This is a guest post by one of the UK’s leading experts in digital distraction and digital detox and author of The Distraction Trap: How to Focus in a Digital World, Frances Booth. Find out more about Frances here.
We can apply mindfulness techniques to our digital lives in a number of ways to help us boost our productivity.
By pressing pause, increasing our awareness of our digital behaviour, and taking small daily steps, we can move towards increased balance in a wired world. This can boost our productivity and reduce stress.
I was speaking about this recently at an event in Tech City, London, and the discussion sparked much debate. How can we use digital mindfulness to increase our productivity and wellbeing?
Try these tips:
1) Notice how quickly you’re breathing – or whether you’re holding your breath – next time you check your email or use social media. Notice whether checking makes you feel stressed. Check in with your breath when you check in with your email. Or, resist the urge to ‘just check email’ by checking your breath instead.
2) Pay full attention to each digital task you do – even writing emails – focusing on doing one thing at once. Only move on to the next task once you’ve finished the previous one. This has a dual benefit. Firstly, being present to each task helps to stop you from feeling overwhelmed. You only have to think about one thing (not the seven things you were trying to do at once). Secondly, you’ll be far, far more productive (we’ll look at multitasking in-depth another time).
Be aware of where you are spending your attention, for example, while on social media (Credit: Jason A. Howie)
3) Be aware of who and what is trying to grab your attention online. Choose how you spend your attention. Attention is a hugely valuable resource and often we forget this. It is easy to give away pieces of your attention all day long – to websites you end up on, to social media streams that don’t even interest you, to consuming content that you don’t find meaningful or useful. Be selective.
4) Let it go. Accept that you can never ‘finish everything’ on the Internet, social media or email. Decide when you have done enough for today, and know it will be there tomorrow for you to pick up once again.
5) Use compassion. Think of others when you email. Never reply to all needlessly. Limit the number of emails you send. Think of the volume of information you’re adding to. Do you really need to send this email? Another good habit to get into is to pause before you hit reply. A more considered response is usually better than a snap reaction.
