Break Your Phone Addiction
The Amplified Impact Podcast
January 5th, 2023
We’re charging into the new year, setting the pace for what’s ahead. The key? Keeping that positive momentum rolling.
I’ve learned that success often boils down to maintaining that forward push.
And here’s the kicker: it’s all about focus, not time.
I’m diving into how to master your environment for peak focus and productivity. Let’s tackle distractions, starting with our trusty pocket-sized vortex of distraction…the smartphone.
I’ve got three simple steps to take control and turn it into a tool for productivity, not a distraction.
TWEETABLE QUOTE:
“Time is not your most valuable resource. Your focus is your most valuable resource.”
– Anthony Vicino
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Episode Transcript:
What’s up, everybody? Welcome back to the podcast. And we are sprinting into the new year. We we’re a couple, depending on when you’re listening to this, we’re about a week in, and this is go time. This is the first quarter. This is where we set the pace that determines, you know, so much of our outcomes later in the year. It’s, in my experience, a really stunning thing that I’ve, I’ve come to learn again and again and again is that so much of success in whatever you’re doing is simply the result of maintaining positive momentum. And so we could do so much just by getting the ball rolling in the right direction and then showing up every day to keep pushing it, keep pushing it, keep pushing it. And then over time, that thing just starts to fly down the hill.
And so one of the things that we can do to maintain, or at least to create that positive momentum in the right direction is to get really clear and focused, is to be masters of our environments in a way that is conducive for focused output. Because if you’ve been around these parts even for half a minute, you know, one of my favorite things to say is that time is not your most valuable resource. Your focus is your most valuable resource. And the reason for that is because your time is really valueless. It’s not actually a thing. It’s a construct of the human consciousness. What gives time value, what gives it any kind of meaning or purpose, is when you are directing your focus or your concentration, your attention towards a thing. So time is really just the consequence, the result of focus.
And so what we focus on determines the quality of our results and ultimately determines the quality of our life. And so it’s important that if you want to move towards your greatness, you want to maximize your return on life. You want to live a life of amplified impact, that you become a master of your focus. And this is something I struggled with. I still struggle with this. I’m not going to sugarcoat this and pretend like I’m the master by any means. No, I’m better than I used to be. I’m hopefully going to be better tomorrow than I am today.
And it’s a path of continual improvement. But I am by no means at the top of a mountain. There is no mountain. It’s just the types of distractions, the things that can pull us away from our goals, they change, they become shinier. Those objects which are so distracting, those fuzzy squirrels get even cuter and more chaotic. But here’s something that you can do to right now, set the tone for a positive 2023 to make sure that you are doing everything in your power to get the ball moving in the right direction to get that momentum going. And it’s a simple thing. It is, by taking this weapon of mass distraction.
And if you’re not watching on the YouTube channel, then I’m just holding up my phone. So if you’re listening to this on Spotify or iTunes, I’m just holding up my phone. This is the greatest weapon of mass distraction that’s ever been created. And if you want to make 2024 the best year of your life, the most productive year of your life, the best year for your business, for your family, whatever, you need to take control of this device, and you need to control it, not let it control you. And the truth is, most of us are controlled by this damn little thing. So here’s how you can take it back in three steps. Here’s how you can own this device and make it a tool for you, not a tool that uses you. Number one is you need to remove any apps on your phone that are not in alignment with the life you’re trying to create.
If you know that you play too many video games or you spend too much time distracted and on your phone, get rid of those things that lead towards the distractions. Get rid of all the games. I haven’t had a game on my phone since 2015, maybe it’s been a really, really long time. And the reason for that is I can’t be trusted with games on my phone. And I know plenty of people, my brother, my dad, they like to play a ton of games on their phone. But whenever I watch them, the games that they’re playing are completely mindless, where they’re just, like, staring at a screen with a lot of stuff happening. They’re pushing a button every now and then. That’s most games where it’s just you’re pulling the lever on the slot machine that’s not actually causing you to think deeply or to become more skilled at an activity.
And so those are like the lowest common denominator of games that you could possibly play. If you are going to play a game, at least make it a strategy based game that you develop a skill at. But I digress anyways, really, you don’t need to have any games on your phone. I know that’s for some people, that’s going to be a little bit traumatizing, like, what am I going to do when I’m bored at the bus stop? I don’t know. Read a book, do something conducive towards moving your life towards the thing that you want. And most of the time, video games are not that thing. So that’s step one. Just get any nonessential apps off of your phone.
