Today's challenge

2:00

Keep the time you save.

AI can give you hours back every week. Here is an invitation to spend them the way you used to.

Find your time
A quiet afternoon scene

Remember when?

Tap the ones you lived. Most of us have forgotten how good some of this felt.

None of this needs a time machine. Most of it just needs a free evening.

We saved the time. Then the feed took it.

In 1930, Keynes predicted his grandchildren would work 15 hours a week.1 We got the wealth he expected. Much of the free time we did gain now goes to feeds: people who use social media spend about 2 hours 20 minutes a day on it.2

Feeds have no last page

Nothing tells you when you are done. Aza Raskin, who designed infinite scroll, has said he regrets it.3

Short clips and focus

A 2025 review of 71 studies linked heavy short-video use to weaker attention and self-control.4 In one lab test, watching TikTok made people worse at remembering a planned task.5

Less feed, more life

When about 2,700 Americans switched off Facebook for four weeks, they spent the time offline with friends and family and ended up slightly happier.6

Your feed time, given a new job.

How long are you on your phone each day? Your phone knows: Screen Time on iPhone, Digital Wellbeing on Android. The average for social media alone is about 2 hours 20 minutes.2

Still scrolling, guilt-free

Books: assumes 250 words a minute and 80,000 words a book. Nothing you enter leaves your browser.

What to hand to AI, and what to keep.

In a study with about 1,000 high-school students, those with ChatGPT did 48% better on practice problems. Once it was taken away, they scored 17% worse on the exam than students who never had it.7

Hand it over

  • Admin emails and formsIn one experiment, ChatGPT cut time on routine work writing by 40%.8
  • Summaries of long documentsTerms, reports, the fine print.
  • Planning and logisticsTrain times, packing lists, schedules.
  • Comparing optionsBefore you buy, book or sign.
  • Translating and explaining jargonLetters from the tax office, menus abroad.

Keep it yours

  • Writing to people you lovePeople rate senders of AI-written love letters and apologies as less caring.9
  • Big decisionsAsk for facts, then do the thinking yourself.
  • Skills you want to ownWorking out an answer yourself makes it stick better than reading it.10
  • Making thingsDrawings, music, furniture, a garden.
  • Conversations with friendsIncluding the long and messy ones.

If the effort is the point, do it yourself. If only the result matters, let the machine help.

Old habits, new life

Worth borrowing from before smartphones.

From the 70s to around 2010, life had more gaps in it. Some of those gaps were good for us, and you can make room for them again.

70s

Being bored

Long Sunday afternoons with nothing planned. In one study, people who first did a dull task came up with more creative ideas afterwards.12 Today, many of us find even 15 minutes alone with our thoughts hard.11

90s

Plans that hold

Meet at the station clock at seven, and you turned up. Americans now spend far less time with friends than they did in 2003.13

80s

Clubs and regulars

Choir, football club, the same bar every Thursday. Adults in singing classes bonded with strangers faster than those in craft classes.14

70s

Letters by hand

People who write thank-you letters underestimate how happy they make the reader, and overestimate how awkward it feels.17

90s

24 photos a roll

You picked your shots carefully. Museum visitors who photographed every object remembered fewer of them.15

00s

Getting lost

A paper map, or directions printed the night before. Drivers who relied more on GPS over the years navigated worse without it.16

Plenty was worse back then. Take the habits and leave the rest.

Six small things to try.

No pressure. Pick whichever sounds nice, try it once, and see how the day felt.

0of 6 tried

Sources

Many of these studies are small or show links rather than causes. We list them so you can judge for yourself.

  1. Keynes, J. M. (1930). Economic Possibilities for our Grandchildren.
  2. DataReportal, Digital 2025, average daily social media time (141 min), via Statista.
  3. Aza Raskin on inventing infinite scroll, Masters of Scale.
  4. Nguyen et al. (2025). Feeds, Feelings, and Focus. Psychological Bulletin. Meta-analysis, correlational.
  5. Chiossi et al. (2023). Short-Form Videos Degrade Our Capacity to Retain Intentions. CHI '23. Lab study, 60 people.
  6. Allcott et al. (2020). The Welfare Effects of Social Media. American Economic Review. Randomised trial.
  7. Bastani et al. (2025). Generative AI without guardrails can harm learning. PNAS. Randomised trial.
  8. Noy & Zhang (2023). Experimental evidence on the productivity effects of generative AI. Science.
  9. Claessens et al. Negative perceptions of outsourcing to AI. University of Kent.
  10. Bertsch et al. (2007). The generation effect: a meta-analytic review. Memory & Cognition.
  11. Wilson et al. (2014). Just think: The challenges of the disengaged mind. Science. Debated.
  12. Mann & Cadman (2014). Does being bored make us more creative? Creativity Research Journal. Small lab study.
  13. Kannan & Veazie (2023). US time use 2003 to 2020. SSM Population Health. US data only.
  14. Pearce, Launay & Dunbar (2015). The ice-breaker effect. Royal Society Open Science.
  15. Henkel (2014). Point-and-shoot memories. Psychological Science. See also Barasch et al. (2017).
  16. Dahmani & Bohbot (2020). Habitual use of GPS negatively impacts spatial memory. Scientific Reports.
  17. Kumar & Epley (2018). Undervaluing gratitude. Psychological Science.
  18. Castelo et al. (2025). Blocking mobile internet on smartphones improves sustained attention, mental health, and well-being. PNAS Nexus. Randomised trial.
  19. Epley & Schroeder (2014). Mistakenly seeking solitude. Chicago Booth Review.