Mind Wandering in Daily Life Study: A National Experience Sampling Study of Intentional and Unintentional Mind Wandering Episodes Reported by Working Adults Ages 25-50

This study used experience sampling to reveal how working people mind wander in daily life. Mind wandering is a natural & common type of thinking we do every day. It’s when we momentarily think about things that are not about what we are doing. Sometimes these thoughts pop up. Other times we are open to them.

For many years, researchers claimed that adults mind wander somewhere between 30% - 50% of the time during our waking hours. But most studies were conducted in universities sampling college-aged students during contrived tasks. What do we know about the mind wandering of working adults in daily life?

Mind Wandering in Daily Life Study included 427 adults ages 25-50 living and working in all regions of the United States who were taking care of families, pay bills, contributing to teams, making deadlines, helping people heal, all of this and more. These adults responded to 7,947 notifications to report 4,294 mind wandering episodes! These data were analyzed, using participant level and episode level analyses, for frequency of mind wandering.

Working adults reported 54-55% mind wandering rates when notified during this study. The data were further analyzed using parent status and gender, creating four working adult groups — female working parents, male working parents, female working nonparents, and male working nonparents. The frequencies of mind wandering were higher for working parents than working nonparents. These rates were highest for working male parents.

Most mind wandering episodes were reported to be about practical thoughts about children, work, or self. More often than not, participants reported mind wandering about things happening in the present or future. They said they were most often feeling really good to pretty good when mind wandering. These data were reported from contexts that included work, home, community, as the smartphone app allowed participants to take the study with them where ever they went.

All of the data in this study were analyzed for intentionality. Participants were asked not just if they were mind wandering, but if they were doing so because “I was open to mind wander” (intentional) or mind wandering because it “just popped up” (unintentional). Intentional mind wandering was more frequent for working parents than nonparents and most often reported by working male parents.

Participants indicated that they mind wander about things that matter personally, like a vacation or new job or a football game or meeting. Their comments said these thoughts happened while answering emails. Or installing a refrigerator. Or picking up kids at daycare. Or waiting for a bus. Suddenly, a thought appeared that was not about what they were doing.

You might wonder, what if I am working and suddenly mind wander about checking my phone and then I go to my phone and start doing that? Is the thought about my connecting with someone or something on my phone “mind wandering"? Yes. It came out of the blue. You suddenly wondered if someone texted you, if an event happened, if you need to get home. In other words, you mind wandered a thought about using your phone to check in on your life.

Mind wandering doesn’t happen to us. WE MIND WANDER!

4 mind wandering definitions

MIND WANDERING: when you momentarily think about things that ARE NOT about what you are doing. Maybe you were on your computer & suddenly thought about a movie.

NOT MIND WANDERING: when you think about things that ARE about what you are doing. Maybe you were serving food at a restaurant and thought about checking on the next table’s order.

INTENTIONAL MIND WANDERING: when you mind wander because you are open to other thoughts. This might happen in low demand tasks such as driving, washing dishes, or relaxing.

UNINTENTIONAL MIND WANDERING: when you mind wander because other thoughts pop up. This might happen during demanding tasks such as concentrating on mental or physical work.