Reclaiming Time
the increasingly difficult task of fighting distraction
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Last week, I started rereading Cal Newport’s book Digital Minimalism.
It was written a few years back and talks about the challenges of maintaining focus in an increasingly noisy, and largely digital world.
It also provides strategies on how to combat distraction, and perform a bit of a digital detox.
The facts about distraction and attention span are well documented at this point (if not common knowledge) and yet, it still feels as though technology addiction is one of the larger societal issues we’re facing today.
(It’s no surprise that as screen time goes up, issues such as anxiety disorders or bruxism (grinding teeth during sleep) are becoming increasingly common)
Raise your hand if you have to wear a mouth guard while you sleep so as to not injure your teeth. 😬🙋♂️
Sure there are larger issues…ie. climate change, food insecurity, gun violence…
But you know who's NOT going to solve those problems?
The people who are constantly distracted by their phones.
The One Device to Rule Them All
So why do we suck at preventing distractions?
As our devices became capable of doing more things, we started to lean on them for everything.
Suddenly we didn’t have 5 devices for 5 activities, we had one device for all of our activities.
And when you have one device that does everything for you…
Any time you have to do anything…
You can be distracted by something.
Examples are endless:
My work computer is my personal computer which means I’m never not seeing and/or responding to work-related topics.
I don’t use my wallet anymore…I use Apple Pay, and then notice an e-mail coming in while getting my coffee.
Every social media platform I have also has an inbox that I use to communicate with people - which means that every time I go to check my messages, I get slapped in the face with something and forgot why I was there in the first place.
In total, for both work & personal purposes, I communicate with people through almost a dozen platforms, all through a single device:
3 e-mail addresses
Twitter inbox
Instagram inbox
LinkedIn Inbox
Facebook Inbox
Whatsapp
Phone
Signal
Text Message
Slack
Discord
In short, there are way too many ways to communicate.
Add to this, the fact that every social media platform has hundreds of millions of dollars worth of behavioral psychologists dedicated to keeping you engaged and it’s no surprise I’ve had difficulty implementing any meaningful change in decreasing screen time or distractions.
Some Stats For Proof…
During the Week of June 12:
I averaged 136 mobile notifications per day
I averaged 5h 13min mobile screen time per day
I averaged picking up my phone 194 times per day
A scary thought is that, for many of my peers, numbers like this might be low.
An even scarier thought is that these stats are just for mobile - unfortunately, I don’t have any data in regards to laptops or television, or how many notifications I’m also hit with through other channels such as e-mail or slack.
It does, however, paint enough of a picture as to how this level of digital consumption isn’t sustainable for someone who prioritizes clear thinking and trying to maintain a somewhat reasonable attention span.
The question is now what to do about it…
Un-distract Yourself
Unfortunately, deleting all social media, and getting a flip phone is currently out of the question.
As is buying an individual device for every single thing I have to do so that I’m not checking work e-mails at 3 am.
Relying on willpower has also proven to be an exercise in futility.
Since I can’t live without all this stuff, I need to relearn how to live with it…
To do so, I’m currently testing out a program called FREEDOM.
Freedom is similar to many programs in that it is a website blocker.
On top of this though, you can also block actual apps that live on your Mac or phone and schedule ‘blocked’ time across every device so that your phone and laptop can be rid of certain distracting platforms at various points of the day.
The goal at first might not even be LESS screen time, but more focused screen time.
Here’s a look at how I’m organizing things to start:
A few limitations include:
No more e-mails after 10 AM.
Social Media only available between 12-1PM.
No more work pings after 5 pm.
These are just a few examples, but can you imagine if this was the norm, how much more we might be able to get done?
The kicker?
It costs $3.99 / month.
While I at first, thought that it was ridiculous to pay a monthly subscription just to prevent distractions, it begs the question, how much is your time worth?
I’ll check back in a month from now and let you know how it’s going.
My guess is that it could be the best $3.99 I’ve ever spent.
I’ve also signed up to join a program called Autonomic - a company started by Jamie Wood whom I met during the Collision Conference.
A former burnt-out finance professional, she dug deep into the science of brain health and has developed a program meant to improve cognitive function and reduce stress.
It’s cohort-based and should start in August, so stay tuned or visit the website if you want to learn more.
For a few interesting reads on attention, and digital distraction, I’d recommend any of these:
Rapt
Irresistible
Digital Minimalism
Deep Work
Also, if you have anything that’s worked for you, or if anything resonated, feel free to reach out!
Updates From August:
A quick business update with a few highlights from August this month:
First - an author talk I hosted with Joe McReynolds (Emergent Tokyo)
Second - attending Collision with the August & Junto team and getting to experience firsthand, the largest tech conference in North America.
One of the great things about what we’re doing (designing & building software for clients) is that it allows us to pursue interests across a number of verticals:
ie.
A talk about housing policy isn’t out of the question, as we’re actively building products relating to real estate.
An event about healthcare isn’t out of the question, as we’re actively building products relating to healthcare.
A bitcoin conference isn’t out of the question, because we’re actively working in the crypto space.
If you have anything related to your industry that you think might be interesting to put together, (author talk, networking event, etc.) reach out and maybe we can collaborate on bringing people together.
That’s all for this month - I hope you have a productive, and distraction-free July!