Admit it; you spend most of your time on the phone or any device for that matter and depend on it to do everything from work to play. And while it’s not something to brag about, the vast majority lean towards more playtime instead of productive time.
However, there are those days when we feel out of it, and it seems like motivation straight up opened the front door and left without saying a word. And while these moments are inevitable, they can have detrimental effects on our lives when they last longer than expected.
So what gives? Who’s to blame for this sudden rush of boredom and kicking out motivation?
Everything At Our Fingertips
The quick and straightforward answer – it’s your phone. And because information, entertainment, and all forms of media are just a tap away, it has ushered in an era of bad habits. Nearly anyone can start tapping away at their phone and not notice that hours have gone by, and it eats up the time meant for doing that school project, work assignment, and even chores.
Now, there’s nothing inherently wrong with keeping yourself updated and checking on your notifications, but these simple things are like dessert, and once you have a bite, you’ll want to consume more. And to emphasize this alarming issue, here are some examples to prove our point.
#1 Endlessly Surfing Social Media
I think we all can agree that social media is a breeding ground for sudden rushes of dopamine. All it takes to get hooked is to start scrolling through your feed, and before you know it, you’ve already gone through hundreds of posts, threads, cute dog videos, and spammed the react button more than you’d like to share.
#2 Binging Movies Left And Right
Moviehouses used to be a great reward after a tough week, getting to sit in front of a giant screen, and watching a blockbuster film while you chow down on some snacks. However, with the rise of streaming platforms like Netflix, all you need to do is open up the app, and you’ll have a vast selection of famous movie titles, TV series, and animated films to choose from. Binging then becomes possible, and you end up spending the entire weekend moping over romcoms.
#3 Long Hours of Gaming
Everyone likes to play, and whether you want to play Minecraft casually on your phone or play Valorant competitively on your PC, both instances are equally addictive. And because of the fun you derive from gaming, you end up spending long hours, which start swallowing up the time you intended for more productive things.
We Are Overstimulated. The bottom line is that all these activities have overstimulated our brains, jampacked our senses with so much dopamine, to the point where we no longer find any purpose for doing other things. And because they’re much easier to do and take less effort, doing actual work becomes less appealing.
Are We All Doomed?
Luckily, no. While the future might seem bleak, there is plenty of hope to cling on when you look in the right places. And if you think you’re suffering from the lack of motivation caused by your phone and all these overstimulating activities, we introduce you to a dopamine detox. So here’s how you do it:
#1 Cut Back
At its core, you want to cut back on all the activities mentioned above and everything else that false under the category of addictive and overstimulating. And, yes, we know it sounds obvious, but the idea of refraining from short term pleasures is not a breathtaking new concept either.
So begin by limiting your game time or set a schedule for when you’re allowed to scroll through your social media aimlessly. It might not be much at first, but it’s an excellent place to start.
#2 Use Them As Rewards
You might also want to consider using these activities as rewards so that you won’t necessarily feel like you are restricting yourself from doing anything you find fun. For example, if you’re finished with an hour or so of singing practice, you get 15 minutes to watch videos on YouTube.
Feel free to tweak the number of rewards you get for every successful task according to your needs, but do remember not to overdo it, or else you’ll be preventing any progress.
#3 Minimally Disruptive
Lastly, keep things at a tolerable level and don’t try to make any significant changes right at the get-go. You want it to be minimally disruptive to your life as much as possible so that it becomes sustainable and more realistic.
The last thing you want to happen is for a sudden withdrawal, where your body suddenly craves some form of stimulation, and you end up gouging yourself again. So work at your pace!
It’s Not Impossible
Overall, we should be thankful for the level of comfort and accessibility that technology brings us, but we should also know how to use them responsibly. And before you leave and apply these simple practices to your life, we want to tell you that the end goal is not impossible, so keep going!