New challenge to remove distractions

I have started a new practice in my life.  Turning my phone off from 10 AM to 2 PM every weekday.

That’s right 20 waking hours a week, with my phone turned off.  I have implemented this practice for a couple of weeks now.  What I have found is I am still reaching for my phone,  I call this “phantom notifications”. It’s amazing to me how conditioned I have become to thinking I will be getting a new notification when there is no reason to think so.  It has had no effect on me on a productive level.

Of course this practice begs the question “why not just turn off notifications?”  Well I tried that and found that I was still instinctually still reaching for the phone, checking facebook, checking instagram, checking email…..and I was really just looking for validation that my latest posts were liked by my friends list!  This is a huge waste of time.  I can get that same feeling by checking twice a day, no need to get frustrated by my things not getting likes every other second.

I recommend everyone trying this.  even if it’s just an hour a day.  See how it impacts you, see if you miss anything by adopting this practice.