End Digital Distraction Once and For All: 5 Daily Practices to set Limits and boundaries on Your Tech
Believe me, I’m not one to deny the value of technology and make full use of it; however, I’m also not one to allow it to rule my life and interfere with living consciously in the present moment. After all, technology has the ability to enhance your life, or take over it. Like most gadgets in our lives, tech is a tool for improvement, but not an answer. When technology starts to bring you a level of pain, it has likely taken over your attention and overwhelmed the goals and dreams you once held so dear.
Technology and social media deliberately use psychological methods to hook your attention and keep you looking at their ads and apps. Getting you to tap or click brings you one step closer to a sale or exposes you to further advertising. With every tap or click, you are providing companies with more data about your lifestyle and preferences which can be sold on to marketing companies.
Notifications and the Behavioural Triggers that make you want to Respond to Them
We all know the difficulty of ignoring that notification. We feel we’re being included in a conversation where we need to contribute or feel that somebody needs our attention and has included us for our consideration and response. Notifications fill our day and keep us distracted from the mundane tasks in our lives. With every notification, we are experiencing the same experiment of Classical Conditioning that Ivan Pavlov published in 1897. His famous behaviourally conditioned dogs salivated every time they heard a bell ringing because they associated the sound of the bell with being fed, even though they didn’t always receive food when the bell was rung. We are also hopeful of a pleasant treat every time a notification comes in, even though we may not receive one!
So, how do you take control and come back to your daily reality?
When making difficult changes in your life, it’s always best to choose the simple and straightforward actions.
Discipline comes from setting boundaries and limits which you simply don’t cross… ever! (Well, nearly ever).
With all change, we have to keep practicing creating consistency; the more you practice, the more likely you will establish a new desirable pattern of behaviour.
For insight into your level of app addiction, ask yourself:
What apps are taking up your attention the most? Go into your settings and check your screen time usage if you’re not sure.
Do you constantly browse through your photos reliving past events?
Do you binge on YouTube, Live streams on demand, TikTok etc.
Are you caught up flicking through certain social media apps such as Instagram and Facebook?
Are you constantly checking for messages and replying on Messenger, WhatsApp, your IM, or your email?
Are you addicted to certain games?
Do you feel any pain or loss from these habits, knowing you could be doing something more constructive and valuable with your time?
Let’s incrementally build up some habits, which will no doubt challenge you at first, but will benefit you in the long-run. These are examples and it’s really your decision to choose your active times and restrictions.
5 Daily Practices to set Limits and boundaries on Your Tech
Level 1:
Set limits
Set limits of time on your most attention-grabbing app. Maybe Instagram consumes your attention in the evening after work. Decide to only look at it between 8 p.m. and 9 p.m. daily. Maybe you get bombarded with emails. If your job isn’t email-driven, decide to address your work emails between 9.30 a.m. to 10 a.m. and then 4 to 4.30 p.m. and your personal emails for only half an hour after 5p.m.
Schedule these times on your calendar.
Commit to these actions for a full 7 days and see if they will work. Stick to the times and make tweaks to them if you need to.
Maybe you find the challenge too easy. If this is the case, decrease your time by a further 10 minutes until it feels like a challenge.
Level 2:
Turn off your notifications to break the twitch of reacting to every ping or vibration. Check them only in your scheduled times for looking and responding.
Level 3:
Set boundaries
No phone in the company of others, such as at lunch or dinner, when in conversation with others, or in meetings.
No phone when cycling, walking, jogging or exercising. Your focus should be fully on your physical exercise.
Definitely no phone in the car!
Level 4
Move all the apps that are your biggest temptations into a folder on the last page of your phone or tablet and hide them on your laptop or pc. Keep only the apps that are related to productivity in front of you, such as your calendar and To Do, and limit your entertainment apps to an eBook reader, music or spoken word, rather than visual video and on-demand tv.
Level 5
Delete your most tempting apps from your device and get on with living in the real world.
Tips for Prioritising Your Most Important Real-Life Tasks
Focus on getting the most important tasks done before noon. Most people have better concentration in the morning when they’ve made fewer decisions. The afternoons and evenings tend to be more cluttered by extra responsibilities and reactive events that have built up as the day has progressed. Your discipline is more likely to wane by the afternoon.
Choose three tasks and then focus first on the task that will bring the most benefit and impact to your day, even if it’s a difficult or mundane one. Once the task is complete, you will feel more emotional freedom.
If you’re working on a computer or device, become single-focused and only have one screen open at a time in full screen. This will help you limit the temptation of flipping from one app to another.
Take breaks every 20 minutes for a quick stretch or to stand and move about. 20 minutes is typically the amount of time that one can focus before losing concentration.
Block notifications and distractions while working on a task. If you work in an office, everyone and everything will be trying to get your attention. If someone wants you to do something for them and you feel that your task is a priority, let them know that you will get on to it as soon as you your pressing task at hand. Be assertive if you feel you’re being delegated a task not in line with your job duty statement.
Remember, when making a significant change in your daily habits, you’re aiming to make your life simpler and bring you greater focus so you can be more productive and achieve your true purpose in the long-run. To live intentionally means focusing on what is truly important and what will make the most impact on your day and your life.
“Technology is a useful servant but a dangerous master.”
Christian Lous Lange - Norwegian Historian
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