Professor Pozzulo’s Pick (December, 2025)

 

Professor Pozzulo’s Pick (December, 2025)

The Joy of Solitude: How to Reconnect with Yourself in an Overconnected World by Robert J. Coplan (2025, published by Simon & Schuster)

My take:

Do you consider solitude as something to be avoided or something to strive for? In The Joy of Solitude: How to Reconnect with Yourself in an Overconnected World, Coplan takes you on a journey of understanding what solitude means and how it can be positive for our well-being. Coplan also provides several strategies on how to make the most of your alone time for improved well-being.

As Coplan states, spending time alone can make us feel “calmer, refreshed and revitalized”; it is restorative. Essentially, solitude allows us to recharge our emotional and cognitive batteries, which in turn makes us more present, improves our memory, and ultimately makes us more productive.

An initial exercise that Coplan suggests you do is to keep track of how you spend your solitary time during a typical week. Once you know how you are spending your time alone, you can tweak it to optimize it to make it more deliberate. The goal is to improve the quality of your alone time. Find things to do during your “me time” that are enjoyable, meaningful, and satisfying (e.g., walking, reading, drawing, knitting, etc.) to maximize the benefits on your well-being.

So how much alone time do you need for improved well-being? It turns out that this is a complicated question (think Goldilocks). As a very broad guide, Coplan suggests 15-minutes a day of alone time can have a positive impact on well-being that is long lasting. Although the optimal amount of alone time will vary, what is clear is that some alone time is beneficial for many.

Coplan provides a User’s Guide for Solitude at the end of chapters that is very helpful to make the most out of your time alone. I really liked the idea of taking a solitude break when feeling stuck on a problem. This solitude break allows your mind to wander. During a solitude break, choose to do an activity that is not too challenging (e.g., walking, knitting, colouring, etc.) to help your mind get unstuck!

This book provides the evidence for why and how solitude can improve well-being! Give it a read, on your next solitude break!

Have you increased your time alone? Have you found new activities to do during your alone time? Have you noticed an improvement with your well-being?