checking Twitter while watching
Speaker 1: the movie, which are very different experiences. And I personally
Speaker 1: highly recommend not checking the news after a certain point
Speaker 1: each night. If you're exposing yourself to endless stories about
Speaker 1: coronavirus right before bed, of course you're not going to
Speaker 1: sleep well. And also you can't do anything with that information.
Speaker 1: It's not going to change any behavior view that you
Speaker 1: would have had from six pm to midnight. I am
Speaker 1: willing to bet this has been a huge one for me.
Speaker 1: Just during the time of coronavirus. I finally started doing
Speaker 1: the tip that I've given to everyone, which is to
Speaker 1: put your phone to bed at a certain time. My
Speaker 1: phone now goes to bed around seven thirty, where I
Speaker 1: shut it off and stick it away, and I only
Speaker 1: do physical stuff like read physical books or do yoga
Speaker 1: or whatever. And it's been huge from my sleep, Like
Speaker 1: I can't even express how much better my sleep has been,
Speaker 1: just like not checking my phone right before I go
Speaker 1: to bed. I think that's an interesting point and consequence
Speaker 1: of what we're living through right now is that this
Speaker 1: contrast between screen activities and off screen activities is becoming
Speaker 1: very dramatic. It's really clarifying things to people, I think,
Speaker 1: because you suddenly realize there's a real difference in how
Speaker 1: you feel doing one versus the other. And there's nothing
Speaker 1: wrong with reading a book on your kindler your phone.
Speaker 1: But it's interesting that because we're having such huge exposure
Speaker 1: to screen time right now, it's becoming easier to see
Speaker 1: the difference in how offscreen things make us feel. And
Speaker 1: I think it's really important to recognize that we're not
Speaker 1: just heads on top of bodies, you know. We actually
Speaker 1: are creatures who have physical bodies also, and those bodies
Speaker 1: need to be nurtured, you know, which is as simple
Speaker 1: as like taking a bath. Like I haven't taken a
Speaker 1: bath and I don't know how long, and I've dive
Speaker 1: in a baths up the other day and I'm like,
Speaker 1: where's this been my whole life? Like this is delightful.
Speaker 1: I love that tip and in your idea of taking
Speaker 1: the bath when you haven't taken one in a long
Speaker 1: time leads me to one of your other tips, which
Speaker 1: I love, which is to explicitly write down a list
Speaker 1: of non screen time activities that you actually love to
Speaker 1: do so that you'll remember them when the urge to
Speaker 1: kind of pop on the screen mindlessly comes up. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I strongly encourage that people take a few minutes to
Speaker 1: write down a list of non screen activities that make
Speaker 1: them feel good. And the reason I say that is
Speaker 1: because when we're stressed out, the part of our brain
Speaker 1: that's in charge of rational decision making, the prefrontal cortex,
Speaker 1: goes out the window. It's like see you later, like
Speaker 1: exactly the moment when you need it the most, and
Speaker 1: instead we tend to go to things that provide quick fixes. So,
Speaker 1: whether that's checking the news, even though it doesn't make
Speaker 1: you feel good, it's still a quick fix of information,
Speaker 1: or getting a drink, or doing something that's not really
Speaker 1: that good for yourself and you know it's not good
Speaker 1: for you, but you don't really have the ability in
Speaker 1: that moment of stress to make a rational decision. So
Speaker 1: you want to make it as easy as possible to
Speaker 1: choose activities that actually are good for you, or that
Speaker 1: feel good or that nourish you. And one of the
Speaker 1: best ways to do that is just make a list
Speaker 1: of activities ahead of time, so that when you do
Speaker 1: have a moment of downtime, instead of instinctively reaching for
Speaker 1: your phone, which for many of us is that quick fix,
Speaker 1: you have alternatives at the ready. So it could be
Speaker 1: taking a bath, it could be listening to a podcast, which, yeah,
Speaker 1: that would be using your phone, but it's for a
Speaker 1: different purpose, doing a bit of stretching or meditation. I mean,
Speaker 1: the choices are endless, and it's very up to the
Speaker 1: particular person. There's no right answer here. I love this
Speaker 1: tip because that if I look at my own social
Speaker 1: media use, it tends to be just in exactly those
Speaker 1: moments where it's like I finished some other task, I
Speaker 1: have this kind of twinge of like boredom or I'm
Speaker 1: not sure what to do next, and I'm like, that's
Speaker 1: when I pull out Twitter. You know, That's when I
Speaker 1: do a quick check. And there's so many other things
Speaker 1: I would enjoy more than doing that quick check. It's
Speaker 1: just the Twitter feels like a habit. It feels like
Speaker 1: this really low startup cost, but it's a huge opportunity
Speaker 1: cost of other stuff in my life that I could
Speaker 1: be doing that would make me feel better. There is
Speaker 1: a huge opportunity cost. I think we don't often really
Speaker 1: recognize that. Because your time is finite and it's zero sum,
Speaker 1: you can't spend time or your attention on two things
Speaker 1: at once. So for every moment that you're spending in
Speaker 1: the black hole of Twitter, you're not spending on something else.
