Dear community,
This Monday was apparently ‘blue Monday,’ the so-called bluest day of the year: a publicity stunt coined by a UK-based TV channel, Sky Travel — which has since closed — to get people to buy tickets to travel getaways. Psychologist Cliff Arnall came up with a dubious formula to identify this bluest day of the year by taking into account: weather (variable across the world), financial factors like debt and salary, time since Christmas (not celebrated uniformly), time since failing to quit at something (alluding to failed new year’s resolutions), and motivation levels.
We are certainly facing the impacts of shortened, darker days for our moods, sleep, and energy levels, and post-holiday reckonings, but the claim that this day outcompetes all others for blueness is patently manufactured, intended to boost business. Fascinatingly, the concept has outlived the company that created it — and every year, we now see well-meaning articles about how to cope with a specific day that ends up being much like any other in the winter season.
Now that we’re in the thick of January, I am curious about how many of us set new year’s intentions this year: please cast a vote below. For those who did: consider sharing your specific intentions with our community here.
Last week, we kicked off our ‘Let’s get distance from screens’ series with a nudge to create presence during ‘in between’ periods of time, such as when we wait in line. Head to our chat to discuss how this went — even if you tried it just once.
Have you ever opened your inbox to write an email only to be distracted by the flurry of messages there, and thirty minutes later, completely forget why you opened it in the first place? How about heading into a social media app to look something specific up, only to be waylaid by your feed?
Picture a big water hose, cartoon-style, whose force yanks around the poor animal holding it, who is left wet and bewildered. That’s what our technologies can do to our brains and attention spans. Instead of us being in steady, calm control of what we pay attention to and when, we are jerked around by all the attention-vying competition for our eyeballs and brainspace. These precious resources end up being spent in ways we don’t intend or even like.
Just having a phone out on a table, even when powered off and not being used, siphons off our attentional resources, compared to leaving it in another room. These effects are strongest for those of us most dependent on our phones.
“Ironically, the more consumers depend on their smartphones, the more they seem to suffer from their presence—or, more optimistically, the more they may stand to benefit from their absence.” — authors of Brain Drain study
Fascinatingly, in one study, keeping a phone in a pocket or bag impaired attentional resources* to a similar degree as keeping it on the desk, while leaving it another room successfully restored focus. (*Components assessed were working memory: how well we select and manipulate key real-time information — similar for phone on desk and pocket/bag, and fluid intelligence: the ability to reason and solve problems — desk worse than pocket/bag.)
Even when we aren’t looking at them, merely having our phones nearby can steal our highest-quality presence without us being aware of it. Their presence reduces our cognitive resources via:
Active distraction or redirection of our conscious attention (‘I wonder if I got a reply to that text message’), and
Ongoing conscious and subconscious efforts to inhibit attention to the phone (‘No, I have to focus’).
Now that we recognize this — let’s continue taking our focus and highest-quality presence back, one intentional step at a time.
To make this week’s nudge align with your goals, think about about this question:
Where in your life would you most like to be more present? (Maybe it’s with family, with deep work, with yourself, or with a goal.)
Once you’ve got your answer, here’s this week’s challenge:
Create space for more screen-free presence in your chosen area by designating certain pockets of time and activities as tech-free zones. To do this, put your devices in another room when you engage — such as dinner with the family or when doing deep work. (If you work on a computer, consider taking it offline for reading, writing, or strategizing.)
Essentially, you’re manifesting: ‘What would my 90s self do?’
As we practice this, I encourage you to reflect on the following questions, and share your experiences in our community chat:
How hard was this for you? (Be honest.)
When you were successful, what helped?
Did this enable you to more present?
Wishing you light and more screen-free presence,
Dr Devika Bhushan
If you enjoyed this post, explore these others:
Revisit all prior posts here. Submit any feedback or questions for us to explore in future posts by replying to this email.