Scrolling to Soaring: Unleash Your Potential with Intentional Living
How to Beat Distractions and Get Things Done
Photo by Greg Rakozy on Unsplash
The Digital Trap
I crave to browse youtube shorts and it doesn’t take more than few seconds for me to get scrolling. I whip out my phone, and unlock it by FaceID, click on youtube and shorts and the short starts playing already. The only real thing I needed to do was to click on ‘Youtube’ as the phone was already out.
I want to write a paper. I can't (I tell myself) to do it on the phone. I have to get to my office[1], open my laptop[2]. Then I need to think of a topic to write about[3]. I need collect the information related to the paper[4], review it[5] and that is when I can get started.
It is fascinating how you can get your social-media fix anywhere but not do real work.
Act Fast and Take Control: The Power of the 5 Second Rule
Mel Robbin’s says that you have to act on a goal as soon as you think about it or your brain will stop it if you don’t physically move within 5 seconds.
“The 5 Second Rule The moment you have an instinct to act on a goal you must 5-4-3-2-1 and physically move or your brain will stop you.”
― Mel Robbins, The 5 Second Rule: Transform Your Life, Work, and Confidence with Everyday Courage
By this rule you can see how our apps are perfectly designed to suck us in.
So what are we supposed to do here? You have a craving to scroll on social media and things are so easy that you do it without thinking.
Mindfulness: The Key to Breaking Habits
The solution is mindfulness. When you feel a craving to do something that is unhelpful, something to distract from real work, an addiction, something which feels good only temporarily - then the only thing you have to do is to take advantage of the five second rule. You get curious about the craving without acting. The operative words here are - “WITHOUT ACTING”. If you don’t act and stay with the craving it will pass.
That is how you can counteract your destructive addictions by just staying with it.
Pema Chodron, the great buddhist monk says, addictions are like wounds. When we scratch the wound and give in to our addictions, we don’t allow the wound to heal.
When we scratch the wound and give into our addictions we do not allow the wound to heal.
Learning to Stay with Discomfort
Here is another quote from Pema about how you have to get comfortable staying with the feelings without acting on them.
When you refrain from habitual thoughts and behavior, the uncomfortable feelings will still be there. They don’t magically disappear. Over the years, I’ve come to call resting with the discomfort “the detox period,” because when you don’t act on your habitual patterns, it’s like giving up an addiction. You’re left with the feelings you were trying to escape. The practice is to make a wholehearted relationship with that
Staying with uncomfortable feelings and cravings is difficult. Practicing meditation can help. You can try any guided meditation apps for that. I use the Calm app and love it.
Transforming Thought into Action
The most effective way of dealing with addictions is to use the fact that thoughts come and go. So when a thought arises and that is not something you want to do, you just have to stay with it till it passes. But if it is something that you want to do, then jump on it right way before it passes. No wonder bias for action is such a big predictor for success.
The path to freedom
The digital age presents both challenges and amazing opportunities. By understanding the power of mindfulness and making conscious choices to act, we can harness the benefits of technology while minimizing its negative effects. Let's strive to create a world where we are masters of our own attention, not slaves to our devices.