The Science of Restorative Breaks

Dear reader, your brain is working hard right now as you read this. Let’s make sure it’s worth your attention.

Notice I said "attention" and not "time"? Have you ever considered that your attention is as valuable a resource as your time? And just like the number of hours in a day, your capacity to pay attention is limited. In this article, we’ll explore why our brains get tired and how we can reboot them effectively. 

Bent Run waterfall in Warren, PA. Photo by Rachel Schad.

Caveman Brains in a Modern World

Our brains are incredibly sophisticated, but they haven’t changed much since early human history.

Imagine living as an early human. The stimuli competing for your attention were limited. But, today, in our interconnected world, researchers speculate that we absorb and process as much data in a week as prehistoric people did in their entire lifetimes. No wonder our brains get tired! 

Why Our Brains Get Tired

Our brains have two systems for paying attention, but only one of them gets tired. That’s our top-down attention. We use this system to complete tasks that require effort like reading, solving problems, or designing something. When this type of attention is pushed to its limit, we feel mentally fatigued.

Mental fatigue can look like feeling distracted, stressed, overwhelmed, irritable, or unmotivated. Conventional wisdom tells us that we should push through this exhaustion, but research on attention shows that when we do, our effectiveness declines, and we’re more prone to make mistakes and use poor judgment. In addition, living with depleted attention can negatively impact our relationships, because mood, stress, and attention are interconnected and affect every aspect of our lives. 

Sunflowers brighten up a tree-lawn in Cleveland, OH. Photo by Rachel Schad.

The Best Breaks to Recharge

Taking a break is the best way to restore mental focus, but some types of breaks are more beneficial than others. Interestingly, the best way to restore our top-down attention is by using our other attention mode.

We call the second type bottom-up attention. Our brains use it when we admire a scenic view, listen to music, or savor the smell of fresh-baked bread. It’s an automatic, effortless form of attention.  

Attention Restoration Theory

reDirect has a special connection to the topic of attention. Our founders, Rachel and Stephen Kaplan, were environmental psychologists at the University of Michigan where they developed Attention Restoration Theory (ART) after years of research. The theory proposes that spending time in nature or engaging in activities that offer “soft fascination” is the best way to restore our attention.

When we talk about "soft fascination," we refer to the gentle, engaging qualities of nature that draw our attention without overwhelming us—like a calm stream, rustling leaves, or birds chirping. These sights and sounds capture our interest but don’t require intense concentration, allowing our minds to wander and relax.

Amazingly, this type of break seems to do more than recharge our focus. When our brains have space to wander, they can make connections in the background without us even trying. That’s why people often have great ideas in the shower or suddenly find a solution to a problem after taking a walk outside. 

Step Away from Your Phone

Science continues to reveal the mechanics of how attention restoration works in the brain, including one recent study which discovered that using screens in green spaces cancels out any restorative benefit they have for our brains.

In a recent study, scientists tested how well people could focus before and after short breaks in two different urban environments: lush green spaces and urban spaces without any plants. Participants were asked to either use their electronic devices as they usually would or to take a break without screens.

The results were stunning. Participants who enjoyed screen-free breaks in a green setting performed significantly better on tests of attention. In contrast, participants who used devices in nature were indistinguishable from the two groups who took breaks in barren spaces —in terms of their ability to pay attention, it looked like they hadn’t taken a break at all. 

Balcony herb garden. Photo by Rachel Schad.

When to Take a Break

So how often do we need to recharge our focus? On average, humans can maintain concentrated focus on a task for about 20 minutes, but each person is unique. It’s best to take a break before you start feeling mentally fatigued, as your circumstances allow.

On the other hand, we don’t need to take a break when we are “in the zone,” meaning when our focus is naturally sustained because we are captivated by whatever we are doing. We can enjoy the flow state and take time to rest and reset when our attention fades. 

Prevent Mental Fatigue

We should also be proactive and avoid spending our limited top-down attention on the wrong thing at the wrong time. One way we can do this is by limiting distractions.

Our electronic devices can be major sources of distraction, whether breaking our focus with notifications or tempting our focus away from the task at hand. Try silencing your phone and moving it out of sight when you don’t need it.

Perhaps interruptions from coworkers or family are using up a lot of your attention. Try scheduling some uninterrupted time for deep focus.  

Figure Out What Works for You  

Breaks are not a one-size-fits-all solution. Experiment with different types to discover what works well for you. Use the questions below to get you started, or get inspired by ideas in this downloadable “Menu of Breaks” resource. Remember to take notes! Keep track of what you did and how it turned out (or in other words, try some small experiments).

Questions to consider:  

1. Can you recognize when your brain needs a break? What do you notice?

2. What types of breaks work well for you? 

3. How do you feel after a quality (screen-free) break? 

4. What is one small action you could take to better support your mental bandwidth?

5. What are the main distractions in your workspace? What’s one change you can test out to reduce their impact?

More On Breaks

If you’d like to learn more about creating workplaces that support breaks, check out our companion posts below!

Supporting Mental Bandwidth: Break Culture in Workplaces

Micro-Breaks for the Busiest of Times 

Learn More About ART

To learn more about Attention Restoration Theory, check out these references. If you have any trouble accessing the journal articles, just email us and we can share the pdf with you directly.

YouTube

Addressing Mental Fatigue

Your Brain on Birdsongs with Avik Basu

Journal Articles

The restorative benefits of nature: Toward an integrative framework

How to Waste a Break: Using Portable Electronic Devices Substantially Counteracts Attention Enhancement Effects of Green Spaces 

Views to nature: Effects on attention

Micro-Breaks for the Busiest of Times

We need to take breaks to restore our mental bandwidth. It’s a universal human need, not a reflection of your willpower or ability. Think of your brain as a complex machine—one that needs routine maintenance.  One crucial function that needs regular recharging is our ability to focus on tasks, like reading this post! 

While the best way to restore your attention is to spend time in nature (and avoid looking at screens), we know that isn’t always possible. Below are some simple micro-break ideas that may give your mind some relief throughout the day. 

Photo by Rachel Schad

Micro-Break Ideas

1. Engage with Nature (or Nature Analogues)

• Look out a window at a natural setting. 

• Keep some plants or flowers on your desk to naturally engage your attention. 

• Display a nature photo in your workspace or use one as your video call background.

