The Entrepreneur Forum | Financial Freedom | Starting a Business | Motivation | Money | Success

Welcome to the only entrepreneur forum dedicated to building life-changing wealth.

Build a Fastlane business. Earn real financial freedom. Join free.

Join over 80,000 entrepreneurs who have rejected the paradigm of mediocrity and said "NO!" to underpaid jobs, ascetic frugality, and suffocating savings rituals— learn how to build a Fastlane business that pays both freedom and lifestyle affluence.

Free registration at the forum removes this block.

Digital Detox: Give Yourself an Extra 4 Hours a Day

Anything related to matters of the mind

Soder

Bronze Contributor
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
511%
Jan 3, 2019
81
414
I have commented on it in my main thread, but I want to make a specific thread on this topic as it seems extremely important to me.

THE PROBLEM

Since the growth of the Internet more than a decade ago, I have seen how I gradually spent more and more time on the phone, browsing aimlessly ... and I've never had social networks.

This increased in 2020 when I launched my online business, which I started supported by a Twitter account. Having to enter Twitter, coupled with a quarantine, caused the hours spent on mobile to increase substantially.

As the subject began to worry me more and more, I looked for books that analyzed the subject in depth and I came to "The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains" by Nicholas Carr. This book tells us that the intensive use of the Internet is changing our brains, as the Internet requires you to disperse your attention to hundreds of points of attention, which makes us more superficial.

The latest versions of iPhone tell you how much time you consume per day, and once a week you receive a notification of the average consumption per day. This was the trigger.

I saw that I was spending between 4 and 5 hours a day on the phone. How important it is to measure. If they had asked me, I would have said that I spent an hour or two. At first I deceived myself and said to myself "you are working with the telephone and you need it", but I soon recognized that my professional tasks with the telephone could be programmed on the computer, with 10 minutes a day, and I would not even need the telephone to my business.

FIRST SOLUTION ATTEMPTS

So I tried to decrease my use of the phone. Thinking that I just needed willpower (which I have enough in other aspects of my life), without a strategy.

I just decided to be less on the phone. This evidently did not work. We have the best engineers in the world, investing billions of dollars to get your attention, unless you have a strong and clear strategy you have no option to beat them.

So I read several digital detox books. While all of them indicated the benefits of it, and the need to do so, none gave me a real guideline to achieve it, beyond "don't use your mobile for a few days a week."

THE FINAL SOLUTION

Due to my purchase history of digital detox books coupled with having read Cal Newport's recommended "Deep Work" (book that deals with techniques for working in depth), Amazon recommended the following Newport book, "Digital Minimalism."

This is the only book I have found that, apart from describing the harms of intensive mobile use and the benefits of detoxifying from them, defines a plan to unhook yourself.

As the title indicates you have to minimize the use of technology, to improve your life. Each person will have a different situation. In my case, I observed where I was spending more time: WhatsApp, Twitter and Chrome. I uninstalled Twitter (the only social network I have - for business), Chrome, Gmail, and several others.

My mobile use has dropped from 5h to 1h a day.

I have thought about eliminating WhatsApp, anyway it can be used on the computer and for urgent matters you can tell your contacts to call you by phone or send you an SMS.

FUTURE

At the moment I am going to keep with this solution and see how I progress, but I don't rule out switching to a basic mobile like the Nokia 3310 if necessary, although the benefits of Google Maps and Uber would be lost.

What is at stake is our attention and time and unfortunately there is no other way than to be sharp and aggressive with our strategies since the rival we compete against is brutal.

The change has to come from large companies and many writers and philosophers are working on this path. I leave you an article about it:


But we cannot wait for large companies to change their business model focused on capturing our attention, we have to start with our individual resistance.

I call this the "2022 meta goal", because if I release 4 hours a day, I can dedicate it to any other goal.

And that's a lot:
  • 4 hours a day
  • 28 hours a week
  • 112 hours per month
  • 1,344 hours per year
If we sleep 8 hours a day, this represents 23% of our time awake in this world.

I can't think of a better goal for this coming year.

Let's go for it.
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.
Last edited:

Madame Peccato

Gold Contributor
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
311%
Jul 14, 2018
659
2,048
31
Morbegno, Italy
I rarely use my phone. But I spend a lot of hours at my PC. Same issue, different medium. I keep telling myself I need it for work. Which is false. I can definitely do most of my work on a PC in ~3 hours a day (probably even less). Instead I let it expand to 10+ hours, letting my mind get pulled in all directions.
 

MJ DeMarco

I followed the science; all I found was money.
Staff member
FASTLANE INSIDER
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Rat-Race Escape!
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Summit Attendee
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
445%
Jul 23, 2007
38,076
169,488
Utah
The phone is a tool, not a coping mechanism, which is how most people use it.

I use my phone about 30m a day, if that ... and its use is usually when I'm in the car or waiting somewhere.

