\u201cThe most dangerous distractions are the ones you love, but that don\u2019t love you\u00a0back.\u201d \u2014 Warren Buffett<\/p>\n
Do you ever catch yourself looking at the clock on your computer, only to realize\u00a0that a few hours have gone by and you still haven\u2019t started on a single task?<\/p>\n
You\u2019ve been sitting at your computer, yet not a single piece of productive work\u00a0has been completed. Why?<\/p>\n
You\u2019re caught in the endless cycle of mindlessly browsing the internet. And this cycle is having devastating consequences to your productivity. \u00a0In a recent survey from CareerBuilder<\/a>, up to 3 hours of each workday are lost to smartphones and other distractions, including the internet.<\/p>\n You want to be more productive. You want to complete your \u201cto-do\u201d list. You want\u00a0to stop wasting so much of your time. You just can\u2019t seem to break the cycle of\u00a0distractions and mindless browsing, so today I am going to share with you three\u00a0strategies that helped me and will help you too.<\/p>\n How to Stop Mindlessly Browsing the Internet:<\/strong><\/p>\n 1. Be mindful and sit with your urges<\/strong><\/p>\n To stop the cycle we need to identify where it begins, and it usually begins with\u00a0an urge or compulsion to procrastinate. Mindfulness is the antidote to urges.\u00a0When you notice yourself about to open a new tab to check Facebook, take a\u00a0pause, take a breath and notice what\u2019s happening; it\u2019s in this space that you now\u00a0have the choice to make a conscious choice of how you live your life.\u00a0Stopping the cycle begins by developing more self-awareness and using\u00a0mindfulness to identify your urges and compulsions.<\/p>\n 2. Focus on engagement, not entertainment<\/strong><\/p>\n Mindless browsing also comes from a desire to be entertained and receive\u00a0instant gratification. If you check Facebook maybe you have a notification that\u00a0can give you a quick rush of dopamine. Or maybe your friend has posted a new\u00a0photo to Instagram. You wouldn’t want to miss out on that!?<\/p>\n The problem is that entertainment is shallow and instant gratification is fleeting. It\u00a0might work to stimulate you in the moment but it\u2019s not going to provide you with\u00a0the fulfilment you are truly looking for.<\/p>\n Focus instead of the goals and dreams you have. When you catch yourself as\u00a0we\u2019ve talked about in step 1, you want to remind yourself what your goals are\u00a0and why they are important to you. To do this, keep a notepad next to you with\u00a0your goals listed and read it every time you want to procrastinate. Is checking\u00a0Facebook for a fifth time this hour really helping you achieve your goals? The\u00a0goals you know deep down you want to achieve?<\/p>\n 3. Create space for success<\/strong><\/p>\n Finally, you want to set yourself up for success by creating space for it. Recently I found myself getting distracted on Twitter more often than I would prefer, with the craziness of the U.S. election always providing something new to \u201ccare\u201d about in the moment.<\/p>\n So I decided to take dramatic action and change the way I interact with Twitter. I didn\u2019t want to block the site completely, and need access to it during the day, but I did mute almost all of my followers so when I log-on to reply to someone, my timeline is empty.<\/p>\n If you want to be less distracted, and avoid the potential for the mindless browsing cycle to begin, you need to set yourself up for success. The more you\u2019re exposed to different opportunities to be distracted, the more you will take them up on it and be distracted.<\/p>\n One of the easiest ways to create space for success is by installing a website blocker for the websites that you have a problem with, including social media and news websites. \u30d5\u30a9\u30fc\u30ab\u30b9\u30df\u30fc<\/a> can help you with that, as can extensions like the Facebook Newsfeed Eradicator<\/a>.<\/p>\n For more tips on how to stop mindlessly browsing the internet, watch my video on YouTube<\/a>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n About the Author<\/strong><\/p>\n Cam Adair is the founder of Game Quitters<\/a>, the world\u2019s largest support community for video game addiction. A motivational speaker, his story has been featured in two TEDx Talks<\/a> and on FOX, CW, and VICE, amongst others. Today Cam shares weekly videos on YouTube<\/a>, and in his spare time he enjoys traveling, DJing and surfing. Cam currently lives in San Diego, California. You can connect with him on \u30c4\u30a4\u30c3\u30bf\u30fc<\/a>, Instagram<\/a> and Snapchat<\/a>, and to book Cam for a speaking engagement, contact CAMPUSPEAK<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u201cThe most dangerous distractions are the ones you love, but that don\u2019t love you\u00a0back.\u201d \u2014 Warren Buffett Do you ever catch yourself looking at the clock on your computer, only to realize\u00a0that a few hours have gone by and you still haven\u2019t started on a single task? You\u2019ve been sitting at your computer, yet not a single piece of productive work\u00a0has been completed. Why? You\u2019re caught in the endless cycle of mindlessly browsing the internet. And this cycle is having devastating consequences to your productivity. \u00a0In a recent survey from CareerBuilder, up to 3 hours of each workday are lost to smartphones and other distractions, including the internet. You want […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":3078,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3026","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-habits","category-productivity"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusme.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3026","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusme.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusme.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusme.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusme.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3026"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/focusme.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3026\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusme.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3078"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusme.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3026"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusme.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3026"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusme.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3026"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}