• Listen to nature sounds in headphones.

2. Physical Outlets

• Use fidget toys or a stress ball to engage your hands and relieve stress. 

• Try out a standing desk! Move or sway in-place to engage your body. 

• Reduce eye strain. Look away from your screen every 20 or so minutes. Look in different directions, far away and up close. 

• Take a quick stroll around your workspace. 

• Stretch. Slowly roll your shoulders, wrists, and neck to relieve tension.  

3. Practice Mindfulness

• Focus on your breathing. Take a couple of deep breaths with your eyes closed. 

• During restroom breaks, take a moment to notice the sensation of water on your skin while washing your hands. 

• Try activating other senses. It can be refreshing and calming to take a moment to enjoy natural scents, for example, from nearby plants. 

4. Task Switching

• When you feel yourself losing focus, try changing tasks to something that uses different skills (e.g., moving from a task that requires meticulous attention to detail, to something that requires more creative thinking). 

Work with Your Natural Rhythms 

Restoring your capacity to pay attention also involves working in sync with your natural rhythms. This strategy complements taking breaks rather than replacing them.

If you have the flexibility to plan your workday, try to identify when you feel most alert and focused. Do your most challenging (and attention-demanding) work during those periods.

Additionally, some research suggests that people are more efficient with repetitive (or, let’s be honest, somewhat boring) tasks when they do them before more engaging work. So, consider saving creative tasks for when you’re feeling tired, or use them as a reward for completing less interesting tasks.

Small Experiments

You will need to try different types of breaks to see what works best for you individually. Treat each small adjustment like an experiment. Take notes so you can keep track of what works and what doesn’t work for you.

Be Realistic 

Finally, be realistic about what you can accomplish each day. Consider setting fewer goals and trying to start each workday with clear priorities. Remember, multitasking is a myth—your brain can only effectively handle one task at a time (unless we’re talking about the subconscious processes that keep us alive!). 

Your Brain Needs Real Breaks

These micro-breaks can give your ability to focus a helpful boost, but they aren’t a substitute for truly restorative breaks. To learn more, check out our companion posts.

The Science of Restorative Breaks

Supporting Mental Bandwidth: Break Culture in Workplaces

Supporting Mental Bandwidth: Break Culture in Workplaces

We all start the day with limited resources. When it comes to work, those resources include our time, our energy, and our attention. And, despite what hustle culture tells us, there’s a limit to how much we can accomplish each day.  

We know there are costs to overextending ourselves at work, yet cases of burnout seem to be rising. In fact, the World Health Organization classified it as an “occupational phenomenon” in 2019, and this 2023 report by the American Family Life Assurance Company of Columbus found that 57% of respondents reported at least moderate burnout in their current jobs.

How can we prevent burnout? Let’s start by rethinking what it means to “take a break,” and how we can foster work environments that support them. 

Photo by Karolina Grabowska (Source: Pexels)

Why We Need Breaks

We need to take breaks to restore our mental bandwidth. This need is a cognitive one, and universally human. Think of the brain as a complex machine that needs routine maintenance. One function that needs regular recharging is our brain’s capacity to focus on tasks that require effort, like reading this post.

The quality of our work, as well as our mood, can suffer when we deplete this attention store. Mental fatigue can manifest as feeling distracted, stressed, overwhelmed, irritable, or unmotivated. It’s best to take a break before we get too far down that path. When we push our brains to the limit too often or for too long, we experience negative health outcomes, like burnout. It’s an unpleasant wake-up call that affects not only the individual but also those around them.

We all play a role in fostering workplaces that support mental bandwidth, whether we are employers, leaders, or staff members. A big piece of this is creating a positive culture around taking breaks, like establishing social norms and benefits policies. It can also include designing physical spaces that support breaks. 

Culture Shapes Our Attitudes

When we talk about “workplace culture” we mean the shared values, beliefs, and behaviors that make up some of the intangible parts of environments. We absorb both explicit and implicit messages within our workplaces that shape our individual perception of the culture, such as expectations about productivity, work ethic, and rest. On a macro scale, in the US and many other places, there is significant pressure to treat work as our highest priority.

Workplaces that measure success by hours logged and output often seem at odds with an environment that encourages taking breaks for mental restoration. It can be hard to break free of the mold of such an environment. Reflecting on my early career as an architect, the mantra “design is never finished,” comes to mind. Through my education and early career, I often convinced myself that I hadn’t accomplished enough to deserve a break. Often I thought: ‘If I take a break now, I won’t meet this deadline.’ Or ‘If I get up from my desk too often or for too long my supervisor will think I’m a slacker.’ Or ‘I’m new: I need to work extra hours and show that I belong here.’

Leaders Shape the Culture

One of the best ways that workplaces can foster a supportive culture toward breaks is for leaders to model them well. In Deloitte’s 2022 workplace wellbeing survey, they identified “leadership behaviors” as one of the three primary factors that impact wellbeing in the workplace.

Tim Allen, CEO of Ask Media Group, illustrates this weIl in a personal story he shared with the Harvard Business Review Later in his career, Tim realized that the way he prioritized work demands above his personal life had contributed to a workplace culture he didn’t actually support. He shares that the day his twins were born was one of the happiest of his life. Yet it coincided with one of his biggest regrets: joining a conference call as he entered the hospital.

It’s taken introspection and experience as both a father and a leader to admit a hard truth: By not taking all my paternity leave — and working while I should have been “off” — I was letting my sons down as their dad and my partner down as a co-parent. And, through my example as a leader, I was letting down the other parents at my company.

...the problem wasn’t my paternity benefits — my company had the right policies in place. The problem was the disconnect between written policy and actual culture. I was contributing to a norm that company comes first and being a dad comes second. When I took that call on the day of my sons’ birth, I was unwittingly sending a message to other dads at my office that they’d be stigmatized if they didn’t do the same. 

Although this example deals more with rest and balancing life priorities, the core idea of modeling acceptable behavior is still there. In my own experience working in the design field, I saw leaders and coworkers model breaks and ‘work-life balance’ both in healthy and unhealthy ways. It was common for people to eat lunch at their desks or regularly work into the evening. Project managers would run out the door for a meeting and squeeze in an extra ‘walk and talk’ on the way, maximizing each minute. On the flip side, others went to lunch together or took group walks for a coffee, rallied the team to join office social gatherings, or went to the gym during lunch.

