The Nuclear Option For A Distracted Mind

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Here’s the thing: social media & distractions are like mercury teeth fillings. Their effects are subtle at first, but if we let them overstay their welcome, they will slowly seep into our bloodstream and erode our ability to pay attention to what matters.

This is a pattern I’ve noticed in myself. Whenever I start to think that a little bit of scrolling wouldn’t hurt when I re-download Instagram, it slowly turns into 10 minutes before I get out of bed, then an hour over lunch, and before I know it, my screentime soars to 4 hours a day.

Moreover, I feel my attention slowly slipping away. I haven’t made time to read a book I bought last week, and I started to dread spending an hour cooking a nice meal. This is alarming because I know that the best things in life come from attention, and it feels like those windows of quiet contemplation are getting shorter and shorter.

So, I decided to adopt a nuclear option to pull myself out of the hole. Last week, I blew my office expenses budget and ordered a Brick (not sponsored). For context, it’s a plastic square that turns your phone into a dumbphone, and you have to tap it again to unlock distracting apps.

And at its core, it's all about removing options. This reminds me of an interview I did with Dr Jared Henderson for a chapter of my book, where he lamented that even as someone “who is conscious of [the effects of distraction]”, he still found it hard to resist “playing too much chess on [his] phone”. The only option for him was to completely remove the temptation in the first place.

I kept this in mind when I started using the Brick, and during day 3, I noticed a complete shift.

See, the temptation to check my phone usually comes from having the option to access cheap dopamine, and where there’s an option, there’s also the will to resist that option. But if the core option is removed, the push-and-pull stops, and we’re left with more space to be deliberate with our time.

And when we give our minds that space, there’s no longer any resistance to things like reading a book, watching a nice movie, or going out for a walk. There’s no more competition, and the mind tends to gravitate towards activities that recharge it.

Moreover, I realised that attention is not some hard-earned monastic ideal. It is what remains when we chip away all the distractions around us.

This is the space where curiosity and lifelong learning truly thrive because we have the resources and, more importantly, the mental freedom to let organic ideas take root, let new perspectives flourish, and let fulfilling hobbies decorate the bouquet that is our imagination.

And it all starts with removing options.

(2) Reflections:

1: Does attention take a lot of effort? Think back to a time when attention didn’t take any effort at all. Maybe it was an absorbing pottery class or a visit to the cinema. Notice that in all these instances, the option to distract yourself is completely removed. Try to list a few activities that bring out the most attentive side of you.

2: Pick an element from one of these activities and normalise it. I personally love going to the movies, but it’s expensive and time-consuming. So, I decided to bring the cinema home by Bricking my phone before I start watching a movie. Likewise, you can bring elements of attention-inducing environments into your everyday life. Do you have to remove distracting apps from your phone? Do you need to schedule a Do Not Disturb window in your calendar? Try to re-work your environment so that paying attention is no longer an act of pure willpower.