Taking Back Control

Gist

I watched a really good video about taking back control over your attention, which for most of us, has been reduced to a commodity to be exploited by multi-billion dollar corporations running social media platforms.

I wanna share both the video, and what steps I’m taking to healing the years of damage the attention economy has done to my creativity.

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For starters I’d really recommend that you watch the video first. Josh does a fantastic job at bringing the listener back to center and explaining exactly what the issue is and how to resolve it. I think if you can really focus through the 20 minute video and listen to what he has to say, the rest of this blog post will likely be unnecessary.

What I’m Doing Differently From Today

There’s a couple of things I’ve already begun doing differently that I hope to see bring measurable change in my quality of life.

1. Journaling

As Josh points out, this really is the minimum barrier to entry and the best starting line for your journey of enriching your mind and soul. I’ve tried a number of times to journal in the past but my main roadblock was always this - What do I write about?

Turns out, it’s really easy to have coherent, interesting, and meaningful thoughts to journal about, if you just take the next step.

2. Disconnect

This is the single best way to have meaningful thoughts again. Just get rid of the distractions. Throw away your phone, shut down your laptop, pause the music, and stare at a wall, or grass, or people, or birds. I went a step further and created a Focus profile on my iPhone that switches to a home screen with zero apps on it, turns off WiFi and Cellular, switches off all notifications and dims the screen.

Make it as difficult as possible to succumb to technology and just sit with your own thoughts and feelings for a while. I’m doing 60minutes but even 20-30 would be great for you. Sit with your own thoughts and nothing else for a while and you’ll surprise yourself with your creativity.

3. Exercise and Hygiene

Exercise is quite cliche and hygiene seems too obvious to point out, but from personal experience, I know the feeling of borderline-depression when it feels like the most Herculean task to even get yourself to take a shower on the weekends.

I understand it, it happens, and it’s nothing to be ashamed about. But what you’ll find is that the relationship is two-way, and just how a bad mental state can make you averse to maintaining your physical health and appearance, putting some effort into exercise and hygiene can boost your mental state.

Give it a try, comb your hair, change your sheets, stretch for 2 minutes and do 5 jumping jacks. Your body and brain will thank you.

4. Tracking

Lastly, and this one’s not so much a measure to improve as it is a way to feel better about myself, I’m gonna track a few basic metrics like whether or not I did all of the above on a per-day basis, and how that affected my mood. Hopefully I see some promising correlation and that in-turn, keeps me motivated and consistent.

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That’s it for this post. I hope you get some good ideas out of the video and text :)

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Part II here!

Tokyo, Japan

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