Is it bad that my mind wanders?
· Source: Killingsworth & Gilbert, Science, 2010
Your hands are making tea, and your head is somewhere else entirely. In 2010, two Harvard psychologists pinged people's iPhones at random moments of the day. They asked: what are you doing, how do you feel, and are you thinking about something else? They collected answers from 2,250 adults, right in the middle of ordinary days. Minds wandered in almost half of those moments. And people were less happy while their minds were away. Unless the thoughts were pleasant. It's a link, though, not proof that wandering causes the low mood. Tonight, think of the best moment of your day, and what you were doing right then. Was your mind really there?