avatarSufyan Maan, M.Eng

Summary

The article advocates for quitting or reducing time spent on cell phone screen activities, particularly social media and video platforms, to increase productivity and focus on more meaningful pursuits.

Abstract

The article, "One Thing You Should Quit in the Next 30 Days," emphasizes the importance of quitting detrimental habits, specifically excessive cell phone screen time. The author reflects on the cultural emphasis on perseverance but distinguishes between productive persistence and the unproductive habit of excessive phone usage. Citing personal experience and research, the author suggests that reducing screen time on apps like Instagram and YouTube can significantly increase personal productivity. The article provides practical advice on tracking and reducing screen time, recommends developing sustainable habits, and references the author's previous experiments with various 30-day challenges to improve health and productivity. The author also shares links to related stories and invites readers to subscribe for more content.

Opinions

  • The author believes that quitting certain habits, such as excessive phone usage, is crucial for personal growth and productivity.
  • There is a cultural misconception that quitting is inherently negative, which the author challenges by highlighting the benefits of quitting unproductive habits.
  • The author suggests that tracking screen time is an eye-opening exercise that can motivate individuals to change their habits.
  • The article implies that the author's personal journey of reducing screen time and engaging in various 30-day challenges has led to tangible improvements in health and productivity.
  • By sharing a tweet from Aviral and personal anecdotes, the author conveys that the problem of excessive screen time is widespread and relatable.
  • The author promotes the idea that incremental changes, such as those described in the article on building atomic habits, are key to developing new, beneficial practices.
  • The author encourages readers to engage with their content by following them, clapping for their articles, and considering a Medium membership through their referral link.
  • The author endorses an AI service, ZAI.chat, as a cost-effective alternative to ChatGPT Plus (GPT-4), suggesting its value in productivity and performance.

One Thing You Should Quit in the Next 30 Days

It's simple to do and in return, you will get more time to focus on important things in life.

Photo by Roth Melinda on Unsplash

I remember growing up that almost everyone around you said don’t quit or never give up. Everyone has some kind of toxic habit that needs to be quit as soon as possible to have a more productive life.

Sometimes it’s hard to quit, especially if you are trying to accomplish something for a long time, for example, reading a long boring book.

Quitting is leading too.

— Nelson Mandela

I grew up in a small remote village without electricity most of the time; I vividly remember studying under candlelight or kerosene lamps back in the '90s. Here is a picture of a similar lamp.

Image by Google, CCL

I remember sitting next to a kerosene lamp with a textbook in my hands while mom was sitting on a charpoy (bed) with a long stick to keep an eye on us, repeatedly saying, you are almost done with your homework, or You finished ten pages of the book, don’t quit now.

That one thing ‘don’t quit’ has been ingrained in your systems since we were kids.

Apologies for the long intro, but I thought it was necessary to give a background.

That kind of not quitting is great for growth, but in this article, I’m going to share the quitting behavior, which is unintentionally detrimental to our productivity.

It all started last year when I read the following tweet by Aviral, someone shared on Linkedin.

Tweet by Aviral

On average, I used to spend 4+ hours on my phone screen scrolling Instagram, TikTok, Reddit, and YT videos. Most of this was not productive at all.

I was almost doing everything that the tweet said except one thing: my phone screen time.

Before you continue reading, I recommend checking your phone screen time and then coming back to the post.

You will be shocked to see how much time you waste on your portable cell phone device every day.

How to reduce your cell phone screen time

Track your screentime pattern right after dinner or when you feel relaxed or have done the work. The smartphone will tell you which App you are spending your maximum time on. I was wasting my time almost 70–80% on Instagram and YouTube.

The smartphones even provide you with a weekly summary of your screen time with every app usage metric in detail. I did not develop significant progress until I put the cell phone in a “cell” or box or in a different room out of my eyes.

Research shows that an average human toches their smartphones at least 2617 times. If we put it in perspective and let's say you used the phone for merely 5 seconds each time, that equals 3.6+ hours.

Without doing the math, we don’t realize how much time we waste by just touching the phone.

I would recommend shaving off the time one step at a time. If you chronically spend time on Instagram or any game, it will be really hard to break the bad habit and build a new good practice.

I wrote a detailed article on how to develop sustainable habits. Here is the link:

Thank you for reading; follow me and clap a couple of times. Thanks

As a new reader, please check my holistic health, productivity, and well-being stories reflecting my reviews, observations, and 30+ days of experiments (29 completed so far) to build a sustainable healthy lifestyle.

After 30+ days of challenges to living a healthy and productive life, I wrote my experiential journey. Here are the links for easy access.

3.78 liters of water per day for 30 days, 20+ Squats per day for 30 days, Reading challenge for 30 days, Coffee, Sugar, 2-minute plank daily for 30 days, 20 Push-ups daily for 30 days , Walk 10,000 steps daily for 30 days, Long Walks, Power Nap, Extra Virgin Olive Oil daily for 30 days, No Shampoo for 30 days, Cold Shower for 30 days, 10,000 Steps, Skincare routine for 30 days, Meditation daily for 30 days, Mental Break, Sit-ups, Matcha, 2-Bananas daily for 30 days, Tim Feriss’ Morning Routine for 30 days, Floss daily for 30 days, Lukewarm Lemon Water daily for 30 days, Stretching daily for 30 days

I also wrote about general life philosophy. Here are the links for easy access.

Mental Health/Brain Damage, Hiking, Cofee (New Research), Technology, Healthy Lifestyle, Life Lessons, Productivity, Learning, Money

Disclaimer: My posts do not include professional or health advice. I only document my reviews, observations, experiences, experiments, and perspectives to provide information to create awareness. This post may contain affiliate links.

To get access to unlimited stories, you can also consider signing up to become a Medium member for just $5. If you sign up using my link, I’ll receive a small commission (at no extra cost to you). Thank you!

Related stories

Mindfulness
Psychology
Mental Health
Productivity
Philosophy
Recommended from ReadMedium