•Extracts From Pastor WOLE OLADIYUN’s New Book
“Social media not only snatches your time, but it also teaches you attention deficiency.” – Neeraj Agnihotri
In the 21 st century, social media has grown to be a huge distraction for people of all ages, status, and
gender and that should be of concern to every one of us.
Mobile phones, social media platforms: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, Telegram, WhatsApp, TikTok, YouTube, LinkedIn, WeChat, Messenger, Tumblr, Reddit, Pinterest, Flickr, Medium, Vimeo, Periscope, Zoom, Email, and the likes are some of the Tech distractors people battle with daily. These are vast culprits that eat up the time people ought to spend minding the businesses that pay their bills and add value to their lives.
As stated by Gazzaley and Larry Rosen, authors of the book, ‘The Distracted Mind”, on the average, people check their mobile phones every 15 minutes. They opined that this is due to an anxiety-induced impatience that tells them they willl miss out on something ‘important’ if they do not stop to check their phones frequently. “We’re surrounded by distractions. Whether it’s emails, phone calls, text messages, social media notifications, or people entering and leaving your workspace, those distractions end up eating a good portion of your time. “- John Rampton
The commonest distractions associated to tech are smartphones. What with the SMS, telephone calls, and notifications from the different social media apps installed on them! And of course, you will almost likely be tempted to quickly check the notifications except that the word quickly does not suffice when you are at it. Without knowing it, you would have spent some good but unaffordable time moving from one update to the other.
“Stop letting your devices dictate your days. “ You will find yourself’researching’ the weather, the news, football scores, politics, traffic news, exchange rates, sales deals, adult contents, dating sites, gossip, or gist as you often will want to call them. Sometimes, you also go ahead to put these sites and apps on your computers for easy access.
HOW SHOULD YOU HANDLE TECH DISTRACTIONS?
“One look at an email can rob you of 15 minutes of focus. One call on your cell phone, one tweet, one instant message can destroy your schedule, forcing you to move meetings, or blow off really important things, like love, andfriendship. “ – Siegfried Lenz
You must understand that tech in itself is great but when it is in control of you and your life, then you must take back the power you have given to it. Below are some steps to help you take back the power you harmlessly gave to technology:
(1) Manage App Notifications: Do you check your email and social media feed constantly? Well, I am glad to inform you that beyond the cost of data you use for that, there’s a bigger cost it takes from you every time you do so. The truth is that every time you switch your focus from a major to a minor, your brain stumbles a bit, and it will require some unaffordable time for you to get it back to where it was before it was distracted. So, switch off, or at the least, mute your phones and put your email and SMS notifications on hold when you have an important task to accomplish. Also, turn off notifications for your social media platforms while you work.
(2) Schedule Email’s Check Time: Avoid checking your emails randomly except you are expecting an important message that relates to the very task at hand. And once you have a defined email schedule,
make sure you stick to it.
(3) Schedule Phone Use: If you cannot mute your phones while you work because you do not want to miss some important or emergency calls, fix a time to make and receive calls within work hours. The crux of the matter with this type of schedule is that your mind will be on that fixed time. To be able to go through this, you must be disciplined enough to focus on the major at the time.
Keep Your Mobile Phones Out of Sight: To achieve step two above, this may be your best option: keep your mobile phones out of sight till you are done with the task at hand, and only get back to it at the scheduled time for phone use.
Now, as students, it is not uncommon to have online classes these days, but how can you manage the distractions that come along with learning? Electronic devices required for your online learning can easily grab your attention for long periods of time if you are not focused. A lot of students wi11likewise hold on to their phones or have them close by while they study. What about the ones engrossed with online and video games? There is an undeniable access student have to all sorts of online games on their devices and play station. So, you want to ask: Should we not have fun again? No, you should have
fun but not at the detriment of your future. Too much of anything is bad; so, make your mantra, “Work
before pleasure.” Schedule Time for Social-Media: Just like with your mobile phones, you should schedule time to be on social media unless of course, it is your office. These days, quite a number of people earn their livelihood via social media. That is, people now work remotely so unless social media pay your bills, you have no business spending productive hours online while you neglect the work you ought to do.
“Until you shut down the doors to distractions you are not yet ready to succeed. “ -Topsy Gift
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