How much of information are you consuming every day? I am sure not all that is consumed is required at the end of a day or ever an hour, forget a year. How many books have you read so far? Was every book worth it? By worth, I mean have you ever had the opportunity to have its applications addressed in real time. Not all information gathered is valuable. Most of them are garbage. This information accumulation is nothing but “distraction”.
Distraction does not let you focus or think. You may have the true potential, but distraction somewhere doesn’t enable you to reach your destination. It’s like a roadblock. How would you lock in on the task in front of you on the desk or black in on your goal or dream if that one urge to check your phone for notification (which I call social approval) is constantly absorbing you. Do you shut down your phone then? Is it feasible, as you might receive important work-related calls. Deactivating your social media accounts is also not the remedy. Then what is the fix.
Love the information you are consuming. Yes. Be aware of the information diet. It’s all about awareness of what you are engrossing. You do put a lot of effort to nourish your body with different combinations of diet and by the proper mix and match you find the right diet. Similarly, look out for the information that is the chicken soup for the soul. As diet nourishes the body, watch out if your information diet is nourishing your mind and enhancing your knowledge base. If not, quit.
The urge to get smitten by distractions on social media is like chasing a plastic bone. You drop every important work to chase behind those meaningless distractions. You might have a million-dollar idea within you right now as you are reading this article but as you log off this media you might be probably drawn again into the sea of distractions. The Dementors are waiting for you to suck out your soul, to feed on your attention span. You give in only to find yourself empty and void because you haven’t fed your mind or soul or even body with self-care or self-growth.
Come out of this with the power of habit. The power of integrity. The power of discipline. Whatever may be your goal in life, that should be the priority. I am certain feeding the distractions in life was never your goal at any point in time.
Ditch your phone. Instead of scrolling through hours of distractions, focus fully on your thoughts and immediate surroundings. You might get fresh perspectives or solutions to the problems that seemed unmanageable.
Steve Jobs knew that even great ideas can kill creativity. He hence said, “Focusing is about saying ‘no’”. To Jobs, the focus wasn’t about willpower. There are tons of things on the internet that you ought to say no to.
Quoting Zig Ziglar, “Lack of direction not lack of time is the problem. We all have twenty-four hours day” How you do manage your time is important but where is it going is also important. You have a timeframe to make it to – just survive or thrive.
Focus on your distractions. Weed it out of your systems. Cut the crap things out of your life. See the results. You will be surprised to see your productivity surge and scale up.