When we devote ourselves to something for an extended period and do it with real concentration, it improves the condition of our brains and leaves us feeling noticeably better. The more mental effort and focus a task requires, the greater the benefit. This is true even when the activity itself is trivial and has no practical value. It is better to count sheep with determination than to scatter one’s attention across everything and nothing at once.
The opposite state is mental drifting. The mind latches onto one thing for a moment, then another, never settling anywhere. The brain is underused, it suffers, and it becomes more prone to depression or anxiety. Think of watching a different social-media video every few seconds. Or wandering through stores without looking for anything in particular.
In both cases, the result is fatigue. The difference is that exhaustion from effort feels satisfying, while the weariness that comes from doing nothing is unpleasant.
All of this was already identified in the early 1990s by the American psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. One of his books was published in Czech under the dreadful title On the Meaning of Happiness and Life. He also observed that even people with difficult and miserable jobs tend to be in their worst moods during their leisure time, when their minds are drifting—unless that free time is spent on some focused activity. Since then, this insight has been widely accepted. Psychologists have conducted hundreds of experiments whose findings are consistent with the theory.
I mention this because we continue to encounter people who seem unaware that our brains require care and that constant distraction is destructive. It is one reason social media can be so harmful: we devote only a few seconds to each post, yet cannot pull ourselves away. In comparison, it is far better to lie on the grass, stare at the sky, and let the mind wander freely.