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attention
You spend 47% of your day thinking about nothing.
A 2010 study found that nearly half of our waking hours are spent thinking about something other than the present task.
Using experience sampling, researchers discovered that mind-wandering is the default state of the human brain. People report being significantly less happy when their minds wander than when they are engaged in the moment. The ability to daydream comes at the cost of your current satisfaction.
You are rarely where you are.
Where this comes from
- Study
- Killingsworth & Gilbert, 2010
- What the check found
- The study by Killingsworth and Gilbert (2010) confirms the 47% figure; the terminology 'mind-wandering' is treated synonymously with 'daydreaming' in the literature.
- Confidence
- Well replicated
Related
One of these every day, and every one names the study it came from. When a finding is contested, it says so.