You're right about everything you said but I already had this problem and decided to view it from another perspective.
I learn to distinguish between:
- Logically Productive Actions: the actions your brain tells you to do. Work, study, clean your room, learn a skill
- Emotionally Productive Actions: the actions your heart tells you to do. Read that book, take a walk with your dog, call a far relative, watch a film
It's right to say that entrainement it's quite a lost of time, but it's not so right to say that all of it it's so. Some films or series can teach you something the producer learnt in its life or just open your eyes on what to do on a situation that it seems like one of yours. There are many examples for many of us because it's obvious that our cases are different from each others'.
As for everything, balancing is the key.
If you tend to take just logically productive actions, your emotions will suffer from it.
If you tend to take just emotionally productive actions, your goals, your work, your time or whatever it applies to you will suffer from it.
It's all about balance... In the end, we should take life more lightly while never forgetting the incredible gifts that it is.
I understand whqt you're saying but even after locking my device's away.. I can't focus on a book for 5 minutes.. I can't focus on anything more than 30 minutes.. I just can't focus.. I know I need to to do the work or finish the chapter, but I just can't focus.. I can't keep on reading the book.. What do I do??
I too have some bad habits I keep following over and over again even though I know I have precisely the tools to quit them, even if knowing to have them it's at least a reason I'm quite optimistic about the future.
I can't give you a solution for your precise case because I strongly believe that what I see perfect could be not perfect for someone else because we're people with different factors that result in us being different people. But I can give you a general solution.
If you have something holding you back from focusing you have two solutions:
1. Making that distraction unpredictable, but I don't think that smashing your phone under your foot it's a good idea :p
2. Gradually decreasing it. If you have so many things that distract you, like TV series, stop finding new ones and avoid places where you could find new one. Watch the one you have in your notes and be happy because you know you're at least taking a step forward.
I think you're quite stressed so you could bring exaggerating a bit the view you have of your problem. I think that as soon you start reading you can read even many pages but the next day you don't have the will to take the book again.
You don't lack focus, you just lack the initiative
Then prepare. Put your phone into another room or just turn it off. Put the book on your desk so it will be the first thing you see in the morning, it will enable you to remember to read it.
The advantage of initiative is that it doesn't require the motivation or just the discipline all speak about because it just requires you to exploit the initial impulse you feel and then the rest will just come out naturally!
It's like catching the bench of a chairlift. Once you catch it you let it move you up.
Swinging on a vine requires little initial effort because it uses the momentum you gave it beforehand.
Even swimming works like that! Each raise and stretch the arm each it's an initiative!
This perfectly captures what I've been observing in my own life and with my readers - this invisible tax on our potential that we voluntarily pay every day.
It's fascinating how distraction has evolved from an occasional state to our default mode of existence. I've found that our relationship with distraction often reveals deeper truths about what we're avoiding. When I catch myself reaching for my phone mid-task, I've started asking: "What discomfort am I trying to escape right now?"
Excellent read. I definitely think there's a real connection between addiction and distraction. Well, unless your work is an addiction. But could work be a distraction? Hhmm. Questions, questions.
So very true, and yes its an Addiction, That alters my being, as deep as Oppression. The more distracted I am, the more robotic I became. Addicted to Convinience, is the New Dopamine.... At what point will it be Labeled or Recognized as an Illness. (Unable to Function) "Disability"...
You're right about everything you said but I already had this problem and decided to view it from another perspective.
I learn to distinguish between:
- Logically Productive Actions: the actions your brain tells you to do. Work, study, clean your room, learn a skill
- Emotionally Productive Actions: the actions your heart tells you to do. Read that book, take a walk with your dog, call a far relative, watch a film
It's right to say that entrainement it's quite a lost of time, but it's not so right to say that all of it it's so. Some films or series can teach you something the producer learnt in its life or just open your eyes on what to do on a situation that it seems like one of yours. There are many examples for many of us because it's obvious that our cases are different from each others'.
As for everything, balancing is the key.
If you tend to take just logically productive actions, your emotions will suffer from it.
If you tend to take just emotionally productive actions, your goals, your work, your time or whatever it applies to you will suffer from it.
It's all about balance... In the end, we should take life more lightly while never forgetting the incredible gifts that it is.
I understand whqt you're saying but even after locking my device's away.. I can't focus on a book for 5 minutes.. I can't focus on anything more than 30 minutes.. I just can't focus.. I know I need to to do the work or finish the chapter, but I just can't focus.. I can't keep on reading the book.. What do I do??
Start small. Read 1 page for day for 1 week. You can then build from there.
I too have some bad habits I keep following over and over again even though I know I have precisely the tools to quit them, even if knowing to have them it's at least a reason I'm quite optimistic about the future.
I can't give you a solution for your precise case because I strongly believe that what I see perfect could be not perfect for someone else because we're people with different factors that result in us being different people. But I can give you a general solution.
If you have something holding you back from focusing you have two solutions:
1. Making that distraction unpredictable, but I don't think that smashing your phone under your foot it's a good idea :p
2. Gradually decreasing it. If you have so many things that distract you, like TV series, stop finding new ones and avoid places where you could find new one. Watch the one you have in your notes and be happy because you know you're at least taking a step forward.
I think you're quite stressed so you could bring exaggerating a bit the view you have of your problem. I think that as soon you start reading you can read even many pages but the next day you don't have the will to take the book again.
You don't lack focus, you just lack the initiative
Then prepare. Put your phone into another room or just turn it off. Put the book on your desk so it will be the first thing you see in the morning, it will enable you to remember to read it.
The advantage of initiative is that it doesn't require the motivation or just the discipline all speak about because it just requires you to exploit the initial impulse you feel and then the rest will just come out naturally!
It's like catching the bench of a chairlift. Once you catch it you let it move you up.
Swinging on a vine requires little initial effort because it uses the momentum you gave it beforehand.
Even swimming works like that! Each raise and stretch the arm each it's an initiative!
This perfectly captures what I've been observing in my own life and with my readers - this invisible tax on our potential that we voluntarily pay every day.
It's fascinating how distraction has evolved from an occasional state to our default mode of existence. I've found that our relationship with distraction often reveals deeper truths about what we're avoiding. When I catch myself reaching for my phone mid-task, I've started asking: "What discomfort am I trying to escape right now?"
Great stuff as always!
Excellent read. I definitely think there's a real connection between addiction and distraction. Well, unless your work is an addiction. But could work be a distraction? Hhmm. Questions, questions.
Questions for another write :D
Thanks so much for writing this.
So very true, and yes its an Addiction, That alters my being, as deep as Oppression. The more distracted I am, the more robotic I became. Addicted to Convinience, is the New Dopamine.... At what point will it be Labeled or Recognized as an Illness. (Unable to Function) "Disability"...
🦋🙏🙏🙏
Is this different or more beneficial than the opal app?