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How Can I Manage Technology and Content Overload?

Rich helps us navigate technology overload and create moments of renewal to reset your mental state.

Hi, it's Rich here. I've been asked to answer the question on how can I manage technology and content overload? Ah, so this is a tough one in our technology driven world. It's also really tough because the tech we use is designed to capture our attention. I definitely feel it as well. You could probably relate to this.

It's almost like there is a literal pull to get onto the screen and to engage. So I want to share five, perhaps, quick tips that may be useful. And I'll just share them with you here at the outset, and then talk about them more in depth. But the first is to really selectively switch off your notifications because notifications can be extremely disruptive. The second is to unfollow accounts that don't make you feel so good.

Social media is the great comparison engine where we compare ourselves to the ideal lives that are created or fabricated on social media. So I would encourage you to just unfollow accounts that don't make you feel so good. The third is to establish tech free zones, even for limited amounts of time. For example, in our house, it's really important that we have dinner together without devices. So creating a tech free zone around the dinner table or around meals can be very useful.

The fourth is to do an activity every day without your phone. Be very intentional about this activity. It's an activity without a screen. Take a walk, eat lunch, catch up with a friend or a child or a partner, write in your journal. Lots of analog choices to choose from.

And then the final one is, once in a while, see what it would be like to take a digital detox, a pause from using any digital devices, even for short periods. And if you're able, for longer periods of time, every once in a while. For me, I do that twice a year where I go on silent meditation retreats which are device-free. So now that I've shared a few tips with you, I want to provide a little bit more context than additional thoughts relating to those tips. First I'd invite you to consider our ancestors.

They used to be mainly involved in physical labor. And when they finished their work, they would cook their meals, sit around a campfire or a hearth, eat dinner with their families, share stories, and do a whole bunch of other activities that didn't involve technology, or at least digital technology. And of course our lives look really different from that. For most of us, our phones double as our alarm, we wake up to notifications and news. Were stuck in back-to-back meetings all day.

We come home and browse social media, do online shopping or watch streaming services. So technology has infiltrated every aspect of our life, and digital technology in particular. Of course, keep in mind that it's 100% without a doubt that there are tremendous benefits to these technologies as well. Staying connected with family and friends overseas, staying informed on the latest news, getting work done. These are just some examples.

You're listening to this very talk, thanks to digital technology, and hopefully it's beneficial and nourishing for you. So tech can be really useful and beneficial, of course. But we also can become dependent on it. And that's why I was offering some of these tips for managing it skillfully. If you're like me, sometimes you check your phone, not because you want to check your phone, but because it's habitual or because you've been prompted by a notification.

This is fine a few times a day. But given the frequency, checking the phone hundreds of times a day, I know I do that on the regular. And touching our phones a couple of thousand times a day, that can often lead to a state of distraction. I can speak for myself. The more I'm on my devices, the more distracted I sometimes feel at the end of the day, especially.

So our ability to maintain attention also is atrophying. And this has some serious consequences to how productive and creative and engaged we can sometimes be, not only at work, but with each other. It sometimes affects how we are able to connect with family and loved ones and friends around us in our physical space, but also how we feel mentally. There are days when I find myself and my wife and my teenage son, all on our separate devices, in our separate rooms. And it doesn't feel great, I can tell you.

Although sometimes I really enjoy watching sports or streaming on my own without interruption, and that's perfectly valid as well. Really, it's about being intentional and thoughtful about how you want to invite use of these technologies in your life. Consider social media, for example. While we live in this hyper-connected world with hundreds, if not thousands of friends, loneliness rates have increased. Social media is also skewing our perception of reality because we scroll through Instagram, Facebook, and the like, and we're being exposed to carefully crafted and fabricated lives.

Carefully curated, perfect portrayals of other people's lives often leaving us with a sense of inadequacy or FOMO, fear of missing out. This kind of idea that we have to compare ourselves to these perfect lives that we see online. So how can we shift that balance? And just to be clear, I'm not against social media or the use of technology. I actually think it is a great enabler. But I do feel that we need to reset our relationship with our devices and technology.

And so incorporating some of these simple micro habits can go a long way. Again, it's the five that I mentioned. So just to remind. The first is to selectively switch off your notifications. Second is to unfollow accounts that don't make you feel good.

The third is to establish tech-free zones. The fourth is to do an activity every day without your device. And then the fifth is to consider taking a digital detox once in awhile. The last thing I'd say is that as you try these different approaches to working skillfully with technology and with content overload, really connect with how you feel whenever you manage to go offline. Make a mental note of the benefits as you feel them.

Do you feel more rested? Refreshed? Focused? I know I certainly do when I sometimes step away from the device. So I want to thank you for your attention and for listening. And I hope that you found this useful to be able to work a little bit more skillfully, even one degree more skillfully and more beneficially with your technology and with the content in your life. And again, as always, I want to remind you to be patient with yourself, and to be kind, and to offer yourself some good thoughts for at least trying to navigate this really complicated world, chock full of technology and content that we all inhabit. So thanks again and have a great day.

Talk

4.7

How Can I Manage Technology and Content Overload?

Rich helps us navigate technology overload and create moments of renewal to reset your mental state.

