These Same Tricks Will Save 2 Hours of Your Day
The average person’s mind wanders 47% of the time. I used to lose about 2 hours a day just being distracted. But after setting up these two systems, I was able to catch my mind from wandering off and regain control of my attention.
So when I’m scrolling through YouTube and I see a video that catches my eye, I have the luxury of asking the question, do I really want to watch this right now? If the answer is yes, then I’ll click on it. But
I’m in control.
So even if the article turns out to be terrible, even if I lose ten minutes of my life that I’m never getting back, that’s fine, because I chose to spend my attention that way. I was mindful about it.
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On the other hand, when I’m scrolling through endless content feeds like Instagram or TikTok, the intention has been removed.
I am not choosing what to watch.
I’m not choosing to click. I’m just automatically being fed video after video and mindlessly getting hypnotized. And there goes one or 2 hours of my day unintentionally. That’s the difference between the brain,
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mindfully or mindlessly wandering.
I’ve tried to rely on discipline and willpower to overcome distractions, but it’s really difficult to do when these situations just happen reflexively or through habit.
So instead, I’ve set up systems to catch myself when I get distracted. So the first is a preventive system that increases the friction of distractions from happening. So there are apps that block you from going places, or they limit the amount of time, or they just make it really annoying to get distracted. One of my favorites right now is One SEC not Sponsored, by the way.
When I open Instagram or TikTok, the app pops up and asks me, what do you plan to do? And it gives me a chance to rethink my intentions. I’ve also tried setting limits like no social media in the morning when I’m most energetic, or only use social media on my laptop instead of my phone. Of course, an even easier thing to do is just delete those distracting apps completely.
But I know that’s not always possible. So this first system works for most people. But if you’re a distraction junkie like me, then it’s time to bring out the big guns. The second kind of system is a failsafe to stop me when I go too far. So what I did was set an alarm on my phone that went off every hour.
It’s a trick I learned from the book Hyper Focus. Every time it went off, I was reminded to take a pause from what I was doing and ask myself whether I was spending my attention intentionally. But over time, I was so conditioned to expecting that alarm that I was catching myself wandering off before the alarm even went off.
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I was able to eventually weave myself off the alarm completely. So try setting up these two systems a preventative and a failsafe. To regain control of your attention and regain control of your day.
