The world is loud.
Advertisements everywhere.
We are consuming the whole day by watching, hearing, and smelling. It can be overwhelming. It is hard to resist.
The media and marketing agencies are working with psychological principles to influence us as much as possible. They work with fear, self-doubt, comparisons, and negativity to make you buy their products.
They want you to waste time and money consuming products you don’t need.
Stop consuming, and start improving, growing, and learning!
Time wasters are:
- Social Media
- Looking for things
- Not prepared
- Not concentrated
- Watching series or movies
- Waiting for other people
- Video games
- Watching the news and politics
- Worrying
Quit those!
You will improve your life, happiness, and success!
How?
It’s hard to remove something from your life. It’s a habit to come home from work and then lay on the couch to enjoy some tv series to relax. I know that.
How can you get rid of a bad habit? By replacing it with a different habit.
For example:
I’m always watching TV while eating, I can replace it by listening to a podcast or audiobook.
Instead of playing video games when you are not motivated, embrace that bad feeling of having no motivation and do your homework, your writing, or your studies anyway.
Only for 5 minutes!
Start small!
Start with 5 minutes of reading instead of watching the news. You will see that you will continue reading.
For starting new habits I recommend reading the book “Atomic Habits” by James Clear. It changed my way of creating new habits, and I stick with them.
Since I read the book I established small habits like flossing after brushing my teeth, writing in my journal in the morning, and my morning routine successfully.
What do you want to quit doing?
What are your priorities? Change your priority from watching TV to reading.
Instead of playing video games, prioritize your friends and meet with them. Instead of looking at your phone during your dinner, prioritize talking with your partner, friends, or family.
I know that you didn’t prioritize your phone, your TV, or your social media
consciously.
Friends and family are more important, but social media, TV series, and video games are made to be addicting. Scrolling makes you want to see more and more. The series always have cliffhangers, so you want to continue watching.
I worked as a game programmer and I know that there is a huge psychological strategy behind every game: the small path between interesting and engaging, not too hard and not too easy.
Quit those time wasters by replacing them with different habits!
Without replacing them the willpower to just not do them needs to be really high, and you probably don’t have that. You will think of something else by replacing them. Stick to your new habit for at least 20 days and you will see the results and it’s gonna be effortless to continue.
Small tip: it’s ok to skip a day because you forgot or you were busy. Don’t be hard on yourself.
We are all human. But never skip two days in a row!
From My Experience
I’m using the time going to work or waiting for other people for listening to
audiobooks.
This habit helps me to listen to more books than before. Sometimes I don’t have time to read but by using the time while working or commuting I’m able to read a lot of books a year.
One small tip that helped me not to use social media so much is to make it as hard as possible to get to the app. Put it at the end of your phone menu, or delete it so that you can only use it in your browser.
Make it as uncomfortable as possible to open the apps!
Conclusion
The modern time is made to be distracting for you. Big companies are paying a lot of money for ads and marketing strategies to distract you and to get your attention and buy their products.
It’s hard to not get influenced or distracted. I know that. But by making your bad habits as hard as possible and the new and good ones instead as easy as possible, you can make the change!
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