Detox Your Digital Life. The Dings Are Not Your God.

Dings, beeps, alerts, and that almighty red button scream for your attention 24/7.

It is easy to stay busy, busy, busy.....yet never really get anything done.

You're treading water.

Always responding to others' needs of you before your own.

"I don't have time!" - moans everyone.

Whatevs. Of course you have time. You just have to treat yourself like you treat everyone else.

I'm not talking about blocking off every second of the day to be as productive and superhuman as possible. I'm talking about making time, and mental space, available for yourself to do that deep, important work that really matters.

This is particularly important when building something on the side that fulfills you, apart from your 9-5 job.

The world is quickly changing. At a breakneck speed. Our poor brains are just trying to catch up. Everyone's smart phone is giving them dozens of notifications a day. Each time, breaking their focus and concentration. We've never learned how to ignore the beeps (and priorities) from others and learned how to make sure we are accomplishing our own tasks first.

*Or at the least: with as much attention as we pay to others asks of us.

Here are 4 ways to help you tune out the world, make your pursuits a priority, and just focus.

Plan the Night Before

Every night before I go to bed I think about the next day. I think about:

• What is most important that I accomplish
• What do I actually want to do
• What is busy and trifling

It takes <60 seconds. Then I write down 3 non-negotiable things that I will accomplish the next day. By physically writing them down and defining them, it is easy to get to work. Then, the next day I wake up and just do it.

Important Things First & With A Clear Mind

Now that you know your highest priority tasks you can do them first.

I block off the first 90 minutes (or more, if I'm gonna treat myself) to just doing deep work. No email, phone in another room, everything is on silent. It's pretty amazing what you can accomplish when you work uninterrupted.

I know, your brain is going to miss the dopamine hits and will crave just 'checking in on things' to take a break. RESIST! Keep your butt in the chair and do your work.

Do these all-important tasks while your brain is fresh and unencumbered by the weights/care/problems that inboxes and Slack channels bring. Issues and problems of the day drag you down and suck your energy. So set yourself up for success by working with a clear mind.

Make Your Work Non-negotiable

Life gets busy. Things come up. You don't feel well one day, a child is sick, a wedding is coming, a construction project is in progress, weather is severe, you just don't feel like it, etc & etc. That's life. Something is always coming up.

When you make your work non-negotiable and show up for it as scheduled whether you feel like it or not, you can grow that powerful consistency muscle that few can flex.

If you have to have a perfect life to grow, then you're not going to get very far. You are making yourself immune to distraction when you show up non-negotiably. This is especially important when emotions come into play. Work whether you feel like it or not. The best writers have found that inspiration strikes not out of the blue but when their bum is in the chair and they are writing for hours a day.

"The best way to become a better writer is to write. A lot. The best writers have found that the key to success is to write for several hours every day, seven days a week, no matter how many or few words come out of the process. Inspiration often comes during the act of writing, rather than before." - Stephen King

Check Your Screen Time

And, if all else fails and you feel like you literally have zero time in the day to do anything fulfilling for you do one thing for me.

It'll only take a second:

Pull up your phone (I know you have it within reach) and look at your screentime for last week.

How many hours last week were you on your phone?

Looks like I just found you a lot of time after all.

Let's get to work.

Jamie

PS- Whenever you're ready, there 1 additional way I can help you:

• ??? My Wealthy Whitecoat podcast was released recently!???? Subscribe to listen to a?new episode every week here.