Something that’s happening to me over and over again is that spend too much time on one medium (social media) and I stick with it for some time that it becomes something that I no longer want to be a part of, something that I don’t enjoy. In August 2016 I deleted my facebook account. I had a (bad) habit tied to facebook - when I woke up, the first thing that I’d do was turn on the computer, open the browser, and start with the letter ‘f’ (for facebook), and let the auto-completion do the work. Next, I’d probably spend about 30 minutes to an hour just looking at posts and watch everything that I missed from yesterday. This was happening every single day, probably for few years, I honestly don’t remember. Once I deleted facebook, I still had that habit for a week or so, and every time I started doing it, I’d remember that I deleted facebook and that I no longer have something to do. That’s when I started learning more. This was kinda the same thing when I got rid of the TV, I didn’t know how to waste time, I started studying, experimenting, doing something useful for my life.
Removing facebook and TV were just few steps, next on the list was something I’ve done recently. I started blocking content on youtube. I use DF Tube (Distraction Free for YouTube). In short, DF Tube blocks recommended videos, homepage, comments, live chat, and similar, so I can focus only on video. Of course those things can be turned off, but I tend not to do that.
About three months ago I had about 100 videos on watch later, so I removed some of them which I had no interest of watching anymore, other I watched and if I didn’t enjoy them or find value in them, I discarded them and stopped watching. Now I’m down to 6 things on watch later which are educational and some are fitness related, so they’re useful.
Having more free time without this distractions is crucial in this age, because we’re removing unnecessary things from our lives, so we can focus on few things that matter. I find it quite enjoyable not to be obsessed if I spent a day being productive. I’m giving myself a break, time to relax.
We don’t need that much information that we put ourselves in front of, we should filter through them and take only things the information that gives us a real value, not something fake, something that’s not useful…
These were just few examples of digital distractions, I’m sure there are many more, and they are not necessarily bad, but we should at least limit ourselves with time spent on something.
Youtube is now something that I go to every day - as before, but I have a playlist for music, and that’s what I use it for. Sometimes I search for something and watch it, but there are no recommendations and no homepage, so I’m not distracted. I go to youtube, find what I need, watch it, done. No more one video after another, in endless circle.
Some things are to be removed, some restricted, some are ok, see what works for you.
Think about what you’re wasting your time on and find some way to restrict it. You’ll find that you have a lot of more free time to do what you want instead of doing something that is a (bad) habit, something you (we) do by default.