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My brain's been wandering the last several months more and more. I can't even hold a single thought in my mind for more then a minute, so I knew something was off. Information overload - useless information to be precise. As we are more and more hyper connected to the internet we find ourselves less and less connected to the physical world. Problem is when serious money making work starts taking a backseat to things that waste time. Here is my list...
Things which waste my time:
Facebook - Once or twice a day is usually enough to be honest, once or twice an hour, means you aren't in the moment - eventually you will be focusing less and less when you do have serious work to do.
Twitter - This was a little more active, but getting updates once or twice a day again is fine. The more you are on twitter the more you'll click on links that continue to waste even more time. Being a marketer, for some reason I have nothing but marketing people I'm following and 99% of their status updates are links... Not sure how well that's going for them, but even with my tweets I try to have only 1 out of 20 a link, and the rest something else - an image or quote. But to be honest - why do people need to know my thoughts at every single moment of the day? If I see someone over and over blabbing non-stop, they overall importances becomes less and less. (Law 16 of 48 Laws of Power)
Imgur - Great for breaks, but a time suck overall. There are some funny images, and I used to be addicted to gif collection, still am. I would collect gifs and then remember them so I know I have the perfect reaction for that retarded forum post of OP's. Overall if I spend less time trolling forums, I'd equally spend less time finding gifs. It's crazy how these distractions intermingle without you realizing it until you step back.
Email - I un-installed my email from my phone, over the years I gave less and less people my email, and anyone that wants to contact me can call or text.
News Sites - Most people don't generally need to be updated on the latest Middle East Crisis on a daily basis. Overall bad things happen all over the world all the time. Unless you are following something that will directly effect your revenue or your niche, it's mostly information overload.
Notifications - these Apps have notifications that pop up when something or rather anything happens. Disable them all. I find myself being distracted more and more by apps like twitter and Facebook which I'm trying to stay away from, so disable them for your own sanity.
If you notice everything mentioned above has to do with information overload - things you really don't need to be constantly on top of. If you notice how society works, the most important things get to you no matter what anyways, so you don't need to be updated within 5 seconds of something happening.
It got pretty bad for me - it got to the point where my brain couldn't hold a single thought for more then a single minute - I never was like that.
Skype is the worse - it's like a phone but more intense, since you can be in skype groups with 100+ people, and multiple ones, so they all have something to say. Unfortunately for what I do, some of those chats help me stay at the ground level of what's going on in our industry, and movements. Skype is great for networking and immediate conversations about an idea, but when it becomes a place to simply hangout - it's time to slow down and unplug.
Forums - I used to be addicted to forums, probably still am. I would go from one to another, to another, and back to the first one. You know you are addicted when you close your browser then re-open it immediately and go back to the same website.
Here is the trick or rather something to keep in mind, all the information above won't disappear if you don't check it for a couple of hours, or a day or so. The important things always tend to rise to the top and the garbage usually settles at the bottom where no one will remember it after today.
Breaking the cycles:
I started putting my cellphone in the other room when I went to sleep, so I couldn't check up on the latest during the night. Had a great night sleep during the 2nd night. First night was weird and difficult.
I started exiting Skype when I was coding and doing serious work. People don't need to be in constant contact with me for every little thing. My business partner doesn't operate that way, nor do I. So if at the most important level, revenue wise, we message each other and the other gets back in 24 hours it's fine. So if the most important messages can wait 24 hours, some random Skype chat can wait a couple of days and you can scroll through them to get a glimpse of what's going on.
Forums were a big problem - So I stopped checking them and stopped joining new ones. The ones I moderated I resigned, and the other ones that were dying I simply left altogether. I'll check in every 2-3 days, but as you check these distractions less and less, you'll find yourself less and less distracted by them.
Also Law #16 of the 48th Laws of Power: "Use Absence to Increase Respect and Honor" (link: http://cgt411.tech.purdue.edu/covey/48_laws_of_power.htm) - Being constantly around makes people take you for granted. Take breaks from different platforms and then comeback later on - you'll have your sanity when you don't have to check on the latest of what's going on every 5 mins, and you are finally able to hold a thought for more then 2 mins without having your mind wander.
Meditation = Do this. Meditation teaches mindfulness. There are several types but focus and then emptiness are the foundation - someone can correct me, it's been a while, but I've started just taking Meditation breaks every 2 hours for 10 mins.
Focus meditation has you fixing your eyes and thought on a single point - usually a candle's flame or an object for a concentrated period of time. It's difficult, extremely difficult, start off with 1 min, then 2 min, then go to 5 min, then 10 min. By then you should have your brain back. If you can get to an hour you'll be levitating off the ground in no time.