Duration

Your default time is based on your progress and is changed automatically as you practice.

Hi, it's Rich here. I've been asked to answer the question on how can I manage technology and content overload? Ah, so this is a tough one in our technology driven world. It's also really tough because the tech we use is designed to capture our attention. I definitely feel it as well. You could probably relate to this.

It's almost like there is a literal pull to get onto the screen and to engage. So I want to share five, perhaps, quick tips that may be useful. And I'll just share them with you here at the outset, and then talk about them more in depth. But the first is to really selectively switch off your notifications because notifications can be extremely disruptive. The second is to unfollow accounts that don't make you feel so good.

Social media is the great comparison engine where we compare ourselves to the ideal lives that are created or fabricated on social media. So I would encourage you to just unfollow accounts that don't make you feel so good. The third is to establish tech free zones, even for limited amounts of time. For example, in our house, it's really important that we have dinner together without devices. So creating a tech free zone around the dinner table or around meals can be very useful.

The fourth is to do an activity every day without your phone. Be very intentional about this activity. It's an activity without a screen. Take a walk, eat lunch, catch up with a friend or a child or a partner, write in your journal. Lots of analog choices to choose from.

And then the final one is, once in a while, see what it would be like to take a digital detox, a pause from using any digital devices, even for short periods. And if you're able, for longer periods of time, every once in a while. For me, I do that twice a year where I go on silent meditation retreats which are device-free. So now that I've shared a few tips with you, I want to provide a little bit more context than additional thoughts relating to those tips. First I'd invite you to consider our ancestors.

They used to be mainly involved in physical labor. And when they finished their work, they would cook their meals, sit around a campfire or a hearth, eat dinner with their families, share stories, and do a whole bunch of other activities that didn't involve technology, or at least digital technology. And of course our lives look really different from that. For most of us, our phones double as our alarm, we wake up to notifications and news. Were stuck in back-to-back meetings all day.

We come home and browse social media, do online shopping or watch streaming services. So technology has infiltrated every aspect of our life, and digital technology in particular. Of course, keep in mind that it's 100% without a doubt that there are tremendous benefits to these technologies as well. Staying connected with family and friends overseas, staying informed on the latest news, getting work done. These are just some examples.

You're listening to this very talk, thanks to digital technology, and hopefully it's beneficial and nourishing for you. So tech can be really useful and beneficial, of course. But we also can become dependent on it. And that's why I was offering some of these tips for managing it skillfully. If you're like me, sometimes you check your phone, not because you want to check your phone, but because it's habitual or because you've been prompted by a notification.

This is fine a few times a day. But given the frequency, checking the phone hundreds of times a day, I know I do that on the regular. And touching our phones a couple of thousand times a day, that can often lead to a state of distraction. I can speak for myself. The more I'm on my devices, the more distracted I sometimes feel at the end of the day, especially.

So our ability to maintain attention also is atrophying. And this has some serious consequences to how productive and creative and engaged we can sometimes be, not only at work, but with each other. It sometimes affects how we are able to connect with family and loved ones and friends around us in our physical space, but also how we feel mentally. There are days when I find myself and my wife and my teenage son, all on our separate devices, in our separate rooms. And it doesn't feel great, I can tell you.

Although sometimes I really enjoy watching sports or streaming on my own without interruption, and that's perfectly valid as well. Really, it's about being intentional and thoughtful about how you want to invite use of these technologies in your life. Consider social media, for example. While we live in this hyper-connected world with hundreds, if not thousands of friends, loneliness rates have increased. Social media is also skewing our perception of reality because we scroll through Instagram, Facebook, and the like, and we're being exposed to carefully crafted and fabricated lives.

Carefully curated, perfect portrayals of other people's lives often leaving us with a sense of inadequacy or FOMO, fear of missing out. This kind of idea that we have to compare ourselves to these perfect lives that we see online. So how can we shift that balance? And just to be clear, I'm not against social media or the use of technology. I actually think it is a great enabler. But I do feel that we need to reset our relationship with our devices and technology.

And so incorporating some of these simple micro habits can go a long way. Again, it's the five that I mentioned. So just to remind. The first is to selectively switch off your notifications. Second is to unfollow accounts that don't make you feel good.

The third is to establish tech-free zones. The fourth is to do an activity every day without your device. And then the fifth is to consider taking a digital detox once in awhile. The last thing I'd say is that as you try these different approaches to working skillfully with technology and with content overload, really connect with how you feel whenever you manage to go offline. Make a mental note of the benefits as you feel them.

Do you feel more rested? Refreshed? Focused? I know I certainly do when I sometimes step away from the device. So I want to thank you for your attention and for listening. And I hope that you found this useful to be able to work a little bit more skillfully, even one degree more skillfully and more beneficially with your technology and with the content in your life. And again, as always, I want to remind you to be patient with yourself, and to be kind, and to offer yourself some good thoughts for at least trying to navigate this really complicated world, chock full of technology and content that we all inhabit. So thanks again and have a great day.

Talk

4.7

Duration

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Q&A on Work Performance null Playlist · 5 tracks

Q&A on Work Performance

Playlist · 5 tracks4.9

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