Your Brain needs Boundaries.
The importance of zones: this week in happiness
“Do or do not. There is no try.” – Yoda
If you’re going to work, then work at your desk.
If you’re going to relax, relax on the couch.
If you’re going to sleep, sleep in your bed.
Don’t work like the businessman from this Onion article:
Though it’s easier said than done, we can certainly do better than we do now: school projects scattered across the bed, YouTube playing in the background while we ‘study’, and sleeping on the sofa. Then we wonder why we can’t focus, relax or fall asleep.
Your brain is context-sensitive.
It needs clear boundaries. Every environment you spend time in influences your state of mind. When those boundaries blur, your focus, rest and relaxation become blurred too.
When you properly clue in your brain, it knows:
when you sit down at your desk every day and focus, your brain learns that the desk = work.
When you lie in bed and only sleep, your brain learns that bed = sleep.
when you sit down on the couch and relax you know Couch = chill.
But if you do everything everywhere work, scroll, and nap your brain gets confused. The cue system breaks. Suddenly:
You are asleep at your desk
You are working on the couch
And you are scrolling in your bed
This is a willpower multiplier, if you have the willpower to set up these zones, it will cost you much less to continue living like this
Even your phone can interfere with your zones because it acts as a mental portal to somewhere else.
These cues are extremely powerful. Researchers at the University of Texas found that simply having your smartphone nearby — even if it is turned off and facedown — reduces your cognitive ability and focus. It distracts you from the task at hand, causing you to think about messages, Instagram, and anything other than what you should be doing. Having it nearby quietly steals your attention. So, when you’re working, put your phone away. Out of sight, out of mind, and you’ll have more brainpower for what matters.
An interesting point to note is that when the phone is out of sight, we can sometimes become distracted by our computer.
To avoid this, I’ve set up a second account on my computer with a different background to create a ‘zone’ where I can focus.
During the COVID lockdowns, the European Academy for Cognitive-Behavioral Treatment of Insomnia released home-routine recommendations, and they agree. One of their points:
“If possible, use your bed only for sleep and sex, and for no other activity; this is best achieved by only going to bed when you normally feel sleepy.”
The odds that you stay up until 2am on your phone are significantly higher if you use it in your bed so it is better to avoid it.
Zones are a restriction that you put on yourself, but in that restriction is freedom and control. Without this your day blends into a mess, it isn’t more free it is just more chaotic. You will feel much better when you aren’t thinking about work in bed and the other way around.
that’s all for better vibes this week, Try to set up some zones in your life!
Bonus:
Sourcing:
https://theonion.com/businessman-does-his-work-lying-on-bed-like-schoolgirl-1819591125
https://news.utexas.edu/2017/06/26/the-mere-presence-of-your-smartphone-reduces-brain-power
https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/full/10.1086/691462
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1111/jsr.13052
https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/computer-science/articles/10.3389/fcomp.2025.1422244/full