Thoughts over coffee: Part ten
Coffee and I are old friends (coffee is older than me of course) and I do a lot of thinking over coffee. With this in mind I decided to start a little concept called thoughts over coffee which I'll be doing from time to time.
I don't like laziness or reward it and while I don't have anything against down-time, relaxation, doing nothing and such other legitimate activities being lazy grinds my gears. There's many different forms of laziness including below.
Laziness - Distractions
You know you've done it and maybe even know you've done it far too much; allowing distractions to encroach upon or impede the things you've set out to do is tantamount to laziness. When a person is at work or performing a task productivity is what that person should be seeking and that's not going to be found through distractions that split or shift focus away from the set task or responsibility.
"I just need to check my phone..."
Ever said that or heard it said? Even thinking about it takes the focus away from the task and doing it is even worse. Often little distractions like this are more time and focus wasteful than they initially appear as checking the phone could then lead to focus shifting even further away depending on what was on that phone. People's thoughts drift. Get it?
I always set focused time, meaning a time for which I will not allow others to distract me or to distract myself.
It means turning my phone on silent and putting it face down so I can't see it ring. It means alerting others in the office that I'm not to be disturbed, and enforcing it, ignoring emails and other such things that, while maybe productive overall, will take my focus away from the task at hand and slow momentum. It makes me very productive.
It's not something that is the sole domain of the workplace either, it can apply to many aspects of our lives and through avoiding distractions we can find a greater level of focus, efficiency and productivity. Imagine being on a date with someone you really like and being distracted all the time and shifting focus away from them...that won't go well for you. Don't approach your relationships in this lazy and rather rude way, give them the time they deserve.
An exercise to do is to pay attention to every single time one is distracted over the day and log the time. It's often confronting how much of the working day (or productivity) is wasted. Don't we all want to do more with less time? Sure we do...so find greater productivity by taking ownership, showing responsibility and being disciplined when it comes to distractions and then let that become the habit.
What do you reckon? If you want to comment below then go ahead, I'm interested in your thoughts and experiences.
Design and create your ideal life, tomorrow isn't promised - galenkp
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Image(s) in this post are my own
I appreciate how you highlight balance and discipline. It’s a great approach to being more present and productive.
Yeah, I guess it works for me but others may have different ideas and concepts that work for them. I suppose that's the beauty of how diverse human being's thoughts and mindset can be.
Absolutely!
When I need to concentrate, I leave my phone in another room, far away. People know that I check it when I can, but there are certain spaces where... I'm sorry, but the phone doesn't exist. In fact, with two exceptions, everything else is silent all day long and stays that way.
The hardest thing for me is when people interrupt me. It distracts me and, honestly, wastes my time. Sometimes I can't avoid it, but when I can, I do.
I often tell people who whine that I don't answer my phone, "my phone is for my convenience, not yours." I give them a blank stare to go along with it and they generally shut the fuck up.
It's true...There are a lot of annoying people.
I do this too. I leave it in a far away place where I can't hear it, or think about it.
Exactly, but the interruptions are constant.
I do not use my mobile phone while doing any work. Because I know that using a mobile phone reduces the efficiency of the work. A person who works with me in the office is glued to his mobile phone even while on duty, and the company does not benefit from him. This is how the mobile phone was the reason why he did not get a job promotion and I got a promotion. If you use a mobile phone while driving, you can completely lose focus and even risk your life.
Can't get enough coffee! I drink 7-8 cups a day before 2 PM at which point I stop.
Indeed, although I generally have my last at around 20:00. Generally 6-7 cups a day.
I'm not like some modern teen, but I do find I need to remind myself occasionally to just put my phone down. Usually I am checking emails and stuff like that, but since I already have trouble focusing in the first place due to my ADHD, it's better just to set it out of sight and out of mind. It's harder than I would like to let on though. My wife would probably argue that I spend more of our "down time" checking my phone for work versus spending my work time checking my phone for fun.
It's a pretty bad habit and one that is difficult to break. People put it down to being productive but entire generations of humans were productive without having to look at their phones all the time right?
