I recently realized that I don’t need to check my phone all the time. Or at the same time every day. I get in the habit of always checking at this time or that time. I was (am!) in the habit of checking after I do my morning pages. WHY? I mean, I know, it’s habit, but I really don’t need to look at my phone at 5:45. So I’ve been leaving it at home when I go work out in the morning. I’m going to do it until I don’t wish I had it, until I don’t crave music or a podcast or a voxer message on the drive home.
“Attention residue” is the phrase I couldn’t remember when I was doing this video. Via Cal Newport, of course.
I would like to acknowledge also this thing that I do where I not only get sucked into various messages and emails and essays and newsletters, but somehow I use even the slightest recommendation from someone as an excuse to buy something. I don’t know if it’s that I want stuff or I want the right stuff or if I want that dopamine hit from shopping. Getting off Instagram saved me a lot of money for sure because I wasn’t doing this anymore, but I’m noticing that somehow I still find the link with the cute mug or candle or perfect t-shirt in whatever email I’m reading, and if I don’t catch myself, I buy it, because it’s so cool, whatever it is. The thing that has saved me with this is that I made a page in Notion called “Things to Buy” and I throw the link in there. Somehow the act of saving the link is soothing for me. Maybe part of my desire to buy the thing is that I worry if I don’t, I’ll forget where I saw that link for those gorgeous notebooks or amazing herbal tea. As soon as I save the link, I have no desire to buy it anymore.
Also the video thumbnail above is of the actual drawbridge I got stuck on. Turns out there are lots of photos in Canva of the bridge I drive over every day. It’s a nice bridge.
Stuck on a Bridge