3 ms·
It works for me to manage my phone use throughout the day too. I give myself a rule that any task on my phone has to be intentional. "I am checking for an email
by ehnto 5y ago
It works for me to manage my phone use throughout the day too. I give myself a rule that any task on my phone has to be intentional. "I am checking for an email", "I am checking my bank balance", "I am organizing a meet with a friend". Even recreation time on the phone has to be intentional, "I am reading this specific article on my phone".
Otherwise you end up caught on the seemingly endless but shallow stream of content the internet provides through feed sites and apps. If I set the rule of being intentional it's really obvious when I'm not being intentional, and should put the phone down.
I also make a habit of closing the phone or turning off my computer before I actually feel comfortable doing so. The insidious part of feed procrastination is that you're never satisfied, so you can't find a comfortable "End point", you just have to get into the habit of shutting it down mid procrastinating.
- fragmede 5y agoHow does that work with things that aren't procrastination, like doing the dishes or folding laundry? Because I want to stop the whole time (though I've developed hacks to help me get them done, regardless), but training myself to stop doing things I want to be doing seems like it would make it easier for my brain to stop doing things I don't want to do!
- ehnto 5y agoI guess it's like training an exit routine that I can quickly enact in those fleeting moments of self-awareness while scrolling, it's still intentional but it has to be quick and decisive or you'll just go back to procrastinating. I wouldn't ever do it while being productive because if I became self-aware of being productive, I'd just think "Nice one!" If you'll indulge me for a tangent, if you have heard of lucid dreaming you may have heard of strategies people use to help them recognize a lucid dream. You essentially train habits, like checking your watch or reading things twice, that will help you notice inconsistencies in the dream that wouldn't exist in real life. This will clue you in to the fact that it's a dream. Deep procrastination is kind of like being in a dream, you're zoned out and you just ebb through it mindlessly. You can train yourself some cues, mental escape hatches, that jog you into self-awareness long enough to enact your escape routine (turn off the device, get up off the chair etc)
- MAGZine 5y agoIntentionality can be a very powerful thing. For people who are caught in an endless loop of television shows they've seen many times before, I encourage those people to merely set an intention of watching something new before opening Netflix.
- leppr 5y agoI'm not exempt from that but the mere concept of needing help to "improve one's show-watching habits" should make anyone pause and reflect.