A Distraction Story

A Distraction Story!

It's the week four since my last blog “Am I a scroll Zombie?”.  Time flew by literally like a blink of an eye! I have been busy with my new book which is scheduled to release this week and simultaneously have been introspecting my phone/screen usage habits. A question was lurking my mind when I wrote my last blog if phone is the first thing I check on waking up, what is my screen usage and most importantly if I was a scroll Zombie too?

I must say I have found some interesting answers to this question. Though I don’t take phone to bedroom I do go to the phone first thing in morning to stop the alarm with one quarter eye open while the other eye is closed!  As I was reflecting , I was reminded of how I changed my scrolling habits few years ago and I want to share this story with you.

About five years ago, while on a work call I was not only approving a request on an email on my phone but was also responding to team on their queries. Not just that but I had some habits of eating food as I watched screen or leaf through some apps, read books online as I walk and the list goes on. If I recollect I would do this quite often and I can say that I was doing that under the pretext of multitasking/being efficient. But like a ray of light a thought penetrated deep into my mind-‘Am I really multitasking or loosing my ability to stay focussed?’ After a few weeks of  super honest evaluation I learnt that scrolling or using phone along with my core activity had become a habit for me. This sort of usage was scattering my concentration and in reality there was no such thing as multitasking!

I realised how casual I was and unknowingly training my mind to be distracted all the time. What we do , how we do is creating or developing or strengthening our new habits or routine .Whether we realise it or not everything that one does needs 100% focus! This whole myth of multitasking bursted like a water bubble! So I reached out to a friend from my meditation group to discuss my discovery of scrolling issue and interestingly she was also in the process of scrolling habit change.  We agreed to be each other’s sounding board during this transition period and chalked out a plan to make slow and steady transformation. The process of this transformation was super challenging but since we were taking it one step at a time we could sustain well. We started with no phone after 9pm policy, then added scheduled time for social media usage, no phone when having meals, focussed conversations/calls without phone, shifted form screen reading to paperback reading, no checking phone for at least an hour after waking up, no more pop up of notifications of social media updates(as world does not come to an end), use phone only when needed, giving a structure to the understanding of excessive information lying out there and many other tiny tasks until we reached a stage where we introduced NO phone/screen days in our regime.

It was quite an ordeal ,but when our poor habits were trying to takeover our will power we reminded ourselves of how scrolling impacted our eye sight, posture, brain function, sleep, concentration, how its radiation kills the energy in us, our relationships , ability to communicate or have conversations and its immense capability to destroy our over all health and wellbeing. It took me good 12 to 18 months to reach to a stage where I can have absolutely NO SCREEN DAYS. But watch out for me was ‘habits are habits and they can come back!’ So when I notice drifting away I become a watchdog of my phone habits and quickly mend my ways.

Well this is my distraction story and would love to hear from you about your victory over scrolling story. And as far as my alarm is concerned iam going to practice auto suggestion to the subconscious mind, however until I become an adept I am using the alarm clock :)

P.S : I have list of questions for you to evaluate your self on how you fair on your scrolling habits. If you answer is yes for 7 on 10 questions, then its time to change habits.

1. I can keep my phone aside when iam done with work

2. Phone is the first thing I check on waking up. I slip into spend time updating myself on messages/emails/news right after that

3. I check my messages or emails whenever I wake up at night for natures call or to sip water

4. My screen time ,particularly on my phone is more than 6 to 12 hours in a day

5. After a long day at work , I think iam entitled for more screen time and hop onto social media or other platforms on a daily basis

6. I keep scrolling when people(family/friends) are trying to have conversation with me

7. I keep scrolling even if iam on other calls

8. Phone/any screen is my friend in distress

9. I take phone to bathroom or bedroom. I also have meals/snacks with it

10. My eyes are tired and heavy most of the times