Why do you feel overwhelmed even though you’ve got your work under control?
A typical Tuesday in the executive suite looks like this: You’re poring over a spreadsheet that has to be finished by noon, and your screen lights up every minute. A breaking news alert about a conflict on the other side of the world, a message from the team chat, a comment on a post you actually just wanted to skim. None of these notifications is dramatic on its own, but your mind shifts with every single one.
Figures from Europe show that you’re not alone in this. According to the 2026 Eurofound study “The Never-Ending Workday in Flexible-Working Europe,” one in five employees in the EU is contacted for work-related reasons outside of working hours several times a month. Among those who are reached daily after work, 59 percent report feeling stressed at work always or almost always. Among employees who are never contacted outside of their working hours, the figure is only 17 percent.
Constant availability is therefore not a neutral feature of modern work, but a genuine source of stress. This is all the more true when work-related messages are compounded by personal social media feeds, news apps, and social media channels.
Why can’t your brain process this flood of information?
Oxford anthropologist Robin Dunbar has shown that humans are designed to maintain about 150 stable relationships. Anyone who sees posts from thousands of contacts every day while simultaneously following world events in real time is constantly overloading this system. This explains why you feel both full and empty at the end of the day: You’ve taken in a lot, but haven’t really processed any of it.
Added to this is a mechanism that works very reliably in the brain. Every notification can trigger a small release of dopamine, and dopamine isn’t the “happiness hormone” it’s often thought to be. Rather, it sends the signal, “Do that again.” Because you can never predict whether the next message will be important, trivial, or disturbing, you remain in a state of anticipation and reach for your phone again.
Your body pays the price, too. A constantly activated nervous system keeps stress hormones like cortisol elevated, and anyone who ends their day with one last look at images of war and posts expressing outrage takes those impressions to bed with them. It’s therefore hardly surprising that sleep and rest suffer as a result.
Why does the fear of missing out have such a strong effect?
At its core, the fear of missing out is a matter of managing expectations. You expect yourself to be informed at all times, and you assume that those around you have the same expectation of you. Take a moment to examine this assumption more closely: Who among the people you know is actually waiting for you to be the first to hear about the latest breaking news? Everyone is primarily preoccupied with their own daily lives, and most colleagues are actually relieved when you’re focused rather than distracted in meetings.
Many people have long since taken steps to cope with information overload. According to the Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2025, 37 percent of people in Germany sometimes or often avoid the news; in 2017, that figure was 24 percent. The most common reason cited is the negative impact on one’s mood. Avoiding the news, therefore, isn’t automatically a sign of disinterest, but often a form of emotional self-protection.
Are you really missing out on anything when you take breaks?
Taking a break can be worthwhile. In an experiment conducted by the University of Copenhagen involving 1,095 Danes, a randomly selected group abstained from Facebook for one week. Their life satisfaction rose from an average of 7.56 to 8.12 on a scale of 1 to 10, while the control group remained at 7.75. The effect is moderate, but it shows that even a short break makes a noticeable difference.
What’s truly important will reach you even without constant monitoring. You can find relevant developments in editorially vetted sources that you read at your leisure once a week, and important matters from your contacts will reach you via phone call or in person. You’re missing out on far less than you think.
How do you establish mindful information routines?
A three-hour digital detox on Saturday afternoon won’t make much of a difference as long as the habit persists. It only becomes effective once you understand your pattern and make a conscious decision. These steps will help you do that:
- Keep a scrolling log for three days. Write down when you reach for your phone, why you do it, and how you feel afterward.
- Ask yourself “Why?” For each channel, consider whether it brings you knowledge, contacts, or customers—and whether that benefit justifies the time invested.
- Set specific time slots for checking information. Two 15-minute slots per day are often enough if you turn off push notifications and remove the news app from your home screen.
- Choose a few editorial sources. A well-researched weekly read replaces the real-time news ticker, which only startles you.
- Agree as a team on when you’re available. Explicitly agree on response times and when messages can wait until the next day.
- End the evening without a screen. Put your phone outside the bedroom at a set time.
If you’re finding it hard to quit, take it one step at a time. A relapse isn’t a failure — it’s a sign that there’s a trigger you still need to address.
What do you gain when you create space?
At first, the new sense of calm might feel like a void. You reach for your phone out of habit and only then realize just how much that gesture has become second nature. After a short while, however, that void transforms into space, and you can fill that space with things that truly benefit you.
Your brain needs downtime to generate ideas. When you don’t listen to a podcast on your walk or scroll through your phone on the train, you start to hear your own voice again, and suddenly thoughts emerge that come from within you. You sleep better, make decisions with greater calm, and pay more attention to the people sitting across from you. Especially in face-to-face conversations, at events, or within a team, you’ll feel the difference between mere information and genuine connection.
What’s the bottom line?
It’s not the amount of information that determines your clarity, but rather the expectation you place on yourself to always be up to date, no matter where you are. When you let go of that expectation and consciously manage your information routines, you’ll gain lasting focus, better sleep, and the space for ideas that come from within yourself.
Sources:
- Eurofound (2026): The never-ending workday in flexible-working Europe, eurofound.europa.eu
- Reuters Institute (2025): Digital News Report 2025, reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk
- Tromholt, M. (2016): The Facebook Experiment: Quitting Facebook Leads to Higher Levels of Well-Being, Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking
- Dunbar, R. (Universität Oxford): Forschung zur sogenannten Dunbar-Zahl