Individually, we have personal struggles, life goals, and responsibilities outside of our jobs that shape our attitudes and behaviors towards taking breaks. Personally, even when I worked in break-positive environments, I still had my own internal taskmaster nagging me. I would often decline lunch invitations because I worried about finishing projects on time. But, in retrospect, I can see now that instead of draining myself at my desk, accepting more invitations or taking a walk could have had a restorative effect and helped me work more effectively.

Amazon's campus near downtown Seattle. Photo by Rachel Schad.

Modeling Breaks

Some ways that leaders can model taking breaks is by leaving the workplace for lunch and encouraging others to do the same. They could also organize social events during work hours rather than afterhours, helping employees feel that their time is valued.

Additionally, leaders could have open discussions about break habits, encouraging employees to find what types of breaks are most restorative for them. Early-career staff, in particular, may need guidance and reassurance, as they are likely observing their colleagues to form their understanding of cultural norms.

After Tim Allen had his own epiphany and began to change his work habits, he recalls getting on a zoom call and seeing an employee who was meant to be on family vacation. "Instinctively, I told him, “I really appreciate your commitment, but you’re not supposed to be working right now. I’ll catch up with you when you’re back from spending time with your family.’… I wasn’t just talking to him. I was talking to everyone on that call, including myself." 

The Importance of Advocacy

What can we do if we find ourselves in a work setting where breaks are not modeled from the top? Or worse, they are discouraged or looked down upon? That’s a tough place to be in and there isn’t one right way to navigate it.

But one thing we can do is advocate for breaks by helping others build a new mental model about them. We need to help reshape perceptions about breaks and demonstrate how they can benefit the entire organization, from improving productivity to boosting morale and retaining employees.

Another resource we can tap into is our network of coworkers. We can take a “team player” mindset and try to build a mutually supportive network where individuals help one another as their own workload ebbs and flows.

When people change their attitudes toward breaks, work cultures can evolve. Bill Gates gives us an encouraging example of his own perspective shift in his 2023 commencement speech to graduates at Northern Arizona University. 

My last piece of advice is the one I could have used the most. It took me a long time to learn. And it is this: You are not a slacker if you cut yourself some slack. 

When I was your age, I didn’t believe in vacations. I didn’t believe in weekends. I pushed everyone around me to work very long hours. In the early days of Microsoft, my office overlooked the parking lot—and I would keep track of who was leaving early and staying late.

But as I got older—and especially once I became a father—I realized there is more to life than work.

Don’t wait as long as I did to learn this lesson. Take time to nurture your relationships, to celebrate your successes, and to recover from your losses. Take a break when you need to. Take it easy on the people around you when they need it, too. 

Restorative Breaks

This post focuses on understanding how workplace cultures either support or discourage breaks. Next, I would encourage you to explore our companion posts to learn about the best kinds of breaks to restore your focus!

The Science of Restorative Breaks 

Micro-Breaks for the Busiest of Times 

Breaking Barriers: How to Structure Environments to Support Accessibility Needs

This July marks the 33rd anniversary of the passing of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). This historic law, which prevents discrimination against people with disabilities, is celebrated throughout July as Disability Pride Month. The law addresses multiple environments where discrimination might occur, including in the transportation sector, in communications, in receiving local programming and services, and perhaps most significantly, in the workplace. How can being mindful of disability accommodations in the workplace have positive outcomes for everyone, no matter one’s disability status? 

It’s likely not difficult to recall a time when you had trouble communicating or collaborating at work. This might’ve been a result of the work environment failing to meet your need to 1) understand, 2) feel competent and clear-headed in your work, and 3) meaningfully contribute to your organization’s goals. Now imagine that you identify as having one or more physical, intellectual, or developmental disability. How might it feel to consistently navigate environments in which your needs aren’t being considered? How might these unique challenges intersect and overlap with the existing workplace challenges that we all already experience? The three domains of the Supportive Environments for Effectiveness (SEE) framework can help us understand the issue of accessibility in the workplace and implement potential solutions. 

Building A Model for Inclusivity

One of the three domains of SEE describes our need to increase our understanding of the world by exploring new environments and ideas. We refer to this as “building a mental model” of the world, or “model building,” for short. This exploration is, at its core, information gathering from other people and the general environment. In order to build a shared mental model of a community that is inclusive of people with disabilities, there must be people with disabilities actively involved in discussions of community structure and function. The inclusion of a diverse group of people in these conversations, all sharing their own stories, not only contributes to building that shared mental model of what our community looks like, but it also contributes to the creation of mental models about a life experience that is different from our own.

“People want to understand and explore the world around them. They resent things that don’t make sense to them.”

Several disabilities, especially those that are invisible or complex, are ones that many people lack familiarity with. In essence, they “don’t make sense” to us, because we don’t have a basis, or a model, for understanding them. By including more individuals with varying disabilities in our conversations about accommodations, we can begin to get a glimpse of a different life experience. This approach fills a critical information gap, allowing people to form a more robust mental model of what life can look like. Looking beyond the workplace, it also creates a more informed community that feels capable of advocating alongside those with disabilities for the essential accommodations they need.

Feel Capable Through Restoration

Another domain of SEE describes our desire to feel competent and clear-headed. As humans, we have attention-related needs that stem from how we’ve evolved, and that are not always supported by our modern environments that constantly bombard us with information. Just like how our body fatigues after physical exercise or exertion, so does our ability to pay attention after focusing for extended periods of time. Everyone needs breaks to restore their attention and feel competent and clear-headed, and often, the necessary frequency of these breaks is not aligned with how we structure a typical workday.

“How are we creating space for people to take care of themselves while they bring their skills and interests to the work?”

Beyond the universal need for mental restoration, some individuals may have additional bandwidth needs to consider. Those with disabilities may experience reduced attention spans or regular periods of physical discomfort. 

Have you ever had a day at work where you had trouble staying on task or being productive because of distractions in your work environment? Maybe a co-worker paid an unplanned visit to your office, or you continued to receive disruptive texts and phone calls from a well-intentioned family member. For individuals who identify as having a disability, these interruptions may feel more pronounced or produce additional stressors that place a greater strain on their time and mental resources.

