Unmotivated at work? Cutting back on screen time can help, new study shows

Cutting back on screen time by just an hour a day may boost not only your motivation in the workplace but also your well-being, according to researchers at the German Center for Mental Health and the Mental Health Research and Treatment Center at Ruhr University Bochum. The findings were published last week in the journal Acta Psychologica.

Some employers heavily invest in their employees’ work satisfaction and motivation, two factors crucial to a company’s productivity, lead researcher Julia Brailovskaia, PhD, said in a news release. Her team’s findings, she said, offer employers a low-threshold way to improve those elements while also fostering employees’ mental health and work-life balance.

The randomized controlled trial involved nearly 300 people employed in different industries and workplaces throughout Germany. They were divided into four groups and changed their behaviors accordingly for a week:

• Smartphone group: Reduced daily smartphone use by an hour
• Physical activity group: Increased daily physical activity by 30 minutes
• Combination group: Reduced daily smartphone use by an hour and increased daily physical activity by 30 minutes
• Control group: Didn’t change behaviors

More exercise + less screen time = better well-being

Researchers assessed participants’ well-being before, immediately after, and two weeks after their assigned behavior changes or lack thereof. Employees in the smartphone and combination groups reported significant improvement in their mental health, work-life balance, and work satisfaction and motivation. In addition, they indicated reduced feelings of work overload and symptoms of problematic smartphone use.

All participants asked to change their behavior in some way saw reduced depressive symptoms and an enhanced sense of control.

“A conscious and controlled reduction of non-work-related screen time, in combination with more physical activity, could improve employees’ work satisfaction and mental health,” Brailovskaia said.

One of the study’s major limitations is that the participants were all white and relatively young; no group’s average age exceeded 28. Future studies are needed to see if the findings hold for a more representative sample of the international workforce, the authors noted. As this study focused on non-work-related smartphone use, additional research might explore how work-related screen time impacts mental health, they said.

If you’re looking to cut back on your own screen time but aren’t sure how to go about it, try what Alex Turvy, MEd, a researcher in Tulane University’s City + Culture + Community program studying social media and internet culture, calls an “integration over separation” tactic. You could pair digital engagement with physical activity, such as going for a walk while listening to an audiobook.

“Recognize that the dichotomy between screen time and non-screen time is becoming increasingly blurred,” Turvy previously told Fortune. “Integrating meaningful screen-free activities into daily routines rather than strictly separating the two can be helpful.”

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