Speaker 1: And I think it's also a great opportunity for people
Speaker 1: to experience with some of the general screen balance, kind
Speaker 1: of like hygiene tips that I and others always recommend,
Speaker 1: but that can be hard to kind of motivate to
Speaker 1: do in your daily life. Like if you know that
Speaker 1: you're having a habit of just going on Twitter, and
Speaker 1: you're really aware right now that that's making you feel bad,
Speaker 1: maybe this is the time to experiment with taking Twitter
Speaker 1: off your phone for a couple of days. I really
Speaker 1: recommend people take news apps off their phones right now.
Speaker 1: I mean, why why have those on your phones? You
Speaker 1: won't forget to check the news. You just won't forget
Speaker 1: to check the news right now. Then if you take
Speaker 1: it off of your phone, you're essentially doing what psychiatrists
Speaker 1: would call reducing your ease of access to the problematic substance.
Speaker 1: So of course, if you have access to Twitter and
Speaker 1: Facebook and Instagram and sixteen different news sources on your
Speaker 1: phone and you're stressed out, you're going to go to
Speaker 1: those things. Another thing I know you've talked about is
Speaker 1: that the screen life balance that we need in our
Speaker 1: lives isn't just for us, you know, the adults in
Speaker 1: our family. We also need to think about how to
Speaker 1: balance screen time for our kids too. Write and I
Speaker 1: don't want to sound like some schoolmarm. I mean, my
Speaker 1: own child is literally watching Daniel Tiger as we were
Speaker 1: having this conversation because it's a rainy day. But I
Speaker 1: also thinks, you know, there's just a lot of other
Speaker 1: stuff to do. I mean, you can get very creative
Speaker 1: about it, especially with little kids. Like we've been looking
Speaker 1: for worms a lot, Laurie. We've been going on worm
Speaker 1: hunts and we just go out and she pulls up
Speaker 1: moss and tries to find worms. And then that's been
Speaker 1: entertaining her for quite a long time. So I think
Speaker 1: a lot of parents are really stressed out about how
Speaker 1: their kids are possibly going to quote unquote catch up
Speaker 1: in school once they go back to school. I think
Speaker 1: it's a really interesting concern because if you think critically
Speaker 1: about what typically happens in school and what is there
Speaker 1: is not accomplished, or how much time has wasted just
Speaker 1: trying to manage classrooms, there's a lot of time that's
Speaker 1: not actually used that efficiently. What do you actually want
Speaker 1: them to be able to do or have learned at
Speaker 1: the end of this pandemic that you think they're going
Speaker 1: to miss in school, And if you start from that outcome,
Speaker 1: then you can come up with creative ways to achieve
Speaker 1: the same results, whether it's on or off a screen.
