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The average American adult is $59,580 in debt, receives 121 emails a day, works 42 hours a week and has a 43 percent chance of being divorced by age 55. These are the trenches of middle-aged

life. And it isn’t necessarily fun down here. Which is why, as we emerge from our pressure cooker 50s and into a little bit of empty nester freedom, many of us struggle to remember what

having fun — pure, prolonged fun — even feels like. One survey discovered that four out of five older adults wished they had more fun. “In our research, when I asked participants about the

most recent time they really had fun, a lot of the middle-aged and older group really had to think about it,” says Travis Oh, a professor at Yeshiva University and one of the few scientists

in the country researching fun. “Eventually the participants would say, ‘The last time I really had fun was many years ago.’ ” But what was all the work and hustle of your middle years for

if you can’t leverage it to have a little fun? Oh’s research suggests that the ability to have fun is a key driver of lifelong happiness. And as you transition from middle to older age,

you’re in the best position now to reclaim it. “Older people have more opportunities to have fun. It’s the middle-aged group I see struggling.” But there’s a difference between, say,

“stress-relieving activities” and real, true fun. Going to the gym or distracting yourself with a TV show can be relaxing. But, fun? Not exactly. To understand how to have more fun, we need

to know what makes an experience fun in the first place. Through his research, Oh has discovered three criteria an experience must meet to be considered true, unadulterated “fun.” “Fun is a

positive experience characterized by liberation and hedonic engagement,” said Oh. “You experience the most fun if you are doing something engaging and pleasurable while feeling like you are

temporarily released from duties or internal pressure.” And while the idea of operationalizing our enjoyment might seem to, well, sap all the joy out of it, these are important criteria to

know. Here are five steps to rediscovering what Oh might call positive, liberating hedonic engagement, but what the rest of us call fun. STEP ONE: DISCONNECT With the rise of smartphones and

24/7 connectivity through email, text and calls (and Slack and Google Chat and Zoom and Twitter and … ), it’s harder than ever to remove yourself from the grind of responsibilities. The

average American today spends 11 to 12 hours fixated on digital media. And even if you’re retired, that familiar “ding!” of your cellphone might be alerting you to an adult child in need, a

friend asking a favor, or some other unexpected responsibility. Constant connection to the cloud can easily rain on your fun parade, keeping you in the responsibility zone at all times. And

this is tied to legit burnout. HOW TO DISCONNECT Schedule fun time, and keep it sacred. You could go for a long walk with a friend (who isn’t a work buddy or family member), play pickleball

or dive into any other activity you consider fun. The only rule: Keep your phone at home or in another room. If you need to take it for safety reasons, place it on airplane mode or

temporarily turn off email notifications during your fun time. Once or twice a year, you may want to dial this up a notch. Schedule a trip to a place your network doesn’t reach, like a

cruise on the high seas, that faraway city you’ve been itching to see or a cabin deep in the woods. That week, completely removed from responsibilities, will be the time of your life — and

wind in your sails that beats back burnout and rejuvenates you going forward. Oh points to the “What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas” campaign as a perfect example of this idea: You enter a

different zone, and embrace a different life, for a long enough period to truly let go of what’s dragging you down back at home. Then, you leave that zone and reenter the real world.