How to Process Digital Distraction?

We live in a distraction age. Most of things around us cause distractions like culture, peer pressure, society set-up, digital, workload, family pressure and others.

Interestingly our human mind is very good to attach to those distractions. It feels like addiction some times. It requires a lot of reflection and patience when you are in that state.

Personally what helps me a lot in such a scenario is using the overall big picture of the event happening. For example you are addicted to your phone. You can’t help it but check your messages, your emails and other notifications. You can’t hold yourself but stop your work and grab your phone to check who is texting you. Of course temporarily, it feels good with the dopamine juicing out of your brain in that moment. But in the long run, it affects your work, productivity and value. Your self-discipline falls to the bottom too.

In this situation, I normally pause for a moment. Question what I am doing. What is it about the phone that is so tempting? Is it just to know what is going on? Is it to be the first to check your notifications and not to miss any news? Is it to be available on the spot for people when they need you? Or is it because your self-worth is shaky, your self is empty and you just need to fill it up with something?

Actually the phone has been made to ease our communication process and remove the geographical barriers. It was created to enable us to call the person when we need something. Otherwise, the extra activities like checking the social feed regularly, checking the messages and emails often and being just glued to the phone unnecessarily are wasting your valuable time and affecting your self-discipline and integrity.

Also such distractions are very good at manipulating the authenticity and humbleness of our communication with each other. The calls and messages are effective communication channels but if they are used excessively and taken personally, they could destroy our relationships and human connections.

After doing such mental processing and reflection, you reach the truth behind the scenario. You understand facts you never thought of before. Your mental triggers slow down. You realize what matters and what doesn’t in the moment. You start to live life more than living in your head.