Speaker 1: So I personally, I think it's interesting that everyone's kind
Speaker 1: of going to, let's just lecture to kids online and
Speaker 1: that just seems so boring and kind of fruitless, as
Speaker 1: opposed to saying, okay, well, maybe you could say these
Speaker 1: are the skills or the types of questions I want
Speaker 1: kids to be able to answer at the end of
Speaker 1: this time, and giving them a bit more freedom and
Speaker 1: independence to figure out ways to accomplish that knowledge or
Speaker 1: achieve that knowledge. But it sounds like one of the
Speaker 1: main tips is the same as it is for adults,
Speaker 1: which is it we need to be mindful of how
Speaker 1: our screen time and the rules around screen time are
Speaker 1: making us feel. You know, if it's making us feel
Speaker 1: kind of good, then that's okay. But if it's making
Speaker 1: us feel judged and feel overwhelmed and like we're a
Speaker 1: bad parent, then we need to listen to that too. Yes,
Speaker 1: I think the same rules apply for kids as they
Speaker 1: do with adults, which is that it's not necessarily the
Speaker 1: amount of screen time that matters. It's what we're doing
Speaker 1: with it, what we're getting out of it, and how
Speaker 1: it's making us feel. So we should be intentional about
Speaker 1: our children's screen time and the same way that we
Speaker 1: are for our own. So we should not just default
Speaker 1: to screens for the sake of defaulting to screens, but
Speaker 1: actually ask is that useful? Is it giving the kids
Speaker 1: something is and making them feel good? What's the opportunity
Speaker 1: cost of all the time on the screen? I also
Speaker 1: always recommend actually having a conversation with your child. If
Speaker 1: they're older than like five, you actually can have a
Speaker 1: conversation about this and say, let's figure out what we
Speaker 1: use our screens for. Let's come up with a list
Speaker 1: of ideas for offscreen activities that we could do together
Speaker 1: or individually, involve them in that process, and then give
Speaker 1: them a bit more of a sense of control over
Speaker 1: figuring out a schedule that works for them, because I
Speaker 1: think a lot of the tension comes from parents trying
Speaker 1: to control the kids without allowing the kids to have
Speaker 1: any kind of input into it. So I think making
Speaker 1: into a family conversation can be really helpful, and again
Speaker 1: goes to the idea that there is an opportunity here
Speaker 1: to develop some structures and templates for conversations that really
Speaker 1: can be helpful after this passes, after we go back
Speaker 1: to normal, both in terms of children's screen time and parents'
Speaker 1: screen time, and listening to what your kids have to
Speaker 1: say about you too. I think that's part of the
Speaker 1: final tip I wanted to get into, which is your
Speaker 1: idea that we should do as much as we can
Speaker 1: right now to set boundaries on the kind of information
Speaker 1: we're consuming, especially the stuff that we don't enjoy consuming
Speaker 1: that much. So you gave this one wonderful concrete suggestion
Speaker 1: about shutting off notifications and maybe taking apps off your
Speaker 1: phone to create boundaries, But are there other ways we
Speaker 1: can do it? Especially for those of us who are
Speaker 1: listening who might be kind of hesitant to take Twitter
Speaker 1: and Facebook off their phone. Well, first of all, I
Speaker 1: would say you can do it, guys, like you could
Speaker 1: literally delete that app and then a thirty seconds say
Speaker 1: that woman I just listened to is an idiot. I
Speaker 1: want it back on my phone, and just put it
Speaker 1: back on, no one stopping you. So just get curious
Speaker 1: about it, experiments, see what it's like, and it could
Speaker 1: differ by the day. But I think in general we
Speaker 1: need boundaries in all areas of our life right now
Speaker 1: because so many of us are working from home, so
Speaker 1: I don't have any boundaries between work and normal life.