Emptyness - this is the exact opposite of focus, but it's clearing your mind of any thought. Not impossible to do, but quite difficult. I use music, tantra mediation music and follow the melody in my head without focusing on anything else - if that makes sense. The music shouldn't have any vocal obviously, but should be mostly repetitive and soothing.
There is this one Zen master "Rama" who released some music for morning meditation and evening meditation - "Zazen - Enlightenment (Morning) "Zazen - Canyons of Light" (Evening) - you can probably download it from the internet.
There are books on the subject, so I won't dive into more details, find some beginner's guide and you should be good. The point isn't to achieve enlightenment, but to get your focus back at the very least.
Lastly I use Pomodoro (pomodorotechnique.com) - have a free digital Pomodoro app I downloaded from the Apple/Mac store for my desktop mine is "Pomodoro One". I just click it and go. Every 25 mins it pops up and tells me to take a 5 min break. Sometimes I cheat and don't take the 5 min break, but I think cause the 25 mins is not long enough. You can adjust the 25 mins to whatever makes you comfortable. It tracks your last week score, so you can see your progress. Are you doing more Pomodoro sessions or less. Don't beat yourself up if you slip, just get in the habit of taking your time seriously.
--
Take breaks, long or short. The thing about a corporate job is you know what times are set for work, lunch, breaks, sleep, etc. But if you do this as an entrepreneur, there is really no set time. If something breaks in the middle of the night, guess what you have to fix it if you want to keep earning those dollars. So it's hard to keep your sanity - but at least as a business owner you are working on something you love. But you still need timeouts.
We mostly work on the computer, but being in front of the computer 18 hours a day doesn't mean we are working 18 hours a day - let's be serious. There are days I might get 10 mins worth of work done. I noticed I started helping other people more and more with their problems when I want to procrastinate. I have to stop that. I have to become aloof, and absent from the scene for a while.
"When you respect your time others will also."
Just thinking about those notifications, I just saw a popup on my phone that was a reply to a tweet, so that's been in the back of my mind for the last 10 mins - these distractions are hard to break. Do whatever you can to break them. I know when I'm working - if it's programming or designing I'm usually listening to classical music, cause it gets the mind into the perfect wavelength for studying, working, and concentrating. So try it!
Not everything I do will work for you, but if you find your mind wandering more and more, try focus exercises and simply closing some of the apps and websites I mentioned. You can be on a break one day and scroll through Imgur for 30 mins or an hour, but make sure you set that time aside for when you have downtime, not when you are in the middle of a major project and have serious deadlines. It's the internet, those images are going to get reposted mang...
Things which waste my time:
Facebook - Once or twice a day is usually enough to be honest, once or twice an hour, means you aren't in the moment - eventually you will be focusing less and less when you do have serious work to do.
Twitter - This was a little more active, but getting updates once or twice a day again is fine. The more you are on twitter the more you'll click on links that continue to waste even more time. Being a marketer, for some reason I have nothing but marketing people I'm following and 99% of their status updates are links... Not sure how well that's going for them, but even with my tweets I try to have only 1 out of 20 a link, and the rest something else - an image or quote. But to be honest - why do people need to know my thoughts at every single moment of the day? If I see someone over and over blabbing non-stop, they overall importances becomes less and less. (Law 16 of 48 Laws of Power)
Imgur - Great for breaks, but a time suck overall. There are some funny images, and I used to be addicted to gif collection, still am. I would collect gifs and then remember them so I know I have the perfect reaction for that retarded forum post of OP's. Overall if I spend less time trolling forums, I'd equally spend less time finding gifs. It's crazy how these distractions intermingle without you realizing it until you step back.
Email - I un-installed my email from my phone, over the years I gave less and less people my email, and anyone that wants to contact me can call or text.
News Sites - Most people don't generally need to be updated on the latest Middle East Crisis on a daily basis. Overall bad things happen all over the world all the time. Unless you are following something that will directly effect your revenue or your niche, it's mostly information overload.
Notifications - these Apps have notifications that pop up when something or rather anything happens. Disable them all. I find myself being distracted more and more by apps like twitter and Facebook which I'm trying to stay away from, so disable them for your own sanity.
If you notice everything mentioned above has to do with information overload - things you really don't need to be constantly on top of. If you notice how society works, the most important things get to you no matter what anyways, so you don't need to be updated within 5 seconds of something happening.
It got pretty bad for me - it got to the point where my brain couldn't hold a single thought for more then a single minute - I never was like that.
Skype is the worse - it's like a phone but more intense, since you can be in skype groups with 100+ people, and multiple ones, so they all have something to say. Unfortunately for what I do, some of those chats help me stay at the ground level of what's going on in our industry, and movements. Skype is great for networking and immediate conversations about an idea, but when it becomes a place to simply hangout - it's time to slow down and unplug.