When we increase our focus on mental restoration and individual well-being by including people with disabilities in the development of supportive structures, we ensure that mental restoration will be more accessible to everyone. Embracing inclusivity will not only benefit individuals with disabilities but also foster a more productive and compassionate work environment for all.

Meaningful Action and the Reinforcing Impact of Accommodations

Another domain of SEE describes the desire to know that your actions are making a difference or having a positive impact, referred to as “meaningful action.” This need is shared by everyone; we all want to contribute to conversations and actions that will positively impact those around us, and be asked to participate in making these changes a reality. To achieve this, we have to consider any barriers to participating in these conversations in order to expand positive impacts through collaboration. In the way our environments are often structured, individuals with disabilities may not always be able to participate in important workplace or local community conversations. We can explore this in the context of a larger team meeting in an office environment:

• Is the meeting location accessible by wheelchair?

• Is there enough seating for all of the attendees? 

• Are there accessible restrooms nearby? 

• Will there be an interpreter available for American Sign Language, or any handouts printed in braille? 

• Are there multiple ways to participate and give feedback, besides having to / needing to speak in front of everyone? 

• How long is the presentation or discussion? And will there be breaks if the meeting is longer than 1 hour?

“People thrive when environments, policies, and projects encourage genuine participation and allow people to do things that matter.”

Making these necessary accommodations for colleagues with disabilities in your workplace and community is not only essential for their ability to contribute toward meaningful actions that are ongoing, but is itself a meaningful action. Considering these accommodations will have a visible and positive impact on the cohesion and connectedness of our shared environments.

Bringing It All Together

Here, we have begun to build a mental model of what our workplaces and communities can become when we consider the needs of others. They can:

• Actively include those with diverse perspectives and experiences when building a shared understanding

• Allow the freedom to take restorative breaks as a tool for feeling capable, and

• Value and encourage everyone's participation so that they know they’re making a difference

Rachel Fink is a 2023 reDirect Fellow collaborating with the City of Ann Arbor’s Office of Sustainability and Innovation. She is a current Master’s student at the University of Michigan School for Environment and Sustainability and holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology from Appalachian State University.

From Planning Routes to Planning Cities: SEE Can Help

Moving to a new place can be overwhelming. Our sense of home is so much more than the building we live in; it is a dynamic relationship between person and place. Will I have access to a pharmacy that stocks my medications, a grocery store that offers culturally-appropriate foods to soothe my homesickness, a pet store that caters to my diabetic cat? Are there sidewalks and public transit to connect me to these places, and in a timely fashion? Can I get there easily? Safely? Wherever we move, novelty and uncertainty are our new next-door neighbors.

Now imagine a reality where you have not moved, but a layer of nuance is introduced to your once familiar setting and brings with it the same questions. Your location has not changed, but in some way your environment has, destabilizing your routine and threatening your ability to get your needs met. Our first reaction is often to avoid this disturbance and preserve our sense of place. But changes to our environment will always take place. How can we learn to better adapt to these changes? This is where the work of an urban planner can help.

Photo by Isabella Beshouri

Urban planners propose changes to established communities for a variety of reasons: to expand public transit and improve mass mobility; to rectify a history of racial injustice by remedying entrenched segregation; to mitigate climate risk, and to adapt civic life to be resilient in the face of the unavoidable. The aim of planning should be to foster environments that are supportive of human and environmental health, center equity and justice, protect public safety, and improve physical and socioeconomic mobility, all the while enshrining local character to foster community identity and pride of place.

It’s a lot, so it’s good that we are not doing it alone. This mission is unattainable by any one group or vision, and so requires public participation during the design and implementation of changes. As planners, we can draw on aspects of the Supportive Environments for Effectiveness (SEE) framework to facilitate community-wide visioning sessions and to support them as their environment shifts. At the nexus of value and practicality, lessons from the SEE framework are worthy additions to the participatory design toolkit:

Model Building

Most of the time, the motivation to attend a community listening session is not to sit and receive the project’s elevator pitch. It may be important for residents to know about plans for new traffic signal coordination, but their motivation to learn about such plans is likely related to concerns for how the changes might be disorienting as they navigate the city.

Photo by Sydney Mark

Many proposed changes to the built environment are requests for permission to disrupt our painstakingly constructed mental models; models built from experience, and heavily relied upon to make sense of the world around us. Mental models are the hidden subject of development no matter the project. It is important to greet public comment with an awareness of these emotional pressure points and what inflames them. With an empathic understanding of what we are asking, we can think more deeply about how to support stakeholders through their model-building process when we propose changes.

Model building support can take many forms, from facilitating Focused Conversations to enlisting virtual reality. Community engagement is a complex and locally tailored process; there is no one-size-fits-all approach that transcends physical and social geographies. But, with an understanding of mental models, we can more effectively facilitate a feedback process by starting from where participants are at with their own understanding, and being mindful of the shared language we use to frame the problem and the proposed solution, making sure to avoid jargon. 

Being Capable

The desire to gain knowledge and explore is ingrained in human nature, but our capacity to absorb knowledge is mediated by the limits of our directed attention, as well as how competent we feel in applying the new knowledge. To support the model-building process, information is best delivered at the intersection of clarity and brevity. Less is more; both to preempt information overload and to leave space for processing emotions and uncertainty. We also want to feel heard and like we are a part of the process. When both are considered, the community engagement process unfolds into a matter of helping our neighbor weatherproof their mental models so that they feel prepared to navigate a slightly different world.

Meaningful Action

Through complementary initiatives and campaigns, urban planners can create the tools and space for citizens to draw connections between urban systems and their personal identities. They can help enliven civic life by infusing meaningful action into such systems; whether by striking a parallel between transit use and sustainability through a summer-long challenge to reduce personal commuting emissions, or by hooking our thrifty impulse with a calculator that compares monthly automobile gas to transit pass budgets; there is a draw to participation in the public space for all of us.

We are always trying to find meaning within our everyday lives. The inlay of meaningful action within our routines helps us feel accomplished and useful; it adds a layer of intentionality that renews elements of civic life that may have lost their luster with time and repetition. With time, strategies that reinforce meaningful action can lead to an enduring pride-of-place; together with efforts to support model building and effectiveness, positive feedback loops of public interest and trust-building can emerge.