Speaker 1: We don't have any boundaries between kidcare and our own
Speaker 1: personal time. No boundaries. There's no boundaries, no boundaries between
Speaker 1: the news, no boundaries with screens. We're just like in
Speaker 1: the state of uncertainty and anxiety with no boundaries. And
Speaker 1: when you think about it in that context, it makes
Speaker 1: sense that a lot of us are feeling pretty crazy
Speaker 1: right now. I think having as a guiding principle as
Speaker 1: you think about your life, the idea of what boundaries
Speaker 1: would make me feel better? How could I create lines
Speaker 1: and divisions between these parts of my life. But for example,
Speaker 1: figuring out how you can create a ritual that shows
Speaker 1: that you're starting your workday versus ending your workday. Rituals
Speaker 1: that mark when you are not interacting with screens or
Speaker 1: in what ways, like maybe you have if you have
Speaker 1: multiple devices, maybe you use one for one purpose and
Speaker 1: then another for another purpose. Or maybe don't check your
Speaker 1: phone your news from your phone, but you check it
Speaker 1: from the desktop. Don't answer emails from your phone because
Speaker 1: again that's really not efficient, instead do that from your computer.
Speaker 1: Get actual physical distance between things, so, for example, create
Speaker 1: a charging station for your phone that is not in
Speaker 1: your bedroom so that you're not instinctively reaching for your
Speaker 1: phone right before a bed and going into a Twitter spiral.
Speaker 1: If you're worried about people being able to call you,
Speaker 1: you can always create a group of VIP contacts and
Speaker 1: then turn the do not disturb on in general, but
Speaker 1: allow those calls to come in and turn your ringer on.
Speaker 1: And now you've created a way to keep a physical
Speaker 1: boundary between yourself and your phone. But you're not worried
Speaker 1: about missing a call from somebody that you want to
Speaker 1: hear from. But just keep in mind, the idea of
Speaker 1: which parts of your life seem to be blending together
Speaker 1: in ways that don't feel healthy, and then what rituals
Speaker 1: or practices could you experiment with them might enable you
Speaker 1: to feel a bit more organized in your mental world.
Speaker 1: It's awesome, And so if your listeners want to hear
Speaker 1: more tips, you've actually set up a resource that they
Speaker 1: can go to during this time of COVID nineteen. Right. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I have a website, screenlife balance dot com, and you
Speaker 1: can sign up from my newsletter and I've basically been
Speaker 1: trying to send out newsletters once or twice a week
Speaker 1: that contain suggestions for some of these things how to
Speaker 1: maintain screenlife balance and sanity during this time. And I've
Speaker 1: really been trying to make them the newsletters as much
Speaker 1: as I can, like self contain, so it's not just
Speaker 1: another list of thirty five links that you now feel
Speaker 1: that you have to click on and just seeing the
Speaker 1: email stresses you out, but really trying to help people
Speaker 1: think more intentionally about their screen time in ways that
Speaker 1: will make them feel a little bit more calm and
Speaker 1: less anxious and maybe even inspired during this time. I,
Speaker 1: for one, plan to take Catherine's advice to heart. I've
Speaker 1: already tried to institute a few new lockdown habits to
Speaker 1: help balance my technology time. For me, that's been online
Speaker 1: yoga with friends, dinner with my family over Zoom, and
Speaker 1: an awesome podcast every morning. I've also tried to find
Speaker 1: a few more screen free things that feel good, taking
Speaker 1: a few minutes to stare at the dogwood trees outside
Speaker 1: my house and playing some games in real life with
Speaker 1: my husband. I hope that you'll be able to find
Speaker 1: a bit more screen life balance during this challenging time,
Speaker 1: and I hope that at least one of your feel
Speaker 1: good screen time choices will be to come back for
Speaker 1: the next episode of The Happiness Lab with me, Doctor
Speaker 1: Laurie Sanders. The Happiness Lab is a Pushkin podcast. It's
Speaker 1: co written and produced by Ryan Dilley and mastered by
Speaker 1: Evan Fiola. Our original music is written by Zachary Silver.
Speaker 1: Special thanks to Ben Davis, Heather Fame, Carly mcgliori, Julia Barton,
Speaker 1: Neil LaBelle, Jacob Weisberg, and the rest of the Pushkin crew.