For sure! I am glad I grew up when I did and I can easily have one foot in the digital world and one foot out of it. Kids these days almost don't get that luxury.
I bloody hate distractions... At work I can't help it because if some urgent issues comes up I need to reply immediately and stop whatever I'm doing to fix it, so I can't really help it and it annoys me because I lose the track of what I'm doing... On normal life I got a lot of discipline on this, if I'm doing something I just finish it before taking care or being distracted by other stuff, it all goes on queue (of course beside school calls or whatever urgent here too)
It's often difficult to maintain focus at work sometimes, I have the same, but I always work on removing distractions or minimising them. I tend to be very disciplined and that's served me well, although for sure there's times when focus slips and discipline follows.
All we can do is the best we can do however so many people don't try hard enough I think.
Yeah, I know one dude, he gets distracted litterally by everything on the phone, even stops talking to check it, or stops listening, it's pretty annoying
Those people that stop conversations to check their phone...dick heads. I walk away.
My best way to stay focused are the good old lists on paper. Write the tasks down, have it in front of you, and do it one by one. Put in little breaks between the tasks, to stare on the screen or into the void, play a game, breathe, but not more than a minute and only if felt that it's needed. If not, rock on.
Does it work? Mostly. Not always. When my energy is low, it's harder to focus, harder to not be distracted. And although that's a signal that the body and mind need rest, I don't always understand, but get lured into the pseudo-rest of screentime. Because I'm sitting, right? And I'm not thinking, either, so it must be resting. Not. It's hard work to be conscious of that and connected enough with one's body to feel the needs, and know when to push through (coffeeeeeeee!!!!) and when to put on some meditation music and lie down for 10min.
And then, there's the kid. Barging in whenever, needing attention without schedule. Sometimes totally absorbed in her play, I work, and suddenly she's dancing on my back. We're working on her accepting my breaks, too. When it's urgent, she can come to me of course. If it can wait, I try to teach her to wait to my next break, which means that I have to take breaks more regularly. As you can read, it's still a mess, but we'll get there.
There's loads of ways to find and maintain focus and they all work. Maintaining it can be difficult and really that's the thing I guess; all of these concepts work but it's up to the human being to do them, follow the steps and paths. Like to-do lists, in and if themselves they don't work...follow them and they work. It comes back upon the person to do what's required. Discipline.
I really liked this beautiful journey of thought that started with coffee Indeed, distractions often drag us into laziness without even realizing it. Sometimes I don't notice how the hours pass when I want to look at the phone. The idea of applying the discipline of focus to all areas of life is very valuable. The emphasis you made on the issue of paying attention, especially in relationships, was very thought-provoking. This article gave me awareness, thanks.@galenkp
I'm glad you like it mate, and some of the points in this post as well because I think there's some important ones and things we should all be applying.
Thank you very much . It also made me happy that there were points that you found useful in the article. You're right, in fact, it's what we can all apply in our daily lives. I'm so glad you shared your thoughts @galenkp
You can get so easily distracted nowadays...
It's so shocking to see people grab their phone every couple of seconds. People just can't seem to do nothing anymore. And it is a focus killer as well.
As I was doing this too and I hated it that I was doing that, I started a 'digital detox' about a year ago. I removed all unnecessary apps and games and blocked all notifications except for calls. I instructed my loved ones to call me when they have something important since nobody else calls me and the calls show up on my watch, so I can leave my phone out of reach (which is also very useful. Put your phone away in a drawer or out of sight).
Despite the fact that I have made my phone quite boring it does have a browser. And that was my backdoor to distractions. You can open news sites, youtube and also Hive on it. I regularly checked my phone to see if I had new notifications on Hive and if there was news on one of the websites.
In a book I recently read about Intentional living was a nice tip. The author didn't want his kids to become phone addicted, so he always explicitly told why he was checking his phone. This way he needed to have a good reason to pick it up.
Since a few days I also only try to unlock my phone when I really have a good reason to do so. Not because it is a habit or I am bored.
