You can use any medium to make yourself productive or distract you.
In the same way, I can use my mobile phone to make myself productive or distract me. In my case, it has been distracting a lot for a long period of time.
I open my mobile to write a to-do list, but I end up using it for other forms of entertainment.
It starts with, “I have idea in my mind and I need to write it.” I open my mobile to write down the idea. I write it. After that, instead of closing the mobile phone, I get distracted by notifications. I check notifications and enter the specific application to view it. I then get sucked into it.
Just think for a moment. There are unlimited apps in the app market. You probably have more apps in your mobile phone than you need or use. Each of those apps sends out notification to you.
If you just check those notifications everyday, you’ll waste lots of time. More time than you can possibly imagine.
I waste hours even when I’m aware of the distraction. I open my mobile phone to write a quick note, but see a notification from Instagram. I open it and then spend 30 minutes at the least.
But, it doesn’t end there.
Since, I have followed people I admire, I’ll want to know more about the story behind the photo. If someone is on a trip, I’ll want to read his/her blog post about the trip. I then head to the browser and read their story. I’ll see another link on their blog post, click it and then enter the full distraction mode.
It’ll be like hours until I can finally stop it.
How did it all happen? Just because I thought of looking into my mobile phone and checking one notification.
This is absolutely crazy.
It’s not only the mobile phone, it happens with everything else if you are not careful. If you go to a departmental store, you’ll buy excessive stuff which you actually don’t need. However, you first enter with only one thing to buy.
So, either use it or don’t. You need to eliminate distraction completely, if possible. However, if elimination is not possible, you’ll have to make sure you’re allocating a time for it. Like 15 minutes and so on. Make it a rule to not click a link while you’re reading an article. Make it a rule to not surf social media for more than 15 minutes.
It gets tough with social media because you have lots of clutter in there. Right now, go to Facebook and start removing people who serve you no purpose. There are always people who drag you down. Remove them. Start spending time with people that love you. Keep minimum number of friends in social media. Always keep in mind the rule to unsubscribe and unfollow.
That’s the exact reason why I don’t follow anyone on Twitter.