Lose your phone, find your brilliance

Let's get bored

Is your phone always within arm's reach? When it pings, do you respond like Pavlov's dog? Do you find yourself scrolling mindlessly when you have a few free moments? Manoush Zomorodi, host of the Note to Self podcast, spoke recently at Mozilla about the downside to our digital devotion. We like to think we're being efficient and getting stuff done, but in fact, we're denying our brains something critical — boredom.

Do you remember when you got your first smartphone? I do. Having instant access to all the internet offers, right there in my pocket, a quickdraw from my eyes, felt magical. Now more than a decade later, most phones are “smart,” yet maybe they’re making us dumber, or at least less brilliant, as we’ve become ever more glued to our tiny digital overlords.

Challenge yourself, lose your phone, find your brilliance

• Challenge 1: Keep it in your pocket
  Challenge week ramps up, seemingly easy, but not so much. When you’re on the go, keep your phone in your bag or your pocket. Walk without checking your phone. Turn off notifications! Set yourself free from the alerts, and just be.

• Challenge 2: Go photo free
  In our relentless quest to document life through filtered photography, we forget to just be present and see the world around us. Try going photo-free for a day, and take in what you see through your own eyes instead of your screen.

• Challenge 3: Delete that app

• Challenge 4: Take a fauxcation
  As a remote worker, being plugged in and digitally available is equivalent to being at one’s desk. And yet, perpetual connectivity is debilitating to creativity and flow. The group I work with at Mozilla holds a wonderful cultural norm to keep Fridays meeting-free, which frees my colleagues to change locations, go for walks, have lunch away, think, ideate, write, talk, draw and generally reconnect with creativity without being tethered to meetings. Many (all?) of us find Fridays liberating and rejuvenating.

• Challenge 5: Make a small observation
  Permission to kick back and observe granted. Tap your imagination. Let your mind wander. You know how you come up with great ideas in the shower? Mind wandering away from a screen is when you come up with your most interesting and novel ideas. Don’t cheat yourself of that! Look up from your phone and notice things. Be radically present.

Source: Moz://a

Be bored!
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