Aren’t smartphones great? Many people seem to think so since more and more of them own one these days. You can make phone-calls, send text messages, process your email, read the news, look up information, play games that are much cooler than Snake or check out the latest YouTube videos. Not only are they a fancy accessory that let you show off how cool, trendy and rich you are but the best part is you never have to miss out on anything again; you’re always connected and up to date! Great right? Nope,.. WRONG!

In love with gadgets

I have always loved gadgets and innovative technology. I loved owning the newest phones, game-consoles and PC’s that I could afford. Of course I liked the fact that people thought it was cool that I had that stuff but mostly I loved trying out what it could all do to enhance my life. But, as most things go, the novelty wears off and what’s left is “just another thing”. But somehow it’s different now…

Me being a little bit of a geek, I loved the features that have been appearing on the new mobile phones over the past years. How amazing to be able to get in contact with people wherever you are and, even better, wherever they are; (nowhere to hide anymore!) How great was it to take pictures and videos of random things you ran into while on the road? I really enjoyed the increasing connectedness and the ability to get in touch with friends in so many new ways. Recently however, I’ve noticed that this increased connectedness seems to be turning on me.

Always connected

Not only are we connected by phone-call, text-message and email, all the social networks have also crept onto your smartphone. Great right, now you can tell (random) people all the random things you encounter throughout your day, without the need to go home and fire up your computer. To be honest, I still thought this was pretty cool. But to be able to be updated about current (random) events in the world, the amazing tech-people introduced to world to…. Push messages! No more need to even fetch and open your messages, they just download themselves and open themselves right away! Can you believe it? Someone sent you an email or posted on your Facebook wall and you knew within 5 seconds. (*Quick! Reply! He/She is probably still online anyway because you noticed so fast!)

No more!

And this is where it started turning on me. People were starting to expect me to read every message they had sent me and reply instantly. Sure I could understand that because, truth be told, I used to like being able to do that.
However, I was working on a project a while back and had my phone lying on my desk (in silent mode). It was then that I started to notice HOW MANY TIMES I was actually interrupted from the actual work at hand by that annoying buzzing of the phone. *Bzzz.. Email* … *Bzz… Email* … *Bzz WhatsApp-message*,.. *Bzz*..*BZZ*..BZZ..BZZ..BZZ..BZZ.. ARRGH!

Mutany!!

I’m not sure why I never noticed before but since then I started to pay more attention to it and it started to scare me. My best gadget-friend had turned from something that used to enhance my productivity into something that was actually sucking the productivity out of my day. The possibility to browse the internet, watch videos and get in touch with people are already enough to consider your smartphone an enemy of productivity; It’s pretty much Procrastination-heaven waiting in your pocket. But as long as it’s in your pocket and shuts up, I can deal with that temptation. However, thanks to the brilliant technicians our smartphones are now push-messaging their way out of our pockets.  (Next-stop, Procrastination-heaven!)

Fighting back

Thank goodness I still remember that I am supposed to be in charge of my life (and pants) and I decide what deserves my attention. So what I did was: I remembered what it was I thought was so great about my smartphone. It was the ability to access people and information anywhere, at will. And I guess the magic is in the “AT WILL” part. Everything was perfect until the phone started thinking it knew better than me, and this started me flooding me with things that were supposed to be interesting and required my immediate attention.

I guess my smartphone got a little bit too smart for my (and eventually its-) own good. I decided to remove all push-functionality from my phone. Whenever I want to read my email, I’ll just open the application and wheel it in. I did the same for my Facebook and twitter apps, although I’m even considering removing them completely. (It’s harder to procrastinate on social networks if they’re no longer installed) The only push-functionality I left in place is WhatsApp, since it works just like a normal text message.

