Transcription
If you can't even go to the toilet without bringing your phone with you and be scrolling on it the whole time, you definitely have an addiction to your phone.
Most people once they wake up, they grab onto the phone and that's how they start their day in reactive energy. This happening on the news, this people message me and then we eat our meals. Even scrolling on our phones on the way to work, we put on podcasts. After work, same thing. Scrolling on the way home, scrolling again before we sleep.
Do we even know who we are and what our minds are capable of creating when we're not constantly distracted and relying on these stimulations? Recently, I'm really trying to practice deep work, which is something that Bill Gates would do once in a while to go into the woods with no distractions. And that's when some of the most genius ideas appear.
But the thing is most of us never let ourselves get bored to a point where we allow ideas to come out because even five minutes just sitting still we're like, "Oh no, no, no, I cannot. I need to be constantly consuming something instead of creating." And we end up so disconnected with ourselves because we don't even know how we feel. Maybe certain feelings come up, we avoid emotional processing and we just keep scrolling. We watch Netflix because we're so scared what will we face deep in there?
But what if it's not emptiness? Imagine people years ago, they worked the whole day and when they came home, they spent time with their family. They had that human connection, even they're just sitting talking. That's earned dopamine. But nowadays, that dopamine of just sitting with loved ones is not strong enough because we're used to that quick TikTok scrolling. To me, that's not fully living.
So now I'm actively making a conscious choice. Number one thing is I have these screen time blocks on my phone that I actually cannot get out of them. For example, Instagram, I can only open six times a day and every time only 15 minutes. That's why whenever I get onto it, I have to finish everything that I need to do, like reply messages, do my posting, and that's how I slowly break that addiction. And honestly, I am losing interest on scrolling now.
And most days I have most of my apps blocked from 10 at night to 10:00 in the morning. I have that time to myself for meditation, journaling, set my intention for the day, and now I implement these deep work sessions. It started from just 20 minutes and it was difficult enough at the time. Our body, our mind are not used to that. So my body will be raging and feel like, "Oh my god, no, I need to get my phone. I need to look at this."
But girls, it's about sitting through that discomfort. Yes, you're going to feel anxious. Just sit through it and it will pass. The more I practice, the better I am at it. Now I do 1-hour sessions here and there. I'm able to get into that deep flow state and I'm a lot more productive. My work quality is higher. I get more creative. That's why people have genius ideas when they're in a shower. That's when your mind is like, "Okay, now I don't have the distractions. What can I create?"