How I hacked back 6 hours of my time each day. 3 simple tips everybody can start doing today.

Caveat — I don’t proclaim to be a “productivity expert” or even someone thats really that focused. I am actually very unfocused and enjoy the randomness of life, strange circumstances, coincidences, travelling without destination etc. But I do know that there is a time to get shit done and then time to fuck around and do whatever you want.

We are lizards.

Well at least our brains are. Emotionally distracted by a seemingly endless stream of triggers and notifications. We all know it’s happening to us, but what should we do about it?

Thankfully, a collective awareness and a shifting tide of anti-distraction sentiment is beginning to rapidly shift towards a more streamlined, focused and distraction free world.

I’ve noted 3 tips below that have saved me 6hrs+ a day of wasted time and energy in my day. (Thats 3 extra months every year)

1. Mute All Instagram (Time save Approx 2-3hrs per day)

Unfollowing everyone or deleting Instagram doesn’t work. You’ll eventually re-install it or feel the need to follow family and friends as a socially adept human being.

But,

Its is so f&*cking addictive. Elon Musk stated that Instagram has a high limbic resonance — essentially it maps to similar parts of our brain that drive our behaviour, ,motivation and dopamine responses.

Cue the mute feature. Mute allows you to mute a persons stories and their posts in your feed. It doesn’t notify them that you’ve done it, and best of all it still lets you selectively choose when you want to view their stories or profile. It brings back the control into your hands.

Instructions: https://help.instagram.com/469042960409432

I recommend muting everyone you follow. It will then remove the feed and endless scrolling that comes with it. It also “greys out” the beautiful looking story circles up the top which stops you from needy social validation and engagement.

2. Distraction Free for Youtube and Newsfeed Eradicator for Facebook (Time save Approx 2–3+hrs per day)

YouTube is an incredible resource. It contains millions and millions of videos that you can use to learn, experience culture, connect etc.

It’s also got one hell of an algorithm that will eventually end up with you watching Top 10 conspiracies about 9/11 at 4am.

Download: Distraction Free for Youtube

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/df-tube-distraction-free/mjdepdfccjgcndkmemponafgioodelna

It removes the discovery page and recommended videos. Allowing you to go to Youtube for exactly what you wanted to watch and not be sidetracked with endless other videos.

Download: Facebook Newsfeed Eradicator https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/news-feed-eradicator-for/fjcldmjmjhkklehbacihaiopjklihlgg

Newsfeed Eradicator is used by all the high performance people I know.

It blocks your desktop Facebook news feed and replaces it with a inspirational quote.

I guarantee you will install it and never look back.

3. You should have 2 phones. Yes you read that right, 2 mobile phones. (Time save approx 1–2hrs per day)

My reasoning for having 2 phones is this — you need a smartphone and a dumb phone.

Why a dumb phone? I use the dumb phone (an older iPhone) for all my apps that I need to use. Uber, Nike+ running, Myfitnesspal, Sleep tracking, Spotify, Uber etc. The dumb phone doesn’t have any addictive social media or content/news apps etc.

I use my “dumb phone” from 5am-5pm which gets me around (maps and uber), tracks my sleep, Myfitnesspal etc. It lets me function without the distractions of social media, calls, notifications etc.

Best thing is it is also my alarm — the first thing most people do is check their phones (due to the alarm) and this prevents you from checking social media or email!

I only use my “Smart phone” in the evening . I engage with my friends and catch up on social media etc once I’ve finished all my work for the day.

I swap out the sim cards between the phones as needed. You could even get a second sim just for the dumb phone if you needed.

It works amazingly. Seriously it’s an investment to get a backup iPhone or Android.

6 hrs per day every day for a year is an extra 90 days. 3 months extra to achieve what you want in life.

Thanks for reading and please let me know in the comments or message me how many hours you think you saved using some or all of these tips! I would really appreciate it.

Cheers

Eddie