Robert J. Coplan

But it doesn't have to be only for that.

And it's perfectly OK to have some downtime, to have some leisure time.

And in fact, and I think we should be getting the message out about this, even sort of shouting more loudly from the top of buildings that it's OK to take a little bit of me time.

It's OK to take a little time for yourself.

And the experience of just having that downtime, doing something that's just enjoyable or that's relaxing for you, it pays off.

It makes you more productive when you are back to work.

It makes you more sociable and enjoy your social interactions more when you are back with people.

There's now good research suggesting that going back and forth, alternating between periods of solitude and periods of socializing, that is the optimal combination for making us feel happy, for

you know, raising our feelings of well-being.

It's a best way to do creative brainstorming.

You brainstorm in a group and then you go off and think by yourself and you go back to the group and it actually makes you feel better about your later social interactions.

So if you have, you know, a romantic partner who you want to say sometimes to, you know, I love you, but I need to spend a few, you know, some time by myself right now.

It's not because we have a bad relationship.

It's not because, you know, there's a problem, but

You can actually tell them now, research suggests, if you let me spend a little bit of time by myself, it's going to pay off for both of us because we're going to have more positive interactions.

It's going to help our relationship later.

Yes.

No, I agree that we should be putting limits both on socializing and on solitude, right?

So for some people, especially if you are extremely extroverted, you're a social butterfly, you always want to be around people, you will go out of your way to avoid any time by yourself.

And that's when I think people could use a little push to spend a little bit of extra time alone, even if they don't think they're going to enjoy it.