We are obsessed with technology. We love to hear the ping of emails, we can’t wait for push notifications to pop up, and we do everything in our power to keep ourselves distracted by it all. We have an overabundance of distractions in today’s world from everything that it’s hard to focus. When driving we’re barraged with billboards, when listening to the radio we are interrupted by commercials, and push notifications from every single app that we download will keep our phones ringing 24 hours a day if we let it. Everything craves our attention, but why do we give in to these things that we know are time wasters? We crave the distraction.
Distractions are a way for us to weasel out of what’s important: our work and our relationships. It’s hard to focus, it’s taken me almost an hour to write this because of distractions. And it’s hard to say no to outside distractions and be present with the people we spend time with. It’s easy to check Facebook. It’s easy to scroll through Twitter. It’s fun to watch YouTube for hours. But what’s more important is how we spend our time focusing on our work and on our relationships, giving our full attention to them.
I stay present by turning off the push notifications on my email so I only receive them when I choose; at 2-3 times throughout the day and once on Saturdays and Sundays. If anyone needs to get a hold of me and it’s an emergency, the last thing they’re going to do is email me. So if 99.99% of the time my emails are not urgent, why am I pulling my attention from dinner with friends, experiencing a historic win over Coastal Carolina University, and not allowing myself to be present and engaged wherever I am? A half thought out response is disrespectful to the person that writes me that email, so why not do them a solid and respond in full when I’m fully engaged with their email in front of me?
I also unplug by not checking any email or social media after 8 PM to allow myself to wind down at the end of the day. This helps slow my mind before bed so it’s not racing and I can get the rest I need to make the next day productive. Poor sleep isn’t always about needing a new mattress or the noise outside, is the noise in between our ears that is the most detrimental to sleep. This takes some effort, but it’s most important to pull away from the technology at certain times so we don’t become addicted to it (yes, it’s real and people talk and affects many of us).
And finally, I don’t take my phone to meals if I’m eating with someone else. My phone stays in the car or goes on silent and in another room if I’m at the house. Thirty minutes to an hour each day without my phone is not going to kill me, and it’s my way of showing whomever I’m eating with (Katie most of the time) that I care about our time together and don’t want to be distracted from our conversation. How can I fully engage when I’m checking an email or re-tweeting what Tucker Max just said?
