Less than twenty years have passed since gadgets have firmly entered our lives. A person spends with the phone not only his free time, but also his working time. You are of course telling yourself that this is all in the name of productivity and socialization. But is it really so? Does your gadget help you with your work or rather distract you from it? Or are you just letting bloggers not buy real Instagram followers? Let’s figure it out.
Why smartphones are so bad for productivity
Firstly, you probably spend more time on your phone than you think. People use their smartphone for an average of 5 hours a day, tapping the screen more than 2,500 times. And the most enthusiastic — more than 5000 times. However, according to personal feelings, it seems to a person that he spends half the time with the gadget than he actually does.
Secondly, the telephone impairs your ability to concentrate. People use over 50 different apps and sites a day and switch tasks over 300 times, with distractions on average every 3.5 minutes. But it takes 23 minutes for the brain to focus on one task.
Unsurprisingly, there is simply no time left for focused work. And the more often you are distracted, the more “irritated” your brain becomes. This threatens with increased stress levels, a sense of time pressure and mental overload.
Many people think that this at least helps Insta bloggers because thanks to real users, they don’t need to buy Instagram followers. But don’t worry, you should only think about your time. Content makers will always find their audience.
Thirdly, flipping the tape is not a rest for the brain. The person either consumes information or is resting. Different parts of the brain are responsible for these two processes, so they cannot occur anatomically at the same time. Consequently, when you switch to social media or YouTube videos after a day at work, you continue to tire your already overworked brain.
What you can do to reduce the negative impact of your smartphone
So that the amount of time spent with your smartphone is not a surprise, spend two days a simple digital record: record the time of unlocking and locking your phone. This will give you a visual picture of how many times during the day you took the device, for what reason, and how much time you spent on it. After that, you will be able to organize your digital life more efficiently, having determined the time to search for information, to communicate, to read the news and other activities.
In addition to this, every time before picking up the phone, ask yourself the question “Why?”. “Why do I want to unblock it now?” If there is no specific goal, then there is no need to do this. Learn to pause between the urge to grab a gadget and the moment you pick it up. Then you will stop using your smartphone thoughtlessly and you will free up a lot of time.
To prevent your smartphone from impairing your ability to concentrate, reduce the amount of external stimuli. The fact is that our brain spends the resource of attention not only on focusing on important things, but also on not focusing on unimportant ones. Therefore, the fewer irritants around you, the longer you can keep your attention on the desired task. So, it would be advisable to turn off notifications while working. If you are offline for a couple of hours, the world will not collapse from this, but the task will be done faster. You can also set your computer screen to black and white mode and your browser tabs to read mode. This will help you not to be distracted by the background color and ads.
Now that irritants have been eliminated and the work is focused, it’s time to relax. What kind of rest can be an alternative to a smartphone and will allow you to truly recover? The main rest for the brain is a change of activity. So, if the day was busy, a walk in nature will help you quickly regain your strength. It will improve the functioning of the dopamine system and calm the mind. Another way to come to your senses after working days is live communication with loved ones. It strengthens cognitive skills and has a positive effect on brain performance. Meditation will also help relieve mental stress. It normalizes the nervous system and replenishes energy.
So what do you get when you introduce a light digital detox into your life:
- More free time;
- Less stress by reducing smartphone distractions and other irritants
- Ability to better focus on tasks and get them done in a shorter time frame;
- The ability to recover faster after an intense day at work thanks to quality rest.
