I don’t know about you, but I am creative when it comes to wasting time. My old standbys are social media and video games, online shopping and their watchlist are vying to take the crown. What’s worse is that by adding to my watch list, I can feel like I’m actually being productive. There are so many distractions nowadays and most of them are right there in the palm of our hands. Self-induced distractions, friends, family, and advertisers are all vying for a piece of our time. We’re lucky we have any time at all for ourselves.
What were the issues?
When I open Twitter or turn on a video game there is a feeling that washes over me. A small tinge of guilt that I have learned to block out and dismiss. It is still there lurking in the background chipping away at my happiness and esteem (have you ever felt that?). Still, there are time wasters like agreeing to meet when I really don’t want to have become habits. A routine applied daily to combat these, can save precious time, and happiness and esteem can and will increase.
I wrote down a list of things that would curb those distractions and eliminate the guilt associated with them. I created a list of things I won’t do to increase my productivity. Bad habits, time-wasters, and saying yes to frivolous activities had to be written down and they needed to be read daily. Some were to be exercised in life and some pertained to a given situation. The first place I started was life.
Where I started.
I started with my phone. I swiped down from the top of the screen and looked at the number of notifications from apps. Most of them had no business interfering with my life. An online sale or an app alerting me that Lindsey ate crawfish for the first time was not necessary. I looked in the settings and saw what apps had permission to send me notifications and removed the unnecessary ones. If I wanted to see what’s going on in that world, I would hop on and check it out. I don’t blame them, they are trying to increase and maintain their customer base, which is fine. They do not pay any price as it is all automated so I stopped around 90% of them.
My list contains about 10 items for anything I feel guilty about or that I must rationalize to do. If I can’t do something, I let them know I am busy or that I wish I could. I really hope they have fun doing it. I wish I could find what they are doing to fulfill something inside me. If it doesn’t move me then I politely decline. I eliminated the rationalization of “well, I’ll do it just this one time”. The first time I break a pact with myself is the hardest, it only gets easier after that.
Other things on my list include:
- No caffeine after 4 pm
- Many restrictions on playing the football video game I like
- No rabbit holes on social media or YouTube
- Don’t stay up past 11 pm during the week
- No email before 4 pm (For important emails, I have a VIP list that lets those select senders through)
- No social media before 4 pm
The goal.
I’m not 100% on these things, but they are what I know will move me forward. I strive for progress and not perfection as I am human and this is life. So, in your life what are some of the things you could implement today? What will increase your inner peace and make you more productive? Whatever it is, write it down, and don’t fret when you’re the last person to find out about the crawfish.
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Marlon Riddle 