Forums - I used to be addicted to forums, probably still am. I would go from one to another, to another, and back to the first one. You know you are addicted when you close your browser then re-open it immediately and go back to the same website.
Here is the trick or rather something to keep in mind, all the information above won't disappear if you don't check it for a couple of hours, or a day or so. The important things always tend to rise to the top and the garbage usually settles at the bottom where no one will remember it after today.
Breaking the cycles:
I started putting my cellphone in the other room when I went to sleep, so I couldn't check up on the latest during the night. Had a great night sleep during the 2nd night. First night was weird and difficult.
I started exiting Skype when I was coding and doing serious work. People don't need to be in constant contact with me for every little thing. My business partner doesn't operate that way, nor do I. So if at the most important level, revenue wise, we message each other and the other gets back in 24 hours it's fine. So if the most important messages can wait 24 hours, some random Skype chat can wait a couple of days and you can scroll through them to get a glimpse of what's going on.
Forums were a big problem - So I stopped checking them and stopped joining new ones. The ones I moderated I resigned, and the other ones that were dying I simply left altogether. I'll check in every 2-3 days, but as you check these distractions less and less, you'll find yourself less and less distracted by them.
Also Law #16 of the 48th Laws of Power: "Use Absence to Increase Respect and Honor" (link: http://cgt411.tech.purdue.edu/covey/48_laws_of_power.htm) - Being constantly around makes people take you for granted. Take breaks from different platforms and then comeback later on - you'll have your sanity when you don't have to check on the latest of what's going on every 5 mins, and you are finally able to hold a thought for more then 2 mins without having your mind wander.
Meditation = Do this. Meditation teaches mindfulness. There are several types but focus and then emptiness are the foundation - someone can correct me, it's been a while, but I've started just taking Meditation breaks every 2 hours for 10 mins.
Focus meditation has you fixing your eyes and thought on a single point - usually a candle's flame or an object for a concentrated period of time. It's difficult, extremely difficult, start off with 1 min, then 2 min, then go to 5 min, then 10 min. By then you should have your brain back. If you can get to an hour you'll be levitating off the ground in no time.
Emptyness - this is the exact opposite of focus, but it's clearing your mind of any thought. Not impossible to do, but quite difficult. I use music, tantra mediation music and follow the melody in my head without focusing on anything else - if that makes sense. The music shouldn't have any vocal obviously, but should be mostly repetitive and soothing.
There is this one Zen master "Rama" who released some music for morning meditation and evening meditation - "Zazen - Enlightenment (Morning) "Zazen - Canyons of Light" (Evening) - you can probably download it from the internet.
There are books on the subject, so I won't dive into more details, find some beginner's guide and you should be good. The point isn't to achieve enlightenment, but to get your focus back at the very least.
Lastly I use Pomodoro (pomodorotechnique.com) - have a free digital Pomodoro app I downloaded from the Apple/Mac store for my desktop mine is "Pomodoro One". I just click it and go. Every 25 mins it pops up and tells me to take a 5 min break. Sometimes I cheat and don't take the 5 min break, but I think cause the 25 mins is not long enough. You can adjust the 25 mins to whatever makes you comfortable. It tracks your last week score, so you can see your progress. Are you doing more Pomodoro sessions or less. Don't beat yourself up if you slip, just get in the habit of taking your time seriously.
--
Take breaks, long or short. The thing about a corporate job is you know what times are set for work, lunch, breaks, sleep, etc. But if you do this as an entrepreneur, there is really no set time. If something breaks in the middle of the night, guess what you have to fix it if you want to keep earning those dollars. So it's hard to keep your sanity - but at least as a business owner you are working on something you love. But you still need timeouts.
We mostly work on the computer, but being in front of the computer 18 hours a day doesn't mean we are working 18 hours a day - let's be serious. There are days I might get 10 mins worth of work done. I noticed I started helping other people more and more with their problems when I want to procrastinate. I have to stop that. I have to become aloof, and absent from the scene for a while.
"When you respect your time others will also."
Just thinking about those notifications, I just saw a popup on my phone that was a reply to a tweet, so that's been in the back of my mind for the last 10 mins - these distractions are hard to break. Do whatever you can to break them. I know when I'm working - if it's programming or designing I'm usually listening to classical music, cause it gets the mind into the perfect wavelength for studying, working, and concentrating. So try it!
Not everything I do will work for you, but if you find your mind wandering more and more, try focus exercises and simply closing some of the apps and websites I mentioned. You can be on a break one day and scroll through Imgur for 30 mins or an hour, but make sure you set that time aside for when you have downtime, not when you are in the middle of a major project and have serious deadlines. It's the internet, those images are going to get reposted mang...
