When major news happens, what does that do to you?

Do you shrug it off and go about your day?

Or does it consume your attention for an entire week?

I’m not leading you towards a desired answer. Some news, you should shrug off. Other news, you probably should reflect on for a while, assuming you care about being an informed citizen and voter. Which news you should shrug off or reflect on depends on your interests, opportunities, abilities, and life situation.

Let’s say that today (or, depending on your time zone, yesterday) brought news that affects you and that you’d ideally like to chew on for a bit. Should you allow yourself some space and time for this? Or should you focus on your life and your work—on things you can control?

Sometimes we have a tendency—and people who are into personal productivity are especially prone to this—to regard ourselves as machines. We have our morning routines, our to-do lists for each day, and our weekly and even our daily schedules. And to make the best use of our time, we had better stick to these!

But we are not automatons. We are people with feelings. With political opinions. With hopes and fears.

So when we find ourselves the recipients of world-changing news, let’s be kind to ourselves. Endlessly refreshing the live blog of our newspaper of choice isn’t the answer. But pretending that we can stoically go about our plan every single day regardless of how seismic world events are isn’t realistic either.

Don’t obsess over the news. But don’t suppress your feelings, either.

If you need some time to process what the ---- is happening, give yourself that time.

Then, after you’ve reflected, get back to whatever it is that you do to make the world a little bit better.