In a world ruled by screens, the 3 p.m. work slump—in between Zoom meetings and emails and Slack messages—can feel like an inevitable part of our daily routines. To combat it, we might seek a brief reprieve on social media, which means even more screen time. That moment of supposed “rest” is followed by immense regret for not completing all the day's tasks.

What if we reframed how we thought about our relationship to screens, and perhaps even carved out time without them?

In a new essay for TIME, human-computer interaction researcher Gloria Mark, author of Attention Span, explores how taking time away from screens and doing nothing can actually make us more productive. Among her most intriguing points:

• Each time we switch from one screen task to another—which happens, on average, every 47 seconds—our brains recreate an internal representation of the task at hand. When we shift gears so rapidly, our mental resources get drained.
• Consistently not getting enough sleep can decrease attention span and propel us to do more mindless activities, like scrolling through social-media apps.
• Carving out empty space during the day—for example, by taking a 20-minute walk outside—can help us de-stress. It also promotes divergent thinking, which creates higher quality ideas and better work.

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