Photo by Isabella Beshouri

There is an innovative dialogue between urban planning and the SEE framework, prompted by their orbit around a common inquisitive core: How can we leverage our environments to bring about the best version of our society, our communities, and ourselves?

We use “home” as a noun: it can be a place where we raise our family, get creative in the kitchen, and take refuge after a long day.

We also experience “home” as a verb: finding our identity between the spaces we inhabit and the spaces we don’t; organizing and visioning with our communities to transition spaces from liveable to lived-in; developing our sense of self in parallel with the communities we build. This process is not always organic, straightforward, or comfortable, but when it comes to changing our environments for the better, we’ve got to SEE it to believe it.

Isabella Beshouri was a reDirect fellow during the summer of 2022, working with the city of Ann Arbor’s Office of Sustainability and Innovation to help grow and improve the city’s A2Zero ambassador program.

SEEing our Way to Solar: Using Supportive Environments for Effectiveness (SEE) in Program Analysis

Incorporating Supportive Environments for Effectiveness (SEE) in program analysis is a great way to understand a program’s success, as well as potential areas for improvement. This past summer, I had the privilege of working with Julie Roth from the City of Ann Arbor to take a closer look at what is making the Solarize program so successful in the Ann Arbor area. We wanted to uncover what elements of SEE were contributing to this success, as well as how SEE might inform the expansion of this program to other regions.

Ann Arbor, Michigan. Credit: Denis Tangney Jr. Getty Images

In short, the Solarize program is a group- buy program for solar installations. This means that a local host, organizer, and installer work together with a group of residents to secure bulk-buy discounts on residential solar installations. The program has seen exponential growth since 2019, but similar initiatives throughout the state have struggled to gain the same momentum. By using the SEE framework, we were better able to understand what is contributing to the success of Ann Arbor’s program, as well as what can be improved in future iterations.

There are three elements of SEE that represent our human need for information: model building, being capable, and meaningful action. These are not distinct elements working in isolation, but rather complimentary and dynamic facets of the framework as each one supports and perpetuates the next. Model building is essential to understanding what action needs to be taken and how to complete that action. Being capable is having the physical and mental resources to carry out that action. Finally, meaningful action is the behavior itself and the purpose that it carries both for the individual and for the broader community.

Program Analysis

Specifically, program analysis can help us pinpoint which program mechanisms contribute to, or detract from each element of the SEE framework. To take a closer look at Solarize, we surveyed participants prior to group-buy presentations to identify perceived barriers to solar installation. Overwhelmingly, the results showed that the primary barrier was not having the necessary information to take action. The need for procedural knowledge is a common theme: humans don’t necessarily want more information about why they should do something, but rather how they can actually achieve it.

What we found is that offering procedural knowledge was one area in which the Solarize program excelled. Following the survey, the organizer at the group-buy event clearly provided the information needed to get solar installed. One clear step was given at the end of the presentation, and the majority of participants took this next step towards solar installation. In doing so, Solarize was creating clarity for participants—building their understanding and increasing their ability to take effective action.

However, when attempting to replicate Solarize in another part of the state, the program did not gain as much traction. It turned out that while a similar presentation was given, final directions for taking the next step weren’t as clear. The success of Solarize in Ann Arbor, brought by helping participants find clarity and feel capable, was lost in translation. Some meetings were purely informational in providing the “why”, with no call to action, while others lacked the organizational direction that characterized the program originally. As a result, participants did not have the clear guidance they needed to move forward, and few were pursuing solar installations through the group-buy events.

Now that we had this information, we had to share it in a way that would be easily assimilated into future programs. To accomplish this, we formed the following outline for group-buy events:

• Provide clear information with specific steps for participants

• Create simple, visually engaging presentations

• Limit the amount of information per page/screens

• Highlight points of success, and the impact from taking action

A design platform, such as Canva, can help display next steps in such a way that enhances clarity by reducing the need for information to be solely presented in text. Simple graphics provide a visual anchor for each point, and examples provide a story of potential application methods. As a result, new information can more easily integrate with the existing mental models of the audience.

Furthermore, it is important to keep in mind that less is more; focusing on a few key points in program analysis can make a significant impact. Limiting the amount of information on each page can make what is presented easier to process and retain.

Finally, it is critical to elevate points of success. This encourages program facilitators and fosters a meaningful connection to their work. By emphasizing what is going well, team members feel capable and motivated to tackle areas that may need improvement. Reminding program team members about the bigger picture and the meaning behind their work can have a lasting, positive impact on morale, and do the same to inspire further action from participants.

An approach that reinforces the information needed to act, supports the ability to act, and establishes a meaningful connection to the bigger picture, can help create the type of community environment for solar energy to flourish. While both simple and intuitive, these steps can have a profound impact on the success of a program. By using the SEE framework, we can provide supportive environments for programs to achieve durable, transformative change.

Tara-Sky Woodward was a reDirect fellow during the summer of 2022, working with the city of Ann Arbor’s Office of Sustainability and Innovation to help study the success of their A2Zero Solarize program.

Motivation is Not a Thing to Get

What if we think about motivation as a feeling to be developed rather than an elusive thing to get? There are at least five common causes for feeling unmotivated. Identifying the root cause, or causes, is a first step in creating a path toward motivation and getting the job done.

Recently, my husband told me he just couldn’t get motivated to put his talk together for an upcoming seminar – something he both enjoys and does well. Procrastinating in the hopes of getting motivated didn’t seem to help. This got me thinking: Is motivation a thing waiting to be gotten?

Just like happiness, motivation is a feeling – feeling excited to do something or, if not exactly excited, then at least feeling fine about it. But feelings aren’t really something to be “got” – we don’t usually sit around waiting to get happy.

So why are we often passive when it comes to motivation? We wait for motivation to strike and, if it doesn’t, we try to power through the task without it. But what if we treated motivation like the feeling that it is and figured out how to more actively develop it in ourselves?

If you go to a therapist because you are unhappy, you expect more than a list of ways to get happy. Your therapist will start by helping you explore why you are unhappy and then move on to offering suggestions for dealing with those root causes. The same should be true when it comes to motivation. Feeling unmotivated can have many causes, each suggesting a different route toward change.

Five Reasons for Feeling Unmotivated – And What to Do About Them

With my husband, I suspected that the underlying cause of his lack of motivation was mental fatigue. He had been working hard, we were skimping on restorative activities, and I guessed that he just didn’t have the mental bandwidth for working on his talk.

