Eight years ago, when my daughter turned three, I was addicted to looking at media on my phone. My internet marriage was inside a glass prison. I was drunk on casino juice. I’ll never forget that day, I was sitting on the floor while my kid was playing with building blocks. We sat like this for a long time. Me, handcuffed to my phone while my three-year-old entertained herself. When my wife caught me on my phone, she called me out.

“You will never get these years back. Time stops for nobody! “

I took a deep breath and processed her words. The moment made me realize that I had a problem.
I needed to steal my time back, and break the addiction!

That day I removed all social media apps from my phone. The divorce was initiated, I no longer wanted to be controlled by a device. The Divorce Is Final.

If I needed to check in on the scene, update the business page, or converse with friends my laptop would do the job.

After taking some business courses on social media presence and business practices, I convinced myself to add Instagram back on my phone. My excuse, I needed to keep the business feed updated. How will our business survive without images and videos of our offerings?

And after I added Instagram, I added Reddit. After the apps downloaded my addictive habits went right back to the beginning. The marriage was in full force. How did she come back? All my free time was spent checking subreddits or scrolling Instagram.
Time flew, projects abandoned and my daily habits sidetracked.

This went on for a couple of years. I lied to myself. In my head, I compared and contrasted the two social media apps. My justification was ridiculous. I was in an abusive relationship. The media apps had taken control of my daily habits. This hookup was affecting my emotional intelligence and my output. My project list stalled.

I kept thinking to myself every time I logged on, is this more important than completing my project? But, like any drug or addiction, I made excuses. It wasn’t until I read the book “Digital Minimalism” by Cal Newport that his writings and words jumped off the pages.

“The urge to check Twitter or refresh Reddit becomes a nervous twitch that shatters uninterrupted time into shards too small to support the presence necessary for an intentional life.” – Cal Newport

Was I living an intentional life with my phone available? How could I make my phone a phone again? Did I need to carry it with me twenty-four seven? Or could I bring it back during business hours?
I pondered a strategic attack.

• My first step was to delete off all social media apps, AGAIN!
• My next step was to be in the moment. When I log on to any social media on my laptop, I force myself to take a deep breath. And then look at my project list and see what my status is on all projects before I scroll. This takes a ton of discipline.

The chains of habit are too weak to be felt until they are too strong to be broken. – Samuel Johnson

Breaking habits are hard, breaking a habit that is socially acceptable is even harder.

It takes deep work and concentration and it takes having a support system in place.
I leave you with a quote and a question

“To re-establish control, we need to move beyond tweaks and instead rebuild our relationship with technology from scratch, using our deeply held values as a foundation.” – Cal Newport

What can you cut out from your digital world that will help you advance tomorrow?