How to Eliminate Social Media From Your Life
From the book ‘Mastery’ by Robert Greene it says that in order to become a master at something you have to focus a lot of attention and time in that area.
With social media, we are constantly distracted all the time. There is nothing more harmful to our progress, than constant distraction.
Multi tasking is a myth. Every time we lose our focus it takes time for the brain to re-engage in the activity. Sustained period of focused attention on one activity are the best for making long-term progress. There is no other way. That was the way our brain was wired.
Almost all your success is your life will come down to your ability to focus.
These days it is so easy to be distracted by everything. At work maybe you are not given the time to just spend on one activity, the phone might be ringing or an email has just come through. Social media is so integrated in our lives that we have a constant urge to check our phones.
We are addicted.
We are addicted to the little spikes in dopamine we feel when we open our phones and see a message.
This constant nagging feeling of reward prevents us fully engaging in whatever we are doing.
If you still are feeling this constant urge to check your phone, only know that it is not helping you.
Those urges are quite hard to battle. It is quite hard to focus when the reward is so nearby.
It is too easy to say that when one feels those urges one should ignore them. That is good. However it is not a reliable method of truly overcoming the addiction.
The best thing is to somehow remove the urges in the first place. If you didn’t feel them you wouldn’t want to look at your phone.
Physical
- Put your phone away, in a drawer, in a different room.
- Try to use your phone for as little as possible, replace your phone alarm for a physical alarm. Replace your phone GPS for an actual GPS system.
Mental
- Realise that every time you look at a your phone you are reinforcing the habit of being distracted. Being distracted is the most harmful habit to have if you want to improve your life.
- Every time you are scrolling aimlessly on social media, be aware of it, and try to stop.
- Understand that your phone has nothing useful on it. There is nothing on your phone that is going to improve your life, staying present in the moment and focusing on the task at hand will drastically improve your life.
- Make a commitment to not look at your phone in the morning before 12AM. Start small. Then maybe not after 10PM. Then slowly and slowly the window will go down.
- Realise how much better you feel for not being distracted.
- Set the intention to use technology less, and be more focused.
- Every morning that you don’t check your phone, celebrate it. Whenever you go for sustained periods of time not checking your phone, feel good about it. Over time, it will become your new natural state.
How can you be less distracted today?
