Your Phone Is Rotting Your Brain

In today’s newsletter we’re going to talk about how your phone is ruining your brain.

Studies have shown that there’s an association between higher use of digital media and symptoms of ADHD.

One of the easiest ways to improve your focus and productivity is to improve your relationship with your phone.

Unfortunately most people don’t have control over their phones instead their phones control them.

Distraction In Your Pocket

Here’s why your phone is so addicting:

• Consuming digital media shuts down areas of your brain associated with processing negative emotions

• We’ve replaced our core human needs artificially with our phone:

  • Using social media instead of connecting in person

  • Porn instead of putting yourself out there and finding a romantic partner

  • Playing games instead of trying level up in the real world

Technology only partially fills these needs which is enough to keep us hooked to our phones but it’s not enough to feel satisfied.

In fact the consequences of screen addiction is far worse than just symptoms of ADHD.

We’re seeing a sharp decline in the number of times teenagers hang out with their friends since the invention of the iPhone.

It’s no wonder we’re facing a loneliness epidemic.

We’ve seen that loneliness can heighten risk of depression, anxiety, lack of motivation and sleep.

After learning all this, I was able to significantly decrease my screen time and have noticed the following improvements:

• More confident and willingness to go out and be social

• More motivated to get things done

• Less anxiety

The goal here isn’t to get rid of your phone completely. It’s to have a better relationship with it so you can build the life that you want. Let’s go through how you can do that.

Don’t Use Your Phone In The Morning

The greatest productivity hack is to avoid using your phone first thing in the morning. Instead use your mornings for deep work. Here’s why:

Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that’s associated with motivation and pleasure. When you wake up first thing in the morning, you have the most amount of dopamine. Meaning this is when you’re the most motivated.

If you start your day off with habits that are very pleasurable, like doomscrolling TikTok, you squeeze out all the dopamine first thing in the morning and will be less motivated to work and study.

However, if you start your day off with working on something productive, you will experience pleasure from that activity because your brain is filled with dopamine. Then if you decide to scroll TikTok later in the afternoon you will still experience pleasure from TikTok.

By simply changing when we use our phones, we can be more productive and enjoy the benefits and convenience of our phones.

Set Up An App Blocker

The app that I use is called one sec. There’s a free version but the paid option is quite affordable ($20/year at the time of writing). This has been one of the best investments I made.

Rather than blocking the app completely, it makes you wait 6 seconds to open distracting apps. This gives me enough time to really think if I want to use the app.

There are many app/website blockers out there like Freedom or Cold Turkey. But One Sec has been my favorite so far.

Create Physical Distance Between Yourself And Your Phone

Don’t keep your phone within arms reach. Especially when working and sleeping. When I work I keep my phone in a different room. When I sleep I never have my phone in bed with me.

Creating physical distance reduces the amount of times you use your phone compulsively.

That’s it for this week. I think learning how to be more intentional with our phones is one of the easiest ways to boost our focus and motivation. Let me know if you found this helpful.

I’ll see you next week.