Wrapping up

I’m really happy with the choices I made to take a technological step back and dumbed down my smartphone a bit. All the good stuff is still there but I decide when it gets my attention instead of it screaming for mine.
Having messages buzzing and beeping for your attention is a real killer for your concentration and thus your productivity. Take a moment to decide if you really need to get all that pushed information right now or if it can just wait until later. Some of it can wait until you get home, some of it can wait until you completed your to-do list or perhaps until you’re on the bus/train/metro.

Don’t let your phone outsmart you into broken concentration and procrastination, show it who’s boss!

I expect this to be the most ironic article I’ll be posting for a long time to come. I’ve been thinking about doing an article about procrastination for quite a while. But for all sorts of reasons I made up, I kept putting it off… and off…  and.. well, you get the idea.

So, procrastination… We’ve all encountered it at a certain point in time. But what does it really mean? Webster defines it as “to put off intentionally and habitually“.
Not only does this definition suggest that procrastination is done “intentionally”, but also “habitually”. The thing here is that once something becomes a habit, there’s not so much thought involved anymore in the process of doing it. You do things a certain way because you always do. As with other habits like smoking, drinking, gambling, etc… these can prove hard to get rid of.

Beware of your thoughts, they become your words.
Beware of your words, they become your actions.
Beware of your actions, they become your habits.
Beware of your habits, they become your character.
Beware of your character, it becomes your destiny.
- Unknown
 

If procrastinating is your habit, what would your destiny look like?
(Or… would you even have one if you just keep “putting it off”?!)

But no worries! I imagine that since you are reading this, you are already aware that any procrastination habits you may have are not helping you. Even though you once thought it was a “relaxing” and “hang loose” kind of lifestyle in the end you got frustrated with accomplishing very little.
I guess the trigger for most people to become bored with their procrastination habit is the fact that they start to develop new thoughts and interests which start to develop into ambition and maybe even lead up to a passion for something. Once you have a vision of something that would be great to do(or experience) and realize that you actually could make this a reality things start cooking. So you have a vision as well as the belief you could make that vision become a reality. But then one of the most common human reactions kick in,… Fear.

Yes, you read it correctly, F-E-A-R.

All sorts of doubt start creeping into your mind, originating from the fact that you are about to do something you are not yet familiar with. You know you want to, and you could do it, but “what if…” Those two words are actually the problem that feeds your procrastination.
You put off things till later because can’t predict the exact outcome of your actions. Off course this is natural, since you are at least partially unfamiliar with your new venture. And because you can not predict the outcome you feel insecure about it.
Although there are tons of fears that could be underlying your procrastination, by far the most common is the Fear of Failure. We don’t like to fail because it makes us think we are “failures”. And if we’re failures, our friends and family will look down on us making us feel even worse!

STOP…. right there!
This is where we break the cycle.

• The self-sabotage started the moment you started seeing the chance of failure as a certainty of failure! Did you think about the fact that, where there’s a chance of failure, there is also a chance of success? And how awesome would you feel if you started seeing every chance of success as a certainty of success? That’s quite a different way to look at it, isn’t it?
• Secondly, the assumption that if you fail, you are a failure. This is also fundamentally wrong, and you can prove it to yourself quickly and easily. Remember the last time you failed at something, and then remember what you learned from that experience. Are you going to make the same mistake again? No! You can even help other people by teaching them about your experiences. See where I’m going with this? Having failed that time did not turn you into a failure, it actually gave you a valuable experience for life and turned you into a teacher for others!
• Finally, your friends and family will supposedly think you are a failure. Just read that sentence again and realize how weird that sounds. These are the people closest to you, that love & respect you either way. No failed try at something is going to change that. And what’s more, they will probably look up to you! Not for failing at something, but for taking that chance of success!

So don’t be afraid, don’t put things off till later that you could be doing now. Realize that the real chance of success is in front of your nose and you only have to reach out and grab it.

I’d like to close with a quote from “KB” (Twitter) / (website)
Instead of thinking  ”what could go wrong”, I prefer “how good can it get”!