Practices that Helped Me Deal with Technology Distraction
By Krishna Kumar Kishan
It was in mid-2020 when I realised something was not okay with me. I was unable to keep track of time. Most -nights, just before bed, I would find myself rubbing my head, thinking that one more day was wasted without anything productive happening. This guilt was accompanied by a mild headache, neck pain and a depressed feeling that I felt while trying to fall asleep. After noticing this pattern for more than a month, I decided to make some serious changes. That was when I installed a digital wellbeing app on my phone to track my hours of phone use. Without changing anything else, I noticed that I was using my phone for more than seven hours a day for four-to-five days straight. That was horrifying. The app also had a record of my time spent on different apps individually.
All of these made me realise that I was wasting seven-to-eight hours of my day across various social media apps doing nothing. Initially, it was challenging for me to admit that I am a phone addict because I was not a fan of social media. It was evident how social media is an unreal, pseudo world; even I did not have my ID on any other popular apps except Facebook and Instagram. I did not even post or share more than one-to-two post(s) a year. So, with all these in place, it was really, really difficult for me to admit my addiction in the first place. But numbers do not lie and, hence, I had to accept that ugly truth about my seven-plus hours of just useless scrolling through memes, funny videos etc.
One day, I decided to finally break the chain. I did something that I have done many times before and failed at it in a day or two: making a daily routine. For a procrastinator like me, it is tough to stick to my self-made routine. This time, I was a little more determined because I feared those numbers on the tracker app. Please note that I did not deactivate or delete my social media apps or accounts because I have tried that way many times, only to loop back to old habits even more robust next time. In my daily routine, I added things like new language learning, yoga and meditation.
Most importantly, I was determined to practice what I call “sail away from the momentary temptations.” It was a practice that I learned a few years back during my Vipassana meditation sessions. The thoughts, temptations etc., will all come. We can not control that. There are more neuron connections in our brain than atoms in the known universe, so they are bound to create countless thoughts, desires and temptations. But if we somehow manage to sail away from those arousals by keeping our mind calm in the moment, and engage ourselves in any focused task, then that thing will be gone for quite some time. We are free of distractions. The longer we practice this method, the longer we can focus on productive work. The time interval between distractions gets longer and longer with this practice.
In the beginning, this was not easy. I was returning and re-returning to my phone very frequently. I mean, the conversion rate of temptation into phone-use was quite high—about 80 percent of the time. But I worked it out. If I go deeper into the technicality of it, this is how it worked: The very first step was having no notifications at all. Then, as soon as there was a temptation to check my phone, I sat back, away from the phone, and observed my thoughts. You will feel a deep sense of change in your thought waves like something vibrant was there but is now calming down.
The best analogy I can give is observing high-frequency ocean waves calming down to stable water at the surface. That feeling when you have an itch in your body, and instead of responding to it by itching your skin, you observe it as the sensation goes away in a few moments. Eventually, I was able to commit to this mindful habit of watching my thoughts as many temptations would surface over the span of hours. Also, to make this a long term habit and not relapse back in the future, I made some schedules around it. For example, I wouldn’t use my phone while having my meals, when I was with one or more people around me, and only checking my phone at fixed times twice a day. One can set these rules at his/her convenience. I check my phone once in the afternoon and again in the late-evening for any messages. Outside of this schedule, I only check messages if I get a phone call from someone in case of some urgent work. When I am around people, I prefer to talk face-to-face rather than setting my eyes on my phone. And my favourite one is mindfully enjoying the taste of my meal with the entire focus on my senses rather than looking at my phone.
The outcome of these practices, which are a little hard to start and build in the beginning, is wonderful. This simple yet powerful exercise, in the long run, makes life so easy and meditative. I hope some of you may benefit from my experiences, which I tried to present in as many details as possible. If you want more information about this technique, you may write to me at kkishan@mt.iitr.ac.in.
