1. Airplane mode Imagine this scenario – You get an important work related call at 2 past midnight (that was a norm in my IT job). You somehow manage to accept the call after 5 rings. By the time you finish your conversation in half awake-half sleep mode, you have a blurry idea what the call was all about. And then you mess up. Next day, the authorities at work aren’t happy about this. You stay silent. Now what if you had kept your phone in airplane mode. You wouldn’t be awakened by that mysterious call. Although the problem might have already been out there, it wouldn’t have interrupted your sleep. And thus, the authorities now don’t have a good enough reason to confront you. You follow the 5 morning rituals to stay productive and fix the problem. The next thing you know, you’re on a vacation to Nassau. At the end of the day, when you go to bed at night, put all your energy and mind to accomplish one thing – get that 8 h of uninterrupted sleep. If you think you want to change the world and thus you’d rather survive with 4h of sleep. Then go for it. Just don’t wonder if you find yourself gaining weight or get coronary heart disease in the future. Research says that lack of sleep can make you obese or give you a heart attack while watching Monday night football [1,2].
2. Disable notifications Now that you’re awake in the morning after 8h of peaceful sleep, you’re all set to go out their and change the world. You’re working on your dreams but every hour or so you get these notifications through Facebook, Twitter, Gmail that hardly create any value in your life. If you haven’t noticed it before, these stupid notifications can affect your momentum while you’re working. Imagine you’re creating a piece of art and then suddenly you phone dings. If you’re a normal human being then you will be tempted to stop your artwork and look at your phone. Do not do that. The world needs more artists like you. Each app comes with an option to disable notifications. Customize the apps to your preferred notifications that you want to see real time. Everything else can wait.
3. Silent mode In addition to disabling notifications, personally I also prefer to put my phone on silent mode. You’ve got to do that if you want laser like focus and cut that piece of metal with immaculate accuracy. Try putting your smartphone on silent mode during the day at work and analyze your productivity for yourself.
4. Wallpaper You could either have your epic selfie taken in a bar while you were inebriated set as your wallpaper, that might bring a smile on your face for 13 times in total, or you could rev it up with inspirational affirmations. My wallpaper now says – Live Your Dream. And the moment I find myself messing around with my time and the phone comes in front of my gaze, reality gives me a tight slap and then I get to work again. Family pictures are also another good option as when you look at them at work, it reminds you of them thus enhancing your relationship and you are more motivated to excel at work for your loved ones.
5. Cancel screen lock Whether it’s the number combination or the swivel pattern lock, it roughly takes 1.489342234 sec to unlock your phone. Multiply it by 30 and you’ve spent 44.68 sec (rounded off to 2 decimal places) of your life on a single day on doing something totally unproductive.
44.68 * 365 = 16308.2 sec = 271.80 min = 4.53 hours
Multiply the above result by the number of years you’d be using your smartphone and you’ll find a staggering figure. Imagine if you could spend those hours with your loved ones. What could it possibly do to your relationship? What if you used those hours to read awesome books? You’d be called upon as a smart ass in your social circle.
Wouldn’t that be so cool? Life’s short. Use your time efficiently. Have laser like focus at whatever you do in life. If you liked this article, then feel free to share it with your friends on Facebook because at RedSome we believe, sharing is caring. Now go out there and make epicness happen.
References:
1] Cappucio et al (2011). Sleep duration predicts cardiovascular outcomes: a systematic review and meta-analysis of prospective studies. European Heart Journal.
2] Shankar et al (2010). Insufficient Rest or Sleep and Its Relation to Cardiovascular Disease, Diabetes and Obesity in a National, Multiethnic Sample. PLoS ONE 5(11): e14189
