Whenever, I look at the modern life, it often make me feel like there are never enough hours in a day to do the things I really want to do. If we are honest with ourselves,we will also realise that the culprit is not just the modern world alone but we are responsible too.
We often make ourselves busier than we have to be and when we are done being busy, we spend the rest of our time glued to social media, Netflix, Amazon Prime, television and email!. I Often Wonder,
Why do we feel like there is never enough time to do the things, we really want to do? The simple answer would seem to be that there is just too much to do on any given day. But the complete truth is that our lack of time is, to some extent, self-imposed by us on ourselves.
Firstly, its an undeniable fact that modern mindset tells us to squeeze as much work as possible into every moment of the day. It urges us to be constantly productive, resulting in overloaded inboxes, jam-packed calendars and never-ending to-do lists. Secondly, the rise of Infinity Pools has further fuelled this phenomenon. Unless, you have been hiding in an underground bunker for the past decades or residing in the tropical forests, you are most likely already familiar with these. Think of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Netflix and news websites which are instantly available with a mere tap of the screen or click of the mouse.These digital sources of limitless, inexhaustible, constantly-replenishing content – whether it is an information, entertainment or a bit of both sucks-out our valuable time which otherwise could have been used for spending time with family, learning new skills, practicing new hobbies etc etc. So, the most pertinent question is : How do we escape?. Well , I would ask my readers
“By prioritizing infinity pool distractions,
you are deprioritizing yourself”.
The first step is to look at what we should not do and then we must look at what we could do. As you subordinate yourself to other people’s priorities irrespective of your position in a hierarchical structure, you tends to lose sizeable time and energy to follow your own passions and projects. Eventually, You end up postponing them to “another day,” to another day to another day which hardly revisit you. Exhausted by running on the hamster wheel of productivity, making no further progress toward your true callings and fall into the Infinity Pools of distraction. Unfortunately, the idea of “just saying no” is wishful thinking. Infinity Pools have been expertly designed to overpower your resistance and suck you into their endless content. The companies that make them have a vested interest in doing so. The more you use their apps, the more money they make. Armies of talented, well-meaning techies jump into action, using complex data measurement techniques to see what captures your eyeballs. Because it’s much easier to redesign and relaunch an app than, say a CAR.
Infinity Pools derive their power from our being unmindfully reactive to external stimuli. Your phone buzzes with a notification, and you feel compelled to look at the screen. Infinity Pools have become our automatic behavioral reactions to professional demands and digital technologies. If we think of our minds as computers and our behaviors as a program, we could say that unmindfully reactive behaviors have become our default settings. we will look at how to reprogram your own default settings in order to stop being unmindfully reactive, which leads to falling into the traps of the Busy Bandwagon and Infinity Pools. I have come to know that adoption of POMODORO TECHNIQUE will be very helpful in changing our default settings of unmindful reactive behaviour.
Well, if the problem lies with our default settings of unmindful reactivity , then its antidote would be to practice the opposite and that is “mindful proactivity.”
The real fun begins, when we have to change your default settings, For that you will need certain tactics and strategies to create barriers between you and your time wasters.
Honestly speaking, there is no one-size-fits-all set of tactics that is going to work for everyone. Each person is different, and you need to find a set of tactics moulded to the contours of your specific personality and commitments. I would say that start by ‘Focus on the present by choosing an activity or project that will be the highlight of your day’.
You must realise that there is a sweet spot between your short-term and long-term goals. What I mean by this is that a goal in which you can focus on today but that can also serve as your guiding star as you navigate it. Daily highlight in its essence is a sustained activity or project that you will be able to look back on with satisfaction at the end of the day. It is possible that you may have been asked similar questions before in different ways like I.e What was the highlight of your day? Or What is the most important task you have done today ? etc.etc. I would suggest that instead of waiting till the end of the day to find the answer of this question , you should tweak it slightly and say :
What Do I Want to be my Highlight of the Day ?
The daily highlights can come in three different flavors: important, meaningful and joyful. Each will require its own approach to be followed. So, let’s go through them one-by-one.
For the first approach named ” Important”, ask yourself, “what is my most urgent, absolutely necessary activity or work / project of today?” To find these highlights, you can take a look at your to-do list, or your daily diary or email inbox or your calendar or any other note taking system. For a highlight to be important, you want something that takes about 60 to 90 minutes.Shorter activities will not give you enough time to get in the zone and for longer ones, you are unlikely to be able to sustain your focus.
For the second approach named ” Meaningful”- ask yourself, “what will make me feel the most satisfied at the end of the day?” This is purely about what you want to do and not what you need to do. Just to assist you in this for e.g main activity for this type of highlight could be certain works / projects which you have been wanting to get it done, but kept on postponing because they are not time sensitive. You will usually get this satisfaction from something that is either an outlet for a skill you want to use, or accomplishes something that is important to you. 
Just to give you few ideas like,- maybe there is a pet project at work which you have been itching to get started, or perhaps you want to research potential destinations for your forthcoming vacation etc etc.
The third approach named ” Joyful” – ask yourself, “what will bring me the most joy?” The point of becoming less unmindfully reactive and more mindfully proactive is not to construct some sort of perfectly planned day with a goal-obsessed mentality but instead live a fuller and more joyful life. To live a life like that, sometimes you just need to let loose and do certain thing simply because you enjoy doing it. For e.g learning to play a new song on guitar or reading a book or learning new languages etc.etc. Choose Your Daily Highlight, Focus on it, Energizing Yourself and Reflect Back on what is Meaningful and Joyful to you.
I would say that Productivity and will power alone are not enough to overcome the powerful forces of time wastage available to us in the present days. We need a mindful, proactive strategy to deal with them by way of defining our daily activities and then succeed to achieve them.
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Take Care