I look around me and its hard not to see the negative impact smartphone use is having, both to attention spans and the ability to "tune out" and do work that matters.
 

Braun

Contributor
Read Fastlane!
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
143%
Oct 28, 2019
14
20
30
I have commented on it in my main thread, but I want to make a specific thread on this topic as it seems extremely important to me.

THE PROBLEM

Since the growth of the Internet more than a decade ago, I have seen how I gradually spent more and more time on the phone, browsing aimlessly ... and I've never had social networks.

This increased in 2020 when I launched my online business, which I started supported by a Twitter account. Having to enter Twitter, coupled with a quarantine, caused the hours spent on mobile to increase substantially.

As the subject began to worry me more and more, I looked for books that analyzed the subject in depth and I came to "The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains" by Nicholas Carr. This book tells us that the intensive use of the Internet is changing our brains, as the Internet requires you to disperse your attention to hundreds of points of attention, which makes us more superficial.

The latest versions of iPhone tell you how much time you consume per day, and once a week you receive a notification of the average consumption per day. This was the trigger.

I saw that I was spending between 4 and 5 hours a day on the phone. How important it is to measure. If they had asked me, I would have said that I spent an hour or two. At first I deceived myself and said to myself "you are working with the telephone and you need it", but I soon recognized that my professional tasks with the telephone could be programmed on the computer, with 10 minutes a day, and I would not even need the telephone to my business.

FIRST SOLUTION ATTEMPTS

So I tried to decrease my use of the phone. Thinking that I just needed willpower (which I have enough in other aspects of my life), without a strategy.

I just decided to be less on the phone. This evidently did not work. We have the best engineers in the world, investing billions of dollars to get your attention, unless you have a strong and clear strategy you have no option to beat them.

So I read several digital detox books. While all of them indicated the benefits of it, and the need to do so, none gave me a real guideline to achieve it, beyond "don't use your mobile for a few days a week."

THE FINAL SOLUTION

Due to my purchase history of digital detox books coupled with having read Cal Newport's recommended "Deep Work" (book that deals with techniques for working in depth), Amazon recommended the following Newport book, "Digital Minimalism."

This is the only book I have found that, apart from describing the harms of intensive mobile use and the benefits of detoxifying from them, defines a plan to unhook yourself.

As the title indicates you have to minimize the use of technology, to improve your life. Each person will have a different situation. In my case, I observed where I was spending more time: WhatsApp, Twitter and Chrome. I uninstalled Twitter (the only social network I have - for business), Chrome, Gmail, and several others.

My mobile use has dropped from 5h to 1h a day.

I have thought about eliminating WhatsApp, anyway it can be used on the computer and for urgent matters you can tell your contacts to call you by phone or send you an SMS.

FUTURE

At the moment I am going to keep with this solution and see how I progress, but I don't rule out switching to a basic mobile like the Nokia 3310 if necessary, although the benefits of Google Maps and Uber would be lost.

What is at stake is our attention and time and unfortunately there is no other way than to be sharp and aggressive with our strategies since the rival we compete against is brutal.

The change has to come from large companies and many writers and philosophers are working on this path. I leave you an article about it:


But we cannot wait for large companies to change their business model focused on capturing our attention, we have to start with our individual resistance.

I call this the "2022 meta goal", because if I release 4 hours a day, I can dedicate it to any other goal.

And that's a lot:
  • 4 hours a day
  • 28 hours a week
  • 112 hours per month
  • 1,344 hours per year
If we sleep 8 hours a day, this represents 23% of our time awake in this world.

I can't think of a better goal for this coming year.

Let's go for it.
Thank you for sharing this!
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

Miketing

Bronze Contributor
Read Fastlane!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
199%
May 7, 2014
137
273
none gave me a real guideline to achieve it, beyond "don't use your mobile for a few days a week."

Check out this one: Smart Phone Dumb Phone

It's like a whole course in a book that will take you through the process of changing your mindset and quitting junk usage.

It follows the same process as the famous Allen Carr's Easy Way to Stop Smoking book.
 

Awaken Study

Contributor
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
212%
Jan 10, 2020
41
87
"A small study of college students found they now only focus on any one task for 65 seconds. A different study of office workers found they only focus on average for three minutes. "

Absolutely great article. I've felt like I've had brain fog for the past 7 years, feeling dumber and dumber each day. I did a digital detox last year after reading "Digital Minimalism" by Cal Newport and it helped break my Twitter addiction.

Sounds like I need to create a lifestyle around only using the internet for limited hours each day. I know those 60 second reels on Instagram is the reason why I struggle so much with doing deep work.
 

Post New Topic

Please SEARCH before posting.
Please select the BEST category.

Post new topic

Guest post submissions offered HERE.

Latest Posts

New Topics

Fastlane Insiders

View the forum AD FREE.
Private, unindexed content
Detailed process/execution threads
Ideas needing execution, more!

Join Fastlane Insiders.

Top