overstimulation is ruining your life

Imagine being on a sinking ship, and instead of trying to save yourself, you're scrolling through a never-ending feed of memes and gossips. That exactly reflects what's happening in our lives; we are drowning in a sea of overstimulation and digital distractions, and it's ruining us.

It's no secret that our attention spans are shrinking. We live in a world where short-form content dominates, where 15-second videos and flashy headlines fight for our focus. As a result, our brains have been rewired to create the quick dopamine hits that social media offers. Every time we receive a like, comment, or share, we feel the rush of pleasure, and we can't help but want more.

This constant need for instant gratification has made it almost impossible for us to concentrate on tasks that require deep thinking and sustained effort. Instead, we're trapped in a loop, endlessly scrolling and searching for the next dopamine hit.

Now, let's not dismiss social media entirely. When used wisely, it can be an incredible tool that empowers us to make a real difference in our lives. In fact, it's one of the most effective ways to make money and grow your business. Take me for example: last year, I made six figures using social media. I didn't achieve this by mindlessly scrolling through meaningless content or getting lost in the endless sea of distractions. Instead, I have used social media mindfully to learn, connect, and create opportunities for myself and my business.

The key is learning how to use social media intentionally and mindfully. It's about curating your feeds, engaging with content that aligns with your goals, and leveraging these digital platforms to elevate your life and career, not to ruin it. So, let's embark on this journey together. I'll share the strategies and insights that have helped me turn social media into a powerful force for personal and professional growth.

It's time to break free from the shackles of overstimulation and reclaim control over our digital life so we can truly harness the potential of social media to level up in every aspect of our lives.

So, the first thing: turn off your notifications. Think of your concentration as a precious resource. Every time you receive a notification, it's like someone is tapping into the resource, draining it bit by bit. This is because each notification forces your brain to engage in context switching—the act of moving between different tasks or thought processes.

Here's the thing: context switching is not good for our concentration at all. Studies have shown that when we are constantly interrupted, it takes us longer to complete tasks, and our work quality suffers. Our brain is not developed to handle these repeated short context switches. The brain has developed over millions of years, but these context switches appeared only in the last 50 years, becoming more common only in the last 5 to 10 years.

Sophie Leroy, a business professor at the University of Minnesota who conducted research on this phenomenon in 2009, shows why multitasking is no good for productivity. Neither is being electronically connected all the time. While it might seem harmless to keep social media and email tabs open in your web browser, the mere fact of seeing these pop up on your screen is enough to derail your focus.

Even if you're not immediately addressing notifications, for instance, a 2012 study by the consulting firm McKenzie found that average workers spend over 60 percent of the workweek using online communication tools and surfing the internet, with just 30 percent devoted to reading and answering emails. Despite this data, workers feel like they're working more than ever.

So, what's the solution? It's actually simple: turn off your notifications. By doing this, you'll be able to protect your concentration and maintain your focus on the task at hand. This means you will work more efficiently and produce higher-quality results.

Now, I know what you're thinking: but what if I miss something important? The truth is, most notifications aren't as urgent as they seem. For iPhone users, I highly recommend using the Do Not Disturb mode. This feature allows you to customize which notifications you receive, enabling you to maintain your focus without being constantly interrupted.

You can even set it up so that you will receive a call notification if the same person calls you twice within a certain time frame. Plus, you can choose which apps you want to receive notifications from, ensuring that only the most important updates come through.

For Android users, there is a fantastic app called Minimalist Phone. This app helps you use your phone less by eliminating distractions and unnecessary visuals. There is actually a text in the Minimalist Phone app that says, "If the call was important, they will call again; messages can be answered anytime later."

The layout is simple, featuring just two pages: the main page with the time, date, battery level, and a few favorite apps and a second page that lists all your other apps. There are no wallpapers, fancy icons, or flashy animations to draw you in.

Minimalist Phone also helps you manage your time on addictive apps like social media, entertainment, or games. When you try to access one of these apps, a menu will pop up asking you how long you plan to use it. Once your set time is up, you will receive a reminder so you don’t end up wasting too much time on it.

Lastly, the app allows you to filter unimportant notifications to view later in bulk. This way, you won't lose focus on whatever you're doing. Important notifications such as messages, emails, and phone calls will still arrive instantly, while everything else is silenced until later.

By using these tools and strategies to manage your notifications, you will be able to protect your concentration and maintain your focus, leading to a more productive and fulfilling digital life.

