Arianna Huffington Encourages Uninterrupted Personal Time: ‘We Want to Change the Cultural Norm’
January 18, 2018Arianna Huffington’s career is based on a foundation of technology. But after suffering from years of burnout, she’s realized that there needs to be a balance between real life and the internet world.
“Obviously we love technology, and the technology on our phones has changed our lives, but if we don’t set boundaries so we can recharge and reconnect with ourselves and our loved ones, we are basically sacrificing our connection to humanity,” Huffington, 67, tells PEOPLE.
Her startup, Thrive Global, is dedicated to helping people establish those boundaries, and she’s taking it a step further with the Thrive app, which allows users to block all notifications from their phones for a period of time to “disconnect.”
“All we’re saying, basically, is to take the occasional break. And when you take the occasional break, then that constant gratification from alerts and buzzers doesn’t distract you and interrupt whatever you’re doing,” Huffington explains. “It’s putting us back in control of our time and our lives.”
The app, which is only available on Samsung phones at the moment, automatically responds to calls or texts to say that the user is in “Thrive mode.” Huffington and Marc Mathieu, the chief marketing officer at Samsung who co-created the app, hope to create a “new cultural norm” where people aren’t expected to immediately respond to texts and emails.
“Right now the cultural norm is to brag about how much work you’re doing,” Huffington says. “We want to change that cultural norm so that people feel like they have permission to take personal time and to be undistracted.”
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The app and Thrive Global are all part of a major shift for Huffington. In 2007, before she stepped down from The Huffington Post, the mogul was getting so little sleep that she collapsed and broke her cheekbone. The incident pushed her to reexamine her priorities and sleep habits.
“My life has changed dramatically, and the most interesting thing is I’m much more productive, and much more effective, and I unquestionably make much better decisions,” Huffington says now. “Not to mention being healthier and happier.”
She now makes time to eat dinner with her daughters, and works on self-care through meditation and yoga. She’s also seeing a similar shift in the working world.
“You see companies becoming much more conscious of the fact that they can’t expect their employees to be always on,” Huffington says. “We’re getting better at working on teams. We work on every time zone and whether you’re in customer service or in the media, somebody has to be on, but it can’t be the same person.”