It’s going to be painful at first, but the goal here is to make your phone less desirable. That is the goal. That’s maybe a weird goal, considering how much we spend in terms of money on these things, but is necessary for you to stop being used by this damn thing and rather use it. All right, number two, turn off all notifications. Turn off notifications on all your apps, on everything. Turn off your ringer, turn off everything. I can’t stress how important it is that when you open your phone that you don’t see little red bubbles everywhere with numbers or anything like that. It’s important because even if you are just so acclimated to seeing those bubbles and you think that they’re invisible to you, I promise you are subconsciously processing them and your body is having a reaction to them.
Studies show this, that you have 2333 unread emails, and it pops up and you’re like, oh, I know that’s not a real number. Your body still processes that stress and anxiety on a subconscious level. You maybe don’t think that you feel it, but it’s having an effect on you. So get rid of those notifications, because all notifications are. Is somebody else trying to impose their desires, their will for your attention on you? And it’s very important to realize that when in this grand scheme of life, there is a war being fought every single day for your attention, it’s being fought between you who would like to retain it and move it, point it towards the things in your life that are actually valuable. And then everybody else in the world who is competing for your attention, and that’s marketers, that’s software engineers, it’s politicians, it’s everything. And when they succeed in distracting you, they get paid. That’s how they make their money.
But when you manage to stay focused on the things that you want to stay focused on, then you get paid. And that’s not necessarily monetarily, but you get paid in the currency of whatever the thing is. If you’re focused on your family, you get paid in the currency of quality, value, time with your family and memories. Right? And so notifications are just simply a way of somebody else saying, hey, I’m trying to impose what’s important to me onto you, and you need to be the one who decides what’s important to you. And so turn off notifications and only use those apps with intention. So when you go into your email, it’s not because, oh, I got a new notification. I need to go check that reflexively. It’s because I scheduled time today from this time to this time to go and check my emails.
And so that’s why I’m in here right now. When you start taking that type of intentionality towards all the activities that you do in your life, then you, one, you start to reap much better rewards from those activities because you’re much more focused and concentrated. And so then, as a consequence, your results are better. But then, two, you just don’t feel like this low grade anxiety and this feeling of, oh, there’s so much to do still. I need to be connected at all times. And what if this thing happens over here and I don’t hear about it? That’s the natural fear that we have when we turn off notifications. But I assure you, I haven’t had notifications on any of my apps for years now. And it has not stopped me from being connected and from being productive.
And I have yet to ever miss a very, very important message about a loved one in trouble or anything like that. The things that we imagine are going to happen when we turn off notifications. So that’s number two. Number three is just put your phone onto grayscale, and if you have an iPhone, they have a button, you can do this. If you’re on an Android, you can go into settings, you can change the color contrast. It’s really important to do this, though, because your phone is too beautiful. It’s lighting up your brain like a Christmas tree with colors that do not naturally occur in real life. It’s like this hypercholoric visual intrigue that your brain loves.
It’s like dopamine on overdrive, but as a result, it makes these things very addictive and very, very stimulating. And so the easiest way that I’ve found to just make your phone less controlling, less manipulative of your chemistry is to turn it to grayscale, where it’s just everything is black and white. If you’re watching on YouTube, you can see my phone. It’s very, very basic, not great. So it makes me not want to actually look at the phone. Takes this beautiful thing that I spent thousands of dollars on, and I don’t spend much time on it because it’s just blah to look at, but that’s the goal. The only reason you should be pulling up your phone is to actually use it for a particular purpose rather than getting sucked into like, oh, this is really a beautiful piece of art, or anything like that. So that grayscale I’ve seen that have massive effect on people’s lives in terms of decreasing their screen usage.
I think the studies show, like, 15%, which is a massive difference if you’re spending a couple of hours a day on your screens. So those are three simple little hacks to take this weapon of mass distraction and turn it into a weapon of mass accomplishment, something that you can actually work around and with, not just be tied to, tethered to, like those people in Wall e who are sitting in their chairs watching the screens. I don’t know if you guys remember that, but I think about that a lot. Like, is that the future that we really want for ourselves, where we’re addicted to the screens around us? I don’t think so. Hopefully this helps you take back control of your devices. You can do this on your computer screen as well, but definitely start with your phone. And I think you’ll be surprised just how much more productive you are, or at least how much less you use your phone, which, if that’s all it does, I consider that a win. So that’s going to do for me.
Guys and gals, I appreciate you, as always, for being here. We’ll catch you in the next episode, but till then, stay hyper focused, my friend.
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