Sure enough, after a couple days of prescribed mental restoration – in this case, morning walks in the nearby park – he was working with his usual enthusiasm.

But a walk in the park is not a universal prescription for developing motivation. Mental fatigue is one of multiple causes of feeling unmotivated, each of which suggests a different strategy.

Mental fatigue. As was the case with my husband, one symptom of mental fatigue can be a lack of motivation for things that require mental effort. We spend mental energy doing all kinds of tasks that require focus. And if we aren’t refueling the tank at the same rate that we are depleting it, it becomes hard to focus on anything.

When we’re suffering from mental fatigue, it’s time for some mental restoration in the form of good sleep, walks in the park, or other activities that allow the brain to quietly rest and unwind.

Lack of clarity or confidence. Sometimes we shy away from a task because we don’t understand what to do or we feel that we lack the skills to do a good job. This was certainly the case for me with many tasks when we first moved to Barcelona. I had trouble motivating myself to do things like make medical appointments because I didn’t understand the system. And I procrastinated phone calls because I knew it would be uncomfortable muddling through in my fledgling Spanish.

When the problem is a lack of understanding, you can work on building appropriate mental models. I finally cracked the Spanish health system by doing my research and talking to other expats. Making phone calls was easier if I imagined how the conversation might go and wrote out some phrases to keep myself on track – I still might not like making them, but that’s a problem that I can solve through discipline (more on that below).

Feeling overwhelmed. You might have a pretty good idea of what a job will entail, but sometimes it just seems so overwhelming that it’s hard to start. If this is the problem, it can help to break the project down into small concrete tasks.

For me, the hardest thing is usually starting – whether it’s starting a new painting or writing a blog post. If I can identify a first small step and just do that, the rest often starts to flow and I become more motivated to get the job done.

Disliking the task. Feeling unmotivated can just be a reflection of not liking to do the thing that needs doing. Cleaning the bathroom, filling out time sheets, filing taxes – there are some things you many never feel motivated to do. That’s where discipline comes in.

Many people think that discipline is all about willpower and that some people have it and others don’t. But studies have shown that discipline is not an inherent trait – it’s something that you do, not something that you are. Making a plan, setting a schedule, and removing distractions can help create discipline. I don’t know that I’ll ever feel motivated to make calls in Spanish, but I find that if I put them in my calendar and do them in the morning, I can get them done.

A judicial use of treats can also help make a disliked task more palatable. Some people save their favorite podcasts for doing things they don’t enjoy, like working out or cleaning the house. And although using food as a motivator can be a slippery slope, we got our kids up the last bit of many mountain hikes when they were little with well-timed chocolate.

Depression. Depression can make people feel unmotivated and uninterested even in things that normally excite them. Just as with motivation, there are many underlying causes of depression and seeking the help of a mental health professional may be the best way to get at the root causes and identify strategies for addressing them.

Creating Motivation Through Small Experiments

When it comes to motivation, why not be proactive rather than passively waiting for a feeling – one that may never come on its own – to strike?

If you’re not sure what’s causing your lack of motivation, try some small experiments. Refresh your mind by getting out in nature. Brainstorm on all the steps to getting the project done and then start with a small one. Journal about what might help give you more clarity or confidence. See what happens.

I’m sure there are more causes for feeling unmotivated and more good solutions for addressing them. What causes you to feel unmotivated? How do you “get” motivated?

Supportive Environments for Effectiveness (SEE): Model Building and Being Capable. As the SEE framework points out, we rely on our mental models to effectively interact with the world. When we lack the appropriate mental models – for example, if we don’t understand what a project entails or don’t have the skills to carry it out – we may decide that avoidance is the best strategy. In this case, the route to motivation lies in building the appropriate mental models. But even if we have an adequate mental model of a particular project, it can be hard to feel motivated if we’re mentally fatigued. When we’re lacking adequate mental energy, developing motivation requires recharging our mental capability through restorative activities.

Anne Kearney is an artist and writer living in Barcelona, Spain. Her writing and artwork are inspired by her decades of experience as an environmental psychologist working for universities, non-profits and NASA. She has a BA in Cognitive Science from Stanford University and a PhD in Environmental Psychology from the University of Michigan.

The Unexpected Benefits of Covering My TV

Fighting distractions and temptations has a hidden cost. Although you might win the fight, you will have to spend mental energy to do so. This leaves less energy for doing other things, like resisting future temptations or getting work done. How can you minimize this drain on your mental energy? As I was recently reminded, sometimes the best strategy for fighting distractions is simply to avoid them.

Covering the news … and everything else lurking in our TV.

Up until about eight or nine months, babies don’t have object permanence. Even if you hide an object while they are watching, once it disappears from sight, they assume that it has disappeared altogether. If it’s a beloved toy, they might become upset and if it’s something less interesting, they might just forget about it and move on.

Adults, of course, do have object permanence. When you put the cookies in the cupboard you know that they still exist behind the closed door. Even so, putting something out of sight can send it to the back burner of your mind. This phenomenon has its negative side – it’s easy to ignore a humanitarian crisis, for example, if it’s happening somewhere else. But reducing the mental pull of something is often to one’s advantage.

Out of Sight Out of Mind

During our recent home organization and beautification spree, my husband and I realized that the television was a problem. I personally don’t like the look of big black reflective screens and I also dislike how they so often become the focus of a room. It was time to hide the TV.

A quick look on Pinterest shows many creative solutions for hiding TVs. Ours was simple and decorative. We put the TV in a wide storage cabinet and hung a weaving – made by my mother – across the opening.

As expected, I’m much happier overall with the living room. I am no longer annoyed by the big black box and I get a little zing of pleasure from seeing the weaving.

What I wasn’t expecting was the significant drop in our TV viewing. Now that the screen no longer beckons, watching things in the evenings – a habit that was solidified during Covid lockdown – is no longer our default.

Reclaiming Mental Energy

We spend a good deal of mental effort ignoring and resisting distractions and temptations. Just like we have to resist the siren call of a naked TV screen, we must willfully resist the offered dessert when we’re trying to cut back and fight to keep our eyes on the road when confronted by video billboards. These things are hard enough to do on a good day, but when we’re mentally fatigued, like I often am by evening, resisting distractions can be almost impossible.

