Managing Noise
I find increasingly difficult to disconnect from social media and focus on tasks I need to do on my computer.
A list of source of information I use to check:
- Twitter/Instagram
- Youtube/Twitch
- Newsletters
This is not the case with tasks out of the screen.
With the years I've developed this habit of consulting my phone continuously, even when there are no new stuff to look at.
The FOMO is too high but at the same time, I've been on this wheel for years now and I know for a fact that being on top of all my feed serves no purpose to me.
Fixing FOMO
Whenever I must fix some kind of habit, most times I do it the same way: What did staying on top o X did for me the last year?.
Most times, the answer is Nothing.
Because spending big chunks of time on social media rarely gives you anything useful.
Of corse, there is always new interesting articles, or videos to read or watch, but you need to make something with them, you must act. And most times you just scroll to read/watch something new, so you forget what you just saw.
So all in all, scrolling mindlessly gets time from you, but rarely gives you back.
Cutting the noise is like quitting smoking, you either do it, or you don't
I'm conscious about what I follow on almost every social network, but it is not enough.
Even when you follow small groups of content sources, you just keep looping over every app to find something else to check.
iOS Screen Time is not useful either. Whenever I find a "You just reached your time limit today" I just pass over it.
So the best solution to get my time back is to cut it from the root and don't check anything during the day.
Even at night, I'm only allowing myself to check social media for one hour, and that's it.
Changing habits it's the hardest part
It's not the first time I have to change a habit of something I do every few minutes, every day.
And I know the best way to change an habit is to substitute it for other.
What do you change checking social media with?
I'm not sure but in the meantime, I'll start leaving the phone out of arm reach.
I already try to not get the iPad or the phone out of the room where I have my computer, specially not taking it to the bedroom.
But most importantly, I must change inputs for outputs.
Instead of focusing on reading, focusing on writing.
Instead of watching YouTube, finish some side projects. Even make videos about it.
Instead of getting stuck on someone else messages, iterate on new stuff.