I'm Actively Deleting Distractions From My Life

Don't buy ice cream

Prevention is worth more than willpower.

Case in point.

I have a rule in my house.

I don’t buy ice cream.

Why? Because I know that if it’s in my house, I will absolutely eat it. So to prevent that, I don’t bring it in my house. In this case, by using prevention, I don’t even have to use willpower. There’s no battle I need to fight because ice cream isn’t available.

Ice cream - 0

Austin - 1

Every now and then, I forget this and need to get reminded, like two days ago when I bought a keg of ice cream and Klondike bars. Just this once won’t hurt, right?

Wrong.

I’ve had a Klondike bar and ice cream at least once a day since, which is not a recipe for health and longevity. In the short term, it makes me sensationably happy; in fact, I’m considering indulging in some ice cream as we speak.

Now, because I didn’t follow my rule of preventing ice cream from sneaking into my freezer, I have to expend willpower multiple times a day to say no, and I ultimately fail at least once a day.

All this could have been saved if I hadn’t bought it in the first place.

Ice cream - 5

Austin - 1

Your phone is ice cream

I wasn’t joking; that’s an actual rule in my house. Specifically because I love ice cream. But it also has a more generic meaning, which states that I seek to eliminate and prevent “ice cream” of all types from entering my house. That’s why:

I don’t own a TV.

I rarely have notifications turned on.

I don’t go on social media.

Everyone talks about the war on our attention.

How giant corporations are making money off our mindless scrolling.

Terrific.

But I have a pretty simple solution to that problem. I treat them like ice cream. I don’t let them in. After all, if they can’t reach me, they can’t hijack my attention.

It’s remarkably convenient that we are in control of our environments. We create them, especially at home. If you feel rushed and unsettled, take a look at your environment. It doesn’t take much of a change in your environment to alter how you feel.

Buy healthy food

Get comfy outdoor chairs

Put books around your house

Cancel Netflix

Sell your TV

Leave your phone behind on a walk

All of these take a bit of willpower up front, but the return is exponential. You aren’t just winning battles now, you are preventing the war by deleting distractions.

External vs internal

This gets a little more challenging when we experience distractions from our mind, where we can’t just hit the mute button. Such as when you are working and suddenly remember a task you forgot about. It’s great you remembered it, but now you have a choice of either letting it distract you from what you are doing or pushing it away and hoping you remember it later.

Needless to say, internal distractions are harder to deal with, which is a bummer because it turns out they are more common than external distractions.

There are a few things we can do about internal distractions.

First, we can increase our attentional space. The more attentional space at our disposal, the less we get pulled off course and the better our productivity.

Second, we can externalize the internal distractions.

I wrote a newsletter for each of these topics. Here’s how to increase your attentional space, and here’s how to eliminate distractions by externalizing them.