One of the great challenges of our age, in which the tools of our productivity are also the tools of our leisure, is to figure out how to make more useful those moments of procrastination when we’re idling in front of our computer screens.

Foer points to a modern blur: the same computer that enables work also delivers effortless distraction. Because the boundary between “productive time” and “leisure time” is porous, procrastination often happens in the very space where we intend to be efficient—at the screen. The quote suggests that the real challenge is not eliminating idling altogether (an unrealistic goal), but redesigning or repurposing those inevitable lapses so they yield something of value—learning, reflection, or small constructive tasks—rather than pure attention drain. Implicitly, it’s an argument for intentionality in digital habits and for treating attention as a scarce resource to be managed, not merely spent.