Transcription
So, the one thing that I do want to insist is that you have time. If it's a walk, or if you're in a conversation with someone, where that's the time where you really make a point of not using the phone and even leaving it at home if you can, that's sort of the main distraction that we all face.
But the other thing that you want to build at the same time is you want to build powers of focus and meditation. How do you avoid the distractions that this generation has to face, particularly social media? Whenever it comes to like changing a habit or changing a pattern of behavior, you want to aim for real change. You don't want to like do anything drastic. So, if you can go completely cold turkey, if you say, "All right, I'm just going to completely cut off social media," it'll be very difficult for you, particularly if you spend several hours a day on it. So you have to aim a little bit small and take kind of realistic steps.
So what I would do—it's almost like a math equation—I would say, if I spend, um, two hours a day on it, I'm gonna begin the following day, and I'm gonna cut that down by like a half hour. And I, and I'm gonna figure out which platform I'm going to use less. You know, it's okay to waste time; I've said that before. But the kind of the ones that don't make you feel very good, that you really feel like you're wasting your time, I would cut those out first. And I would slowly, slowly go at it. And then so you, you've reduced it half an hour, then you slowly get it down to an hour. And then when you get it down to something reasonable and you feel comfortable—and what I mean by feeling comfortable—you don't feel that itch, that habit—God, I got to grab it—you don't feel like you're depriving yourself. You reach a point where it feels kind of good, and you feel a little bit liberated. And then I would take a day, I would schedule like a day a week where I would go cold turkey, where I would not have it with me at all.
One thing that I really, really makes me upset, even pissed off, is I take a bike ride up into these hills nearby. No cars are allowed; I hardly see any people. It's really wonderful. Then I'll come upon somebody who's coming down the same road where there's just total silence; it's so beautiful, and they're like, talk, yammering on their phone, or they're like this, and I want to slap them across the face and say, "Just put that damn thing away for a few seconds."
So the one thing that I do want to insist is that you have time. If it's a walk, or if you're in a conversation with someone, where that's the time where you really make a point of not using the phone and even leaving it at home if you can, okay. And so that's sort of the main distraction that we all face. But the other thing that you want to build at the same time is you want to build powers of focus and meditation. Obviously, on many, many occasions here, I've advocated meditating; it's a really helpful thing to help you overcome distractions and help you focus. But there are other things you can do. So, like when you're listening to music—this is something I'm writing about in the chapter right now in my Sublime book—when you're listening to music, sometimes make it a form of meditation where you absorb yourself completely in the sounds for half an hour. You actually listen deeply, and you don't let your thoughts constantly distract you. Or you're reading a book; you allow yourself to get so deeply involved that you kind of lose yourself in those moments. The opposite of the distractions are feelings of flow, when you're just absolutely in the moment and it feels wonderful, and you're just flowing with time, you're flowing with the music, you're flowing with the book that you're reading.
So here to sum it up, I would say, as a math equation: slowly reduce 15 minutes by till you get it down to an hour, something kind of comfortable. Then try cold turkey; do not use it when you're on a walk or doing exercise or in a conversation. And maybe one day a week, carve out a day where you don't use it at all. And if you can make it two days a week, great. And then find other forms where you can go deeply, deep focus: meditation, listening to music, reading a book, where you're completely absorbed in something. I think those are realistic and practical exercises that could really help you.