I am huge on this topic at the moment! Big fan of Cal Newport. I was counting down the days to his recent book launch.

(with help from Atomic Habits) I have set up my whole life to avoid tech/phones and engage in more deep meaningful work (and play).

What some actionable things you can do to reduce your tech time and engage in more fulfilling activities?

- Use an alarm clock, not your phone - do not start your day by checking your phone (puts you straight into reactivity not proactivity.)
- Use 'distraction free' chrome plugin. This blocks your youtube homepage feed, suggested videos and comments if you wish. (now you don't have to battle supercomputer algorithms who's job is to keep you watching) - this probably saves me 2 hours a day.
- Facebook news feed eradicator plugin (no fb newsfeed)
- Delete iMessage from your mac. (or at least switch off notifications and close the app)
- Delete social from your phone.
- If you work with your phone in your field of vision, stop. Put it in another room, turn it off. Just having your phone in your field of vision has your brain working overtime to stop yourself from checking it.
- Turn off ALL push notifications on your phone.
- Use software (Cold Turkey Blocker) to lock my mac at 9.30pm so I have to wind down for bed (there's no way to get around it).
- Set up greyscale (black and white screen) on your phone, your brain loses 80% of interest, its crazy!
- Block sites on phone that you frequently derp around on (for me this is youtube/reddit)
- Block sites/add time limits to your chrome browser with the 'wastenotime' plugin. (e.g. I get 1 min a day of facebook/whilst certain forums are perma-blocked and other sites I can only use between leisure hours).

That's all I can remember for now, il add more as they pop up.

Seems a lot? It's up to you how far you want to go. But by making these decisions ONE-TIME you literally claim pieces of your life back as a by product of an earlier decision. Certainly for me, hours a day (this adds up fast - imagine the cumulative effect over a decade).

Another guy to check out if you find this topic interesting is Tristan Harris (specifically his interview with Sam Harris)

 

I listened the newest TMBA podcast, and in that one he mentioned many times that we are now beyond tips, tricks and lifehacks.

Basically, you need to: Get completely rid off the digital world, face the temporary void, go out and connect with people.

 

Interesting podcast (not finished it yet).

For me it’s all about having things in moderation. I haven’t posted to Facebook in years. In fact I recently set up a new account so I could join some marketing related groups, and have only a very limited number of people on it (I can count them on one hand, which probably makes me look like Billy no-mates )

I use momentum for Chrome as my default home page which ties in with my daily goals. There is no news feed or anything like that.

I shut the PC down between 3 and 4pm when I leave to hit the gym. It doesn’t go back on till the morning.

My daily gym session and sauna afterwards removes any stress the day may have created.

I don’t feel overwhelmed by technology nor do I feel a slave to it.