#external-distractions

#external-distractions

Musée d'Orsay hosted an exhibit last year called "Art is in the Street," which cataloged "the spectacular rise of the illustrated poster in Paris during the second half of the 19th century." The prints were lithographs - drawings made on limestone with greasy pencils, which were then exposed to water and inverted onto sheets of paper. Typically, each color got its own stone. The finished product was a firework of oily yellows and reds.

One of the reasons we did this work is because we saw this happening to people who were perceived as really high performers. In the study, 14 percent of workers said they had experienced mental fatigue that results from excessive use of, interaction with, and/or oversight of AI tools beyond one's cognitive capacity.

I am a professor of public health who studies health behaviors and the gap between intentions and outcomes. I became interested in this self-care paradox recently, after I suffered from a concussion. I was prescribed two months of strictly screen-free cognitive rest-no television, email, Zooming, social media, streaming, or texting. The benefits were almost immediate, and they surprised me. I slept better, had a longer attention span, and had a newfound sense of mental quiet.