What's Really Fragmenting Your Focus

 A lot of people talk about getting your screen time down, but I’ve been thinking more amount of times you pick up your phone. 

Sometimes high screen time is okay. You may be traveling and using a GPS in an unknown place or you're watching a video for a class to learn something. That can be highly focused time where you are learning and taking care of yourself, so I think these are valid reasons to have higher than normal screen time.

But think about the amount you reach for your phone and pick up your phone.

The other day, I checked my weekly pick ups (for iPhone go to: settings, screen time, see all activity, tap “week”). My average weekly screen time is 80, but four weeks ago it was 120.

That number may not mean anything to you. I never used to think about it. But when you think about how many times/minute that is it can be alarming.

Let’s go with 120 pick ups/day. You only use your phone when you’re awake (hopefully) so with an average sleep time of 8 hours, that’s 16 hours of useable phone time.

16 hours is 960 minutes. If you divide that by 120 pick ups/day, then you have you use your phone every 8 minutes.

That means on average, your time and your focus is fragmented every 8 minutes in order to look at your phone! That can be whether it’s a notification or a thought you had to compel you to look something up, communicate or check something. You know… when you’re like “I just need to check… [how many likes my post got, my instagram, my email, if someone texted me]”

And that doesn’t mean you really check it every 8 minutes. I can open my phone multiple times/minute if I’m texting with people. But there are the times I check it just to see… what’s new on Instagram, or if anyone texted me or what the weather is… things that aren't that important to spend my time on.

Picking up my phone can just be a distraction from something else I'm doing and don’t want to do [procrastination] or from avoiding doing something before I start or from feeling something I don’t want to feel [buffering].

So I think the hack when it comes to wanting to use your phone less and improve your focus is to decrease the amount of pick ups you have.

Because you can have a ton of pick ups and a low screen time, but that probably means your brain energy and focus is fragmented. And you can have 25 pick ups and high screen time.

Which is better or worse? It only matters how you really want or need to use your phone and what you’re compelled to use your phone for.

So check yourself next time you want to pick up your phone.

It’s one thing if you are waiting on a notification or communicating or working and you feel good about your reason.

It’s another if it’s out of habit to check something that could be done later, to alleviate your boredom or avoid a feeling.

It can feel a lot better to focus on your work, creating art, the people you’re around, and just on yourself.