Get your time, energy and focus back
Surprisingly, it's not about a new strategy. It's about removing what's not working.
After playing with every kind of productivity system (GTD, Bullet Journaling, Kanban, etc), I had a big realization...
Getting more done doesn't start with systems. It starts with eliminations.
I'll show you how to do it, right here.
Just remember, this is all about getting real and honest with yourself on where you're at, where you want to be, and the things that distract you from that journey.
But here's the payoff - It feels freakin amazing.
I'm listing these in steps because I found that it's more sustainable to do it this way, kind of like Everest climbers get used to each camp level's air before moving to the next. So be careful not to upgrade too quickly!
Are you ready? Here we go....
📱Level 1 - Your phone is not your friend.
"Do you realize that our best friend is actually... our phone?" I asked my friend.
Sure, you could say that it connects you with real people, but at the end of the day, you're just pushing buttons on a piece of plastic while looking at shiny lights. The phone is literally and figuratively closer to me than any thing or person. I found that scary. So this had to stop.
Step 1 is to take the interesting apps off the phone.
Don't freak out just yet! You can still access them on your computer.💻
And for apps that must be in the iOS / Android system (e.g. a dating app), I recommend using an 📱iPad or tablet (the older the better because it's less addictive when it's slow and choppy).
🔊Level 2 - Your content consumption is not as great as you think.
Delete the News, Podcasts and Youtube apps.
You'll see that you're actually not missing all that much. But the real payoff is that without that satisfaction, you get the desire to either read things that are better for you (like books), or get productive.
As days/weeks go by, consider which ones you really miss, vs which ones you felt you "should" consume, or ones that you notice only drain and distract you with no upside. You can add them back if you'd like. But if you've followed the steps so far and given yourself a little time, you may find they are not nearly as interesting.
🚦Level 3 - Put on the breaks
Now that you are only viewing social media content on your computer, you may find you are still getting stuck there with all its bells and whistles.
The solution is to limit (not stop) your consumption. And you can do that with the Newsfeed Eradicator on Google Chrome. This plug-in hides the feed on many sites, which means you still get access to your messages and notifications.
This is a fantastic way to wean yourself all the dopamine distraction of feeds.
🚦Level 4 - Escape Velocity
By this point you'll get a taste of how much more time and energy you have. Would you like even more??
The next step - Just block sites entirely on your workstation.
This way you haven't (yet) deleted your social media accounts. You're just putting them in time-out. If you have a spare laptop you can use this for fun, but again, best that it's inconvenient and slow. You're still getting benefits because it's not going everywhere with you on your phone!
🚦Level 5 - Super on Point
I know, you think I'm going to tell you to nuke all of your social media. Nope! I mean all the power to you if you do. (If you look for videos about leaving social media entirely, you'll see some very peaced out and productive people).
This is a technique to still access your messages, without any buttons to take you to other places. It's a message consolidator called Beeper.
Beeper gives you one Inbox for all of these:
WhatsApp
Instagram
Facebook Messenger
Twitter/X
Google Messages (SMS/RCS)
Telegram
Signal
Discord
LinkedIn (this doesn't work well, and I think more time on Linkedin isn't so bad)
The amount of peace and time I've experienced as a result of these steps has been profound. I'm also taking action on things I've procrastinated for a long time.
Try it and let me know how it goes!