Dear Reader,

• Do you have a strong urge to always be on your phone?
• Do you feel a persistent need to check your phone?

All while juggling with activities likes; schoolwork, office work, interacting with your significant other, bonding with family, catching up with offline friends, and so on.

Reader, do you have this uncontrollable urge to respond to notifications and that red blinking light?

• Are you facing the fear of missing out (FOMO)-
  • Has someone engaged on my post?
  • How many people have visited my Instagram page?
  • Are people even viewing my WhatsApp status?
  • Who has posted something new?
  • What is happening in ABC’s life?

Has this ever happened to you? You go to your social media page (perhaps to copy a message), but 45 minutes later you still haven't done anything you intended to do; you're even trying to remember why you went online in the first place! You were distracted from your goal by a cute picture, caption, or video content.

Even worse, until you remember what brought you there, you won't consider the other things you've been doing a distraction. “You can't call something a distraction if you don't know what it's distracting you from-” as Nir Eyal rightly stated. He also stated that “the only time that isn't wasted is the time you plan to waste”.

In simple terms, distraction is anything that pulls you away from your intention and attention. Digital distractions are distractions aided by technology. Distractions on the surface might not seem like a big issue, but underneath, they can be harmful as they keep drifting you from who you want to be per time. They are harmful to "intentions" in the sense that for instance, your divided attention, separated attention, and or alternating attention can be unfair to the person who is giving you their full and focused attention. The break in concentration will also influence the impact of the interaction and mostly leave engagements ineffective, as you won't be able to be fully present in the interaction.

Technology is intended to assist us rather than harm us. We can develop better habits free of digital distractions and distractions in general by employing certain techniques. Here are some:

5 Super Easy Tips to Manage Digital Distractions:

1. Schedule your time for the different activities you want to accomplish.
2. Turn off tech or disable notifications during scheduled times for non-tech-induced activities. For instance, when engaging with your significant other, or deep work.
3. Anytime you go online- notwithstanding what you see, head over to what made you come online and leave afterward.
4. Keep your phone away from your eye’s view when not using it.
5. Once an app becomes super tempting, remove it from your home page, the more difficult it is to reach, the more time you will need to commit to getting it-. We are often not triggered by what is not in our faces. Alternatively, if the apps have a desktop or web version, uninstall it from your mobile or the device you use most frequently.

Can you resonate with any of the thoughts above Reader?

What is one thing you are doing to manage digital distractions?

Until next time...

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