Are you spending more time building a future you want, or building someone else’s?
If you are letting the tools in your life (phone, social media, email ext) demand your time instead of improving upon it, I’m afraid it’s most likely the latter.
It’s not to say that these tools don’t have their place, but when they become the masters of our time instead of us using them for what we want, it becomes a real issue.
We belong to whatever gets our attention.
The currency of the present day is not dollars, it’s time. What you pay attention to is the new equivalent to how you spend your money.
It’s time to take back control of our time and start using these tools for what they’re meant to be used for OUR benefit. Let’s get started.
Your Phone
The issue here is not that people use their phones. It’s that phones use people.
The average person spends about four hours a day on their phone. That’s 28 hours a week.
When that time is spent well, phones can be the ultimate tool to achieve your goals. Having a device with the answer to almost any question that can connect to all of your contacts and fits in your pocket is like having a superpower.
Unfortunately, most people’s phones are not set up to be a tool. Instead of solving problems to maximize time, our phones tend to demand time from us.
When your phone is right in your bed, most likely the first thing you do when you wake up checks it. This starts your day in the pattern of looking to your phone for a bit of dopamine hit and makes it harder to put down for the rest of your day.
Notifications are another issue on our phones. They are designed to grab attention and keep us hooked. The average person has about 80 notifications a day.
They tell us when to check in with friends when to update this app or when we should check our email. The more time that is spent catering to our phone demands the more directionless that time will be.
What you can do to fix it:
- Set up specific times during the day and at night to power down notifications and choose how your time is spent.
- Don’t put your phone by your bed.
- Going out for lunch, or a walk? Leave your phone in the car.
- Decide when to use your phone, don’t let it decide for you.
Your Social Media
The time spent on social media is a little less than the time spent on phones, but it’s quickly catching up.
On average, people spend two hours per day on social media. That’s 14 hours a week!
Just like our phones, when this time is used well we can connect with more people than we ever thought possible, learn new things and get inspiration.
However, when time is spent poorly on social media it can have some pretty negative effects.
Discover pages are the crux of the issue. They show you algorithmically generated content designed for the sole purpose of taking as much of your time as possible so the platform can show you more ads.
It’s not hard to find examples of people who spend too much time on social media and let it take over their lives. This often leads to feelings of inadequacy and a myriad of mental health problems.
Social media should be used as a tool to connect with friends, keep up with the world, and maybe enjoy some entertainment. However, all of this should be enjoyed when you choose to enjoy it. With the structure of notifications, it is often the social media platform that decides when and where you spend your time consuming or producing content.
What you can do about it:
- Never use discover pages, they’re cancer.
- Unfollow people regularly if you no longer want to see their content.
- Turn off notifications completely. Social media should wait for you.
- Decide why you want to use social media, then only use it for that.
Your Email
Email is the oldest tool on this list, but it’s still extremely powerful.
On average people spend about one hour per day checking their email. That’s seven hours a week!
This time can be used to check in with your team, see what new opportunities are available, or answer any customer support questions, but email can also be strangely addictive.
There is a palpable rush that comes from checking email and being constantly available. Again, the notification structure of email does nothing to help this issue. This becomes a cycle of pressure to respond as the more available and helpful you are the more people will try to get a hold of you.
Inbox Zero is a popular technique to try and combat the time suck of email, but it’s often impossible without significant effort. The goal here is to unsubscribe to everything vaguely marketing-related and then never leave your inbox with emails that are not responded to, or deleted.
What you can do about it:
- Set specific times of day to check your email.
- Learn to be okay with not being constantly available.
- Unsubscribe to anything that’s not essential.
The time we spend on our phones, social media, and email can be either used well or wasted. It’s important to consider the time you’re spending on these platforms because it has a huge impact on your productivity levels. You need time to think about how you want to use them for this time not to become a useless time where nothing productive is done.
If there are any of these ‘tools’ that are making life difficult instead of easier for you it’s time for a change.
Recent Comments