At work I started using https://pomofocus.io/, a pomodoro timer of 25 minutes and 5 minutes pause (sometimes 15). In those 25 minutes I focus on my task and don't check your chats or mails. During the breaks, no screens are allowed (my own rule).
Before the next 25 minutes I quickly check for important chats and once every few 'rounds' I check my mail. This really helped me to become more productive.
Yep, you seem to have a good handle on it and actively work towards better focus at work or personally. For sure you have the right idea with your phone as well, that's such a time/focus killer.
I have an implanted sensor for my health and need to check it (phone) and administer many times a day so my phone has to come everywhere I go...which I hate. It is what it is, better than dying. I minimise its use though, don't play games (time-wasteful) and don't have social media so don't spend lengthy periods on my phone unless it's a call. You remember what a call is right? (Seems phones are sold purely around their camera ability and AI fucktardery these days.)
Anyway, you have a good process going, maybe one day others will also unplug from the Matrix.
You're right about that, but I understand that it is annoying. Less life threatning, but also annoying is the multi factor authenticator phone app I frequently have to use at work.
But I made my phone so boring that I don't really get tempted to check other things when I only need the authenticator.
The camera is one thing I do like about my phone. I love taking photographs of nice sceneries or moments I want to capture.
But then again I hate it when people in public take their phones to photograph their plate (it is FOOD!) or those who film entire concerts so they can share where they have been, but missed the concert itself because they were too busy filming it 🤨
Phones annoy me and I wish I didn't have to have one. Sure, convenient in many aspects but I remember life when I didn't have to carry a computer in my pocket and I lied it better. Alas, for my health, it's indispensable as the phone operates systems that keep my Alice on a minute by minute basis and so I have a phone everywhere I go. Sucks.
What else sucks? All the 2FA nutbaggery but that also comes with the landscape, the digital world I guess. It's all too much really, the way things have "progressed" and where it's going.
Worse yet is the people who take that distraction and put it in a place that can harm others. If you've ridden on a bus recently, and you look down at the passing cars, you'll see just how many people are on their phones while driving.
I reckon that for a distraction free world, we should put mobile phone detection cameras on the sides of every bus in service :)
I tend to find, even that just simply closing the door to my office (in addition to my phone face down, on pure silence (no vibration at all) - is a small act that isolates me further from the world to help me be more productive.
eg: when I am on hive - I find all the posts that I want to read / comment on since the last time I checked (roughly x hours ago) - open all the tabs, read the articles, then make my comments. I have two more to do after this one. :)
Then, I will go grab some hydration (sorry, not coffee) - and then open up my text editor and continue working on whatever writing I have to do.
There used to be lavish lists hand written all over on various bits of paper on my desk, there's a wallplanner magnetically stuck to the server rack in my office that holds the home server, security system, and other various IT gear, but no dry-erase marker has stained it - yet. My to do list exists somewhere in my head, (and sometimes, still on paper) - but I still get more done these days, because I just elect to ignore the phone, and refuse (as much as I can) to give in to the doom scroll.
Yeah, the mobile phone is one of the most prevalent causes of distraction and one of the most wasteful ways a person can use time, generally. Think Facebook and other fucked up things people waste time on.
I'm not surprised you're fairly organised and the phone face down on silent is a big one; I'd be interested in a study that identifies the time wasted split up into office and personal life the mobile phone is responsible for.
Anyway, right now I'm distracted by a coffee the waitress put in front of me; my post-work coffee and so I'm off to enjoy it.
Hello @galenkp, the phone is one of the biggest distractions, using it properly is the key to not getting caught up in it. My friends often complain to me because I don't reply to messages very quickly. Sometimes, when I read the message it's already too late. I usually check it in the morning and spend the rest of the day in silence and away from my room. It's incredible how much time is spent on the phone. For many, it's a distraction, but in the end, it's valuable time that can be spent on productive activities.
Phones can be used productively but there's a point where it crosses over to time wasting, I guess depending on what is being done on the phone. Most people just waste time on them, endless scrolling or watching pointless videos of other people who don't matter in the least bit.
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