Dealing with distractions is a mental double blow. They not only create problems in the moment but they also reduce our ability to stay on task in the future. Distractions get their hooks into our attention and do their best to pull our focus away from whatever else we’re trying to do.

There are numerous studies demonstrating how our effectiveness can tank in the presence of distractions. Worker productivity in open-plan offices suffers in the presence of distracting side conversations. A moving goalkeeper distracts even expert penalty kickers, making them less likely to score. And cell phone use, even if it’s hands-free, siphons attention and worsens driving performance.

Even if we ultimately win our fight with distractions and finish that report, make the goal, and arrive at our destination safe and sound, the battle itself requires mental energy. This drain on our mental resources – and the mental fatigue that can follow – makes it difficult to focus and meet the next attentional challenge. Although mental energy is renewable, topping up the tank takes time. Wouldn’t it be more effective to conserve what we have?

Simple Solutions

One of the best strategies for conserving mental energy is to tweak our environment so that distractions and temptations are avoided. Granted, this isn’t always easy – the ubiquitous eye-level candy shelves at grocery store check-outs come to mind. But dealing with some distractions might be as simple as covering the TV.

Years ago, my husband finally dealt with the problem of a distracting candy bowl at the office by asking the admin to put it in a cupboard – a simple act that significantly cut his sugar consumption. More recently, my brother’s solution for fostering effective family co-working while confined to the house during the pandemic was to buy everyone noise cancelling headphones. This not only made it easier for everyone to do their own thing, but it saved the collective family sanity in the process.

What temptations or distractions are draining your mental energy?

What simple things could you do to put these distractions out of sight or out of mind?

What would you do with the mental energy you save?

Connection to the Supportive Environments for Effectiveness (SEE) Model: Being Capable. An environment filled with distraction and unwanted temptation is the very opposite of supportive. Resisting distractions takes mental energy, leaving us with fewer mental resources for dealing with other things. Although there are ways to help restore our mental resources once they have been depleted, it’s even more effective to change our environment in order to eliminate or reduce unnecessary demands on our attention.

Anne Kearney is an artist and writer living in Barcelona, Spain. Her writing and artwork are inspired by her decades of experience as an environmental psychologist working for universities, non-profits and NASA. She has a B.A. in Cognitive Science from Stanford University, and a M.S. in Resource Policy and Behavior and Ph.D. in Environmental Psychology from the University of Michigan.

Aging Four Months With One Phone Call

The way that we understand the world is based, in part, on cultural norms. These norms are often so deeply ingrained that we don’t stop to think that they might be arbitrary – they just feel objectively right. In fact, they are so obviously right that we tend to assume everyone else, if they are reasonable and rational, must understand things the same way. But what happens when they don’t?

Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash.

Did anyone else grow up thinking that Do-Re-Mi was something invented for The Sound of Music? That was what I had always assumed until we moved to Ireland and I happened to be chatting with my Italian friend while waiting to pick up the kids at school. Our conversation veered toward music lessons and went something like this:

Roberta: “The way they teach music in Ireland is so confusing. I don’t know why they use letters for the notes instead of teaching it the normal way.”

Me: “Umm, what do you mean?”

Roberta: “You know, how they use letters like A-B-C instead of the actual names of the notes, like Do-Re-Mi.”

Me: “A-B-C are the actual names of the notes. It’s the system of semibreves and crotchets instead of whole notes and quarter notes that I find weird.”

Roberta: “What’s a quarter note?”

Me: Sound of brain exploding.

It turns out that what I’d always thought was the way to communicate about mainstream western music is just one way.

The difficulty with communicating across cultures was apparent again this week when I found out that my medical claim for an eye problem that was treated while vacationing in the US could not be processed by the US-affiliate of my Spanish health insurance. The problem was a discrepancy in my birthdate. But the real problem is that Europeans write dates as day-month-year while Americans write dates as month-day-year. You can probably guess what happened.

Remember how your science and math teachers were always reminding you to include the units with your answers? It turns out there was good reason. To anyone in the US, 6/10 is clearly June 10th, but to anyone in Spain, it is just as clearly October 6th. My insurance problem still has not been resolved, but it’s looking like the easiest thing to do is ask the clinic to age me four months so that everyone’s numbers match even if the actual dates the numbers represent do not.

The problems that arise from different systems of describing music and dates can make for cute stories partly because they are relatively easy to see and remedy (fingers crossed). But a lack of shared understanding often flies under the radar, causing problems and prejudices that are hard to pinpoint and remedy. When someone doesn’t behave in what is (for us) an acceptable way, or understand what is (for us) obvious, or do things in a way that is (for us) logical it’s very easy to blame the person – they are unreasonable or rude or just plain stupid. It’s much harder to accept that “right” and “obvious” are sometimes arbitrary.

It took me almost six months of living in Ireland before I realized that stopping the car to let pedestrians cross the street was not the cultural norm. In fact, people I knew would regularly wave at me while driving right in front of me as I waited with one foot in the road. It finally dawned on me that what I had assumed was rude behavior was actually the “right” way to drive according to Dublin cultural norms and I had to try and revise my assumptions about people who routinely failed to stop for me and the kids as I walked them to school. This was no easy feat – the speed with which we tend to form opinions and the strength with which we hold on to them can make them very resistant to change.

Even harder was accepting that my own behavior of stopping for pedestrians was probably confusing everyone and was likely more dangerous than kind. My small-town Idaho upbringing still forced me to stop during a driving lesson in order to let an elderly man cross at a minor intersection, but my brief moment of feeling virtuous was squashed when my driving instructor yelled, “What are you doing?! Just don’t do that during your driving exam!”

Since that driving incident, I’ve become ever more aware of cross-cultural differences in how people understand the world. And I’ve experienced how these differences can cause all sorts of problems, from failed communication attempts, to being unable to navigate a country’s system for getting things done, to ingrained negative perceptions of people who you don’t understand.

Looking at my own country with my expat eyes has also made me aware that a lack of shared understanding isn’t just a problem between people from different countries, it can be a problem between people period. There has been a lot of talk lately in the US about “American culture” – and, even more dangerously, about “real American culture.” But the reality is that the US is a country of layered sub-cultures tied to age, religion, race, gender-identity, geography, workplace, family, and more. You can’t assume that the people in your office or at the town park understand the world the way you do any more than I can assume that my Catalan neighbors in Barcelona share my understanding.

