So, how do we overcome digital distractions? 

As someone who has struggled a lot with distracting myself online with video games, social media,  movies and porn, here are some suggestions that helped me regain control. 

1. What impairs your focus the most? 

Write down the things you believe impair your focus the most and stimulate you the most without any big benefits. Which digital activities or offline ones, for that matter, can you avoid that only cause harm in your life?  

2. Last week’s screen time. 

How much time did you spend on your smartphone last week? You can find this out by going to your smartphone’s settings and checking your screen time. 

Write this number down. Then, try to think through how much time you spend on your computer or tablet for personal matters. Add the two numbers together. That should give you the total amount of time online outside work.

This number is probably higher than what you want it to be. We are typically not willing to change before we see our situation from a place of objectivity. 

3. Turn off as many notifications as possible. 

When I check my phone, the screen is almost always blank. The reason is that I turned off everything except urgent alerts. You don’t need your apps to tell you to check them. I also turned off vibrate for most things. The more notifications you get, the more difficult it will be to avoid checking your phone. It is as simple as that. 

The brain is promised a reward every time you receive a notification. And your brain will look for ways to experience the reward it has been promised. You can’t help yourself and end up checking your phone every 10 minutes. 

So, I recommend turning off notifications on everything that is not necessary. For instance, you can turn off notifications on everything except phone calls and messages and check social media when you schedule a time for it. It is better to do things on our schedule than the schedule Silicon Valley is trying to impose on us.

Read this article to learn more about how to unplug and relax when you are too busy with work.

4. Buy an alarm clock and put your phone in a different room while sleeping. 

Doing this can make a huge difference. It is extremely common to be on the phone before going to bed and reach for it straight after waking up. Putting your phone in a different room ensures you won’t be tempted to scroll through social media or watch videos while lying in bed. You will have to be there with your own thoughts, a book, or your partner. You might even end up falling asleep a lot earlier than usual as well!  

Making a habit of this has helped me get more quality sleep as I am not scrolling while lying in bed,  which can often steal a lot of time.  

5. Simplify your digital life. 

I removed all the apps I didn’t need from my phone. Do you really need ten different social apps?  What about YouTube and Netflix? Do you really need those on the phone? If you really want to relax with a movie or something entertaining, isn’t it better to do that from home with a bigger screen and do it properly? The less we rely on the phone for our daily tasks, the better. The problem is not checking the good restaurants you want to go to. It is the mindless scrolling we do afterwards, which becomes way easier when we have more things to distract us. Try removing all the apps you don’t need. 

6. Use Focusme 

You can block certain websites from your phone and computer. It can be a great way to minimize time spent on activities you want to avoid. 

7. Decide how you will be reachable. 

Ryan Holiday, the author of The Daily Stoic, limits himself to three ways to contact him: email, texts,  and phone calls. These are all he needs for business inquiries, friends, and family. Due to the sheer volume of requests he gets, he has to be conscious of this as a busy author, entrepreneur, and family man. But there is a lesson in this for everyone.

Unless you limit yourself to how people can reach you, you might end up having email, texts, phone calls, Instagram DMs, WhatsApp, Telegram, TikTok, Snapchat, Tinder, BeReal, Messenger, Slack, and who knows what else. If you feel the need to check a huge number of apps several times a day, you will be overwhelmed, distracted, and miserable.  

There is simply no way to keep up with it all without being in a frantic blur of digital distractions, leaving you unable to focus deeply and get into the flow of your work and personal life. I used to feel bad if  I didn’t check all the apps all the time, being worried I answered too late or missed out on something. Trying to limit how many social apps you have can be very helpful. 

8. Find your long-term replacement activities. 

For me, reading and writing have been my primary replacement activities. It is in the stillness of disconnecting from social media, YouTube, and other distractions that I have found the time and energy to read and write. 

What do you want to spend more time on going forward? You may have a passion for playing the guitar and want to take your skill to the next level. Or perhaps you want to start a business but feel like you don’t have the time. Whatever it is, reflecting on what activities you want more time for can be very helpful in reducing digital distractions.