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Life may be less physically demanding today, but our cognitive load is constantly increasing.

Keeping up with seemingly endless demands on our time, attention, and energy is making us exhausted.

To maintain our own mental well-being, we have to manage the impact of sludge on our lives.

In our technologically driven world, it is easy to lose track of how quickly things have changed in the past 100 years. By the 1920s, indoor plumbing, electricity, cars, and movies were becoming accessible to average Americans, but daily life was different. People often had physically demanding jobs, mortality rates were high due to the lack of medical knowledge, and information transfer options were limited. It is actually difficult now to think about living in a world without telephones, the internet, commercial airline travel, high-tech medicine, etc.

The Ever-Expanding Sludge of Daily Life

In 2026, we find ourselves literally living in a new world. Our homes offer multiple labor-saving devices, including smart temperature controls and our phones that double as entertainment centers, and we are awash in information. As a result, our lives are easier in many ways, but the mental load we carry is becoming overwhelming. When I survey students on my campus, they report that they spend less than an hour a day by themselves without any external or electronic input. Essentially, we are being pecked to death or at least exhausted by the never-ending demands on our attention, our time, and our energy. On top of that, the media swirl around us makes it seem like everyone else is doing things better, easier, or more successfully than we are. Is it any wonder that........

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