Do a five-day social media cleansing. When you find yourself mindlessly scrolling on social media, unsure of why you're doing it, you've crossed the line into behavior that resembles obsessive-compulsive tendencies. The dopamine quickly wanes, and then you find that you're just... and we've all been there. You're scrolling, thinking, "Why am I doing this? This isn't that interesting."

The algorithms that they've incorporated function on the most powerful way to keep people doing a behavior: intermittent random reward. You don't know when you're going to hit the jackpot, so you're scrolling, you're scrolling, and then you see something interesting.

This came out in the news, and then it’s all of a sudden a person that is base jumping off a building! According to Andrew Huberman, taking breaks from an activity can make it feel more rewarding when you return to it later.

This is precisely why our five-day social media detox challenge is so crucial. By stepping away from the digital world for a few days, you're allowing yourself to reset your mind and break free from this compulsive cycle.

So, let's start with day one. Okay, day one is all about bringing awareness. To kick off the challenge, we need to first understand your current state. Like, how much are you using your phone at your current state?

To check that, go to your phone's settings, open your screen time, and see and track how much time you’re using each day on your phone and which apps you're using. In order to change anything, we need to first fully understand our current situation so that we can work on them. This step is all about increasing your awareness and bringing your attention to it.

Day two is going to be about swapping old habits. Let's start by changing our wallpaper to something that either reminds us of our goals or something that won't distract us. When you check out Minimalist Phone wallpaper, you can actually see that the wallpaper is really simple. When you swipe right, you will have all the apps that you need. There are no fancy app icons; it will give you a reminder of a one minute, five minute, ten minute, or fifteen minute interval of how much time you want to spend so that you won't mindlessly scroll.

Also, consider using the block feature of Minimalist Phone, which will allow you to block any addictive apps, like Instagram, Facebook, or YouTube, for up to 30 days, so that you won't get addicted to them. This can be quite helpful if you want to change something or if you're feeling like you're not getting closer to your goals.

Okay, day three. Day three is going to be all about environmental change. Our environment plays a huge role in our habits. One way to design your environment to support your detox challenge is by setting up a charging station that is away from your bed, so that before you go to bed and after you wake up you won’t pick up your phone. Rather than picking up your phone, place some books next to your bed on the charging station.

So, day four is to turn off your notifications. Disable all of your notifications—YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, or whatever social media platform you're using. Minimalist Phone makes it super easy for you by allowing you to customize which apps you get notifications from, and you can also arrange when you're going to get these notifications.

Not only should you turn off individual notifications from all the distracting apps, but you also need to put your phone in Do Not Disturb mode whenever you're trying to focus on something. Because if you are trying to read something or work on something, context switching can really affect your focus.

Okay, so for day five, we're going to try some mindfulness. I have noticed that our ability to focus and be actually aware of what's happening in our current world—really being in the moment, being present—is becoming harder and harder with all these phones and all these flashy apps. Short-form content is trying to grab our attention.

We're so used to getting distractions all the time that we forget to be present and alive. In order to fix these problems, we could try some mindfulness. I highly recommend the Meditopia app. If you don't want to pay anything, you can go on YouTube and find some free meditation guides.

Also, practicing mindfulness will help you regain control over your thoughts, your actions, your addictions—maybe allowing you to use your phone more intentionally and being in more control.

Okay, so congrats on completing the five-day challenge! By implementing all these tips and using Minimalist Phone on a daily basis, it will be much easier for us to gain back control in our lives and use our phone in a much healthier way.

The important thing is that we need to keep practicing all these habits. It's not like just because you did a five-day detox challenge you will have control over your phone, and now you're not going to scroll on social media mindlessly for about an hour.

It's just a practice that we need to keep doing over time. We will realize that we actually gain control and are consuming content that we engage with and that we actually love. I'm not saying that using social media is a bad thing. I mean, I'm a creator myself, but a lot of people, including myself, are watching content that we don't necessarily want to watch.

For example, YouTube Shorts—I have been watching really irrelevant YouTube Shorts that are not really fun for me to watch, and that I don't care about. If you’re watching my videos and if you don't learn anything, if you don't have fun, or if you don’t relate to it, or if it makes you feel bad about yourself after you watch it in a bad way—just unsubscribe! Just don’t watch my videos.

I'm really serious about that. By practicing all these things, people will be able to consume the content that we actually care about and that we actually love. So hopefully, Minimalist Phone will help you throughout your journey of becoming more mindful and more aware when using social media.

Hopefully, you enjoy this content, and see you next time. Bye. [Music]