1 . A warning from science

When you're bored of some very boring task, what do you do? If you're like many, the answer is a no brainer: You reach for your phone. If that sounds familiar, a new unpublished study has bad news.    1    

The problem isn't taking a break. Previous studies show that we get more done overall if we take regular, short breaks. The problem is your phone. Dutch research shows most of us carry around a boredom-increasing machine in our pockets. To figure out the relationship between phones and boredom, A Dutch research team fixed an app on the phones of 83 volunteers to track how often they used their devices. They also asked these volunteers to keep diaries for three days, recording their level of tiredness and boredom every hour.

    2     “Phone breaks were frequent: In the 20 minutes following each survey, participants (参与者) picked up their phones 52 percent of the time. They spent an average of around 90 seconds on it each time,” reports the findings on the British Psychological Society Research Digest blog.

Equally unsurprising was the second finding:     3     The real unexpected thing was the final finding. While we look to our phones to relieve tiredness and boredom, screen time seemed to increase feelings of boredom. “Participants actually reported higher levels of boredom after having used their smartphones,” notes BPS.

    4     Switching from work to your phone and back may end up being more mentally tiring than refreshing. Picking up your phone from time to time might serve as a reminder of all the things out there you could be doing if you didn't have to fill out paperwork.

This one study can't definitively say if either of these explanations is right, but the idea it communicates is clear. You think a glance at your phone is going to make you feel less bored, but it's actually going to make your brain feel more tired.