The Digital Cleanup: Reclaiming Your Focus in a Distracted World
Since the creation of the smart phone, technology has launched people forward in many areas of their lives. We can look up new recipes to expand our cooking, we can learn a new language or trade skill, we can keep our schedule straight with alarms and reminders in our calendar. The list goes on and on.
When we think of people being easily distracted, we probably think about kids. It only takes a second for them to get distracted, but a few minutes to get back on track. In reality adults are just as easily distracted. That is how these smart devices are designed. #1- To catch our attention. #2 - Create urgency. #3- Require a response. #4- Get distracted by something totally unrelated. #5- Repeat, repeat, repeat…
One factor that is not often talked about, is the plethora of notifications. One main difference between your smart phone and a computer is the apps. On your phone you have each app on the home screen- colorful and with a little number sign hovering above it, showing how many notifications are waiting. Then they also show up on the pull-down notification bar. In comparison, on our computer we have our search engine browser icon. One little icon. When we click on this, it opens to our bookmarks tab that then show all of our saved websites. No hovering number sign above it showing how many notifications are waiting. The difference between these two layouts is vast.
There are a lot of benefits to being able to see the notifications on certain apps. But the majority are just adding to our list of distractions. Many of the apps are considered leisure apps, when you decide to open them, you will see what the newest content is. These should be the first in the line-up of notification muting.
Next, we need to look at our email. When we use email for receiving bills, ordering products, and communication, we have to pay attention to everything that comes in. Getting banner notifications of every email on our phones, pulls us into this cycle of looking at it constantly throughout the day. We all have experienced this scenario. We give our email to one website for a free webinar, just to find we are now receiving biweekly or daily emails from them and 4 other similar companies we’ve never heard of. Unsubscribe from and mark as spam everything that needs it. Depending on your inbox, this could take a good chunk of time. Figuring out what we actually want to receive, and eliminating the rest will help us navigate the important emails quicker. The most crucial thing to do is to turn off notifications. If you can’t get away with all of them then at least minimize them.
Texts have become a larger form of communication than phone calls these days. Many of our friends and family know when we are working or busy with an appointment, etc. In those cases if they send a text, we can either respond right away or wait until we have time later. If it is important or urgent, they will call. Group chats have a way of quickly taking over our attention. Many group chats can and should have their notifications muted. When we have the time to sit for a few minutes to catch up we can open it and see the 15 messages that came in. As we all know, group chats have a way of not only NOT being urgent, but most of the messages are a waste of time. People giving a “thumbs up” and “heart” in response. Why must everyone in the group chat get a text notifying them that someone did a “thumbs up” response? It’s tedious, and many things can be direct messaged between just 2 people instead of routing it through the whole group.
One of the main photo apps on phones has over 30 different ‘categories’ of notifications they want to send, and guess what? They are all turned on automatically when you turn on notifications for the first time. You have to go in and individually select which ones actually matter. This alone has reduced my notifications drastically. It’s great to get little photo collages that were created with a theme over the months. But we don’t need the cinematic, color pop, order prints promo to also be constantly showing up too.
Cleaning up your phone’s home pages to show only the apps that you want to grab your attention, such as email, banking, music or language learning apps, maps, camera, calculator etc, will help make your phone a little more boring. Boring means less wasted scrolling time. If we have an overeating problem, then getting rid of the processed, sugary foods in the pantry will help get rid of temptations and distractions. This is the same idea for our phones and tablets. Getting rid of the social media apps, games, shopping, and streaming apps will not only free up your time from being wasted, it will also free up your money from being wasted.
After detoxing for awhile you might find yourself picking up that instrument you never had time for, reading a self-growth book, going for some outdoor exercise activity. Putting your phone on a shelf in one room in your house, will allow you to hear a call come through but not be a constant reminder of everything else happening on it in the background. As a person reaching out to someone via text, it is really nice when the person instantly sees the message and responds right away. But as the person receiving the message, being expected to be so accessible 24/7 can be exhausting and irritating. It is a refreshing feeling to forget you left your phone somewhere for 2 hours and only when a call comes through do you track it down and pick it up. Most devices can set up a “do not disturb” time slot, this will allow only certain selected contacts to be able to come through if they were to call or text.
It’s time to take stock of your smart devices. Remove the temptations, limit your distractions, and use the computer instead where beneficial. There are many people starting to wake up to the reality of over consumption in our phone usage. People are craving the quieter simpler times, when they could think for themselves and not be swayed by the latest social media app. Flip phones use to be looked at as a poor persons consolation prize to the newest smart phones coming out. Now, they are a sign of a much appreciated simpler option.
Give yourself the gift of unplugging from the busy world of AI content and distracting notifications. Starting……today.