Deep Work is an invaluable skill, but mastering it can seem like a daunting task, especially if you’re looking to do deep work on a computer. Staying focused while social media is a tab away might seem impossible, but I’ve crafted a white paper that will help you stay on task while online and reach your deep work potential.
I have a roommate that is always glued to her phone screen and I’m not exaggerating that in the slightest. She is always staring down at her screen. Always. If I try to have a conversation with her it usually goes like this: I’ll ask her a question and it will either go in one ear or out the other, she’ll be silent for a moment or two before eventually looking up and asking me to repeat myself or she’ll respond without ever looking up. All of these reactions make me feel unimportant, silly and irrelevant. I’m not even important enough for her to look up from her phone? “But Libby,” you say, “you’re just being dramatic.” That’s not the first time I’ve been told that so maybe you’re right, I mean, she must be doing something really important on her phone and that’s why she’s ignoring me, right?
If you’re a millennial, much like me, you’ve been told that you’re the generation that is glued to their screens. Social media is corrupting the youth! They can’t even type correctly anymore! They’d rather FaceTime their friends than speak to their family! I’ve heard it all and I don’t think those criticisms are going to stop anytime soon and, don’t get me wrong, these digs all have a bit a merit. Sure, I pick up my phone as soon as I wake up and sure, I prefer to send a text over a phone call, but I think that people are overlooking the real problem that social media presents, a much more dangerous problem; Hate speech.
Raise your hand if you tend to get distracted during class, meetings or conversations. Keep your hand raised if you forget what you were doing in the middle of doing it. Keep your hand raised if somebody gave you a task and in the middle of them explaining it you blanked out. Keep your hand raised if you often feel directionless and don’t know which step to take next in life. Is your hand still up? Mine is. Don’t worry, I know how you feel and I’m here to help you and teach you how data visualization and content mapping can help point you in the right direction. Continue reading Visualize Your Life
I don’t consider myself an easily distractible person. Noises near me and flashes of light the pass by aren’t normally enough to pull me away from whatever it is I’m doing. But lately I’ve noticed a worrying trend with myself. I’ll be working at my laptop, finish up a sentence or the paragraph I was typing and immediately click off of my document to scroll through social media for a bit. Why do I find myself doing that so frequently? Do I think of it as a reward for finishing a sentence? Often times there’s not even anything worth looking at on my timelines but I scroll nonetheless. Why does this distraction have such a hold over my life and more importantly, how can I get rid of it?
I love going to Staples. Staples, Office Max Office Depot, really any office supply store where I can pick up an organizer or something to file things in or even just some new pens. Walking into a store like that creates the illusion of productivity. Of course I’m getting things done- can’t you see me deciding between the sparkly pink pen and the sparkly blue one? I’m making very important decisions to stay organized. Unfortunately, the illusion doesn’t carry out much further than the doors of the store. Just because I picked up a brand new planner doesn’t mean I’m going to use it ever day. Maybe I just like being the kind of person that owns a planner, because I don’t think I’ve ever consistently used a planner for more than three weeks. Am I alone in this?
Hello. My name is Libby Cardone and I am addicted to social media. (Hello Libby.) It’s said that the first step to overcoming a problem is admitting that you have one, right? If that’s true then I think it’s time to face the facts that I cannot seem to go longer than an hour without impulsively scrolling through my Twitter or Tumblr feed. I like to think it’s not all so mind-numbing, a lot of the time I go on twitter after I learn of an important event that has happened so I can find out some more information and see what people are saying. However, if I’m completely honest with myself I know that that only accounts for about 20% of my app usage. I needed a wake up call. So I delivered one to myself. Continue reading Data Detox
Imagine this. It’s 2004 and you’ve been playing the new Rocket Power game on your purple Game Boy Advance for hours now. You’re stuck on the same level and no amount of help from your older brother will get you free from the purple goo monsters that you just can’t seem to beat. After a while you decide staring for so long at the monsters is getting old and you’ll pick it up again another day. You put your Game Boy away and already almost move on to your next task until you see something out of the corner of your eye; a purple goo monster. Continue reading How Tetris Can Break Your Bad Habits
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