I’m not suggesting that problems with communication can all be attributed to culture or even to individual differences in understanding. This is especially true when people have differing opinions that are based, not on a deep understanding, but on something at once more superficial and harder to change. We might have differing opinions on vaccines, for example. If those opinions are based on how we interpret the evidence, or how we understand public health, or the experience of our culture with vaccines in general, then we could likely have a productive discussion. If they are based on anger or political ideology, then we probably cannot. Not every disagreement can have a happy ending.

But there are many times when misunderstandings, miscommunication, and disagreements over the best way to do something are caused – or at least made worse – by the assumption that everyone understands the issue or problem the way that we do.

What would happen if we stopped to consider that what is obvious to us might not be obvious to someone else? That behaviors that we think are normal might be perceived by someone else as rude? That what feels so strongly like the way to do something might just be one way? We might just end up making the world – or at least our small part of it – a better place.

In the meantime, I’m off to unwind by listening to Bach’s Chaconne in, as my friend Roberta would say, Re-menore. I just love Bach’s prolific use of demisemiquavers.

Connection to the Supportive Environments for Effectiveness (SEE) Model: Model Building and Being Capable. People build and rely on mental models that encode their understanding of how the world works. Culture, with its system of cultural norms, is one way to fast track model building and ensure that a particular group has a shared understanding. Although sometimes cultural norms are arbitrary, they can feel logical, obvious and universal – until you discover that they are not. Problems can arise when our models don’t match the reality of another culture or country, making it difficult for us to feel capable and get things done. Even within our own culture, problems with communication and collaboration can arise when our models are not shared by others with whom we interact.

Anne Kearney is an artist and writer living in Barcelona, Spain. Her writing and artwork are inspired by her decades of experience as an environmental psychologist working for universities, non-profits and NASA. She has a B.A. in Cognitive Science from Stanford University, and a M.S. in Resource Policy and Behavior and Ph.D. in Environmental Psychology from the University of Michigan.

Banishing Everyday Stressors

Life’s daily hassles can add up in a big way, affecting our health, our stress level, and our ability to get things done. I had stopped noticing many of the little stressors around our house, but I saw them with fresh eyes when we returned home after an extended holiday. We embarked on a campaign against these small annoyances and not only improved our space, but reclaimed some mental energy along the way.

When I return home after a long time away, I often have a new perspective on my life and surroundings. It’s as if my mind has been reset so that – for a short time – I can see things as an outsider and notice the things to which I had become habituated. This was certainly the case when I returned home to my Barcelona apartment after a 5-week trip to the US.

There were many things about my home that I appreciated anew, like the amount of light that comes streaming through our windows. But there were fresh annoyances – the pile of boxes that had taken up permanent residence in the hallway, for example, and the near impossibility of matching lids to containers when putting away leftovers.

Spurred on by our new awareness of little annoyances, along with the autumn clutter-control bug that seems to strike so many, we decided to do some major organizing. Our approach was part analytical, favored by my software engineer husband, and part simple observation. We spent time walking around the apartment and identifying what we found stressful and we also started paying more attention to what we found annoying in the moment. Many of these things were fairly trivial – the cluttered nightstands, the disorganized drawers, having to move seemingly hundreds of body care products in order to clean the kids’ bathroom. But taken together, these small everyday annoyances can really add up.

The Surprisingly Big Impact of Little Annoyances

Most of us are aware of the negative impacts of major chronic stress, but a number of studies have shown that even minor everyday hassles impact health, mood, and cognitive function – not only in the moment, but also in the long term. Back in 1982, for example, Anita DeLongis and her colleagues at UC Berkeley studied 100 people over the course of a year. They recorded the everyday hassles people experienced – things like not liking work duties or misplacing something. They also recorded major negative life events and measured physical health and energy level. The researchers found that although both daily hassles and larger negative life events impacted people’s health, the daily hassles actually had a bigger effect.

A more recent 2016 study, done by Nicole Mead at Erasmus University in the Netherlands and her colleagues, showed the shorter-term effects of everyday hassles. They found that the more annoyances people had to deal with during the day – things like traffic on the way to work or a dead cell phone battery – the less progress they tended to make on their daily goals and the more mentally exhausted they were at the end of the day. On the brighter side, the researchers also found that the more pleasures people experienced during the same day – things like looking at the stars or spending time with a friend – the less impact the annoyances had. This is good news for me because it means that my organized closets are a double win. Not only am I no longer annoyed when I open a closet, but I get a little jolt of pleasure when I see the order that has replaced the mess.

Reclaiming Mental Energy

We’re not always aware of stressors and their effects, especially ones to which we’ve become habituated. In some cases, I became aware of my negative response to small annoyances around the house only after those annoyances disappeared. For example, I notice the mental cringing and spike in stress when I open the hallway closet only because the tumble of loose grocery bags that I’m expecting fails to emerge from the recently organized space. It’s a quirk of human cognition that we are more likely to notice when our assumptions are not met than when they are. As I habituate to my new organized normal, even this anticipated stress response is disappearing.

Not only is my organized home a more pleasant place, but the time and mental energy I wasted looking for things and being annoyed can be used for other things – like getting into my art studio or writing this blog post. Now I’m ready to extend my organizational spree to things that are less tangible than my physical space, like being more organized about how I keep track of my to-dos.

What is stressing you out? What small changes could you make to alleviate that stress? What difference might that make to your life?

Supportive Environments for Effectiveness (SEE): Being Capable. It’s hard to feel capable when we’re not at our mental best – like when we’re stressed out or mentally fatigued. Sometimes we’re aware of the things that are depleting our mental energy, like a major project at work or dealing with a difficult client. But there are often smaller things, of which we might not even be aware, that can chip away at our mental resources and make us less effective in both the short and long term. Doing what we can to fix or avoid small everyday hassles is like fixing the drip in a faucet – it may not completely solve the water shortage problem, but it’s a start.

Anne Kearney is an artist and writer living in Barcelona, Spain. Her writing and artwork are inspired by her decades of experience as an environmental psychologist working for universities, non-profits and NASA. She has a B.A. in Cognitive Science from Stanford University, and a M.S. in Resource Policy and Behavior and Ph.D. in Environmental Psychology from the University of Michigan.