Attention Matters: The Journey to a Focused Life
#27 Son of a Viet Kieu | Transforming My Morning Routine and Digital Habits for Better Well-Being
Hey! I am so grateful to have you back at my blog. Your subscription means the world to me. ❤️ In order to get to know you better, here is a question for you: “How many hours do you use your phone per day?” 😊
Now jumping into today’s blog:
The alarm rings. I turn it off, wondering whether I should snooze a bit longer. I unplug my phone and walk toward the window to take a photo of the skyline. That’s how my routine morning starts.
While getting dressed for the gym, I open my social media to check notifications— all on autopilot, all while I’m half asleep. Without giving myself time to slowly start my tiny computer in my head, I already bombard it with information that is actually not necessary.
Why do I do that?
Honestly, I don’t know.
Do I want to check who is thinking about me? 🤔
Do I want to check what I missed? 🤷♀️
Do I want to check if anyone wants something important from me? 📩
The Realization
Only after listening to a podcast by Jay Shetty did I realize that the main problem was that I never saw my attention as something important.
I believed that with enough energy, I could pay attention to anything. Naturally, I thought if I had enough energy, it did not matter what I focus on, as long as I have enough energy for the task ahead, right?
After reflecting on what Jay Shetty said, I realized that living like this is not sustainable at all. To understand its relevance, I compare it to spending money:
The Money Analogy
Just because I have money, I wouldn’t spend it on things that don’t bring me any value. I only spend money on things I actually want and need. Spending money just because I have it is ... whack. 💸
Not only would it be a waste of money, but more importantly, I might lose the opportunity to buy something truly necessary that requires more money.
Imagine you spend your money daily just because you can, and then suddenly your laptop breaks and you need to fix it. Not having enough money saved up would lead to a disaster!
The Realization
After reflecting on the podcast, I realized it’s the same with attention and energy.
I believe I have a lot of energy. Sometimes, I do waste my attention on things I shouldn’t. I catch myself browsing through social media without an aim, just to “entertain me.” 😅
Luckily, I’ve never had a situation where I suddenly need loads of attention and energy for an emergency. But I do want to use my attention and energy more sustainably.
But how can I actually get rid of my bad habit of checking the phone for random things?
The last four weeks have been intense. Because of the WOTN6 challenge, I had to write 25 blogs in 30 days. It has been a while since I had to focus that hard on achieving something. I had to reorganize my life and routines just to barely make it happen.
But as people say:
Where attention goes, energy flows.
Without realizing it, not only did I spend way less time on social media, especially TikTok, but I also did not have the urge to open the app at all. Instead, I would read blogs from other writers in this workshop.
By substituting the social media platform and consuming different content, I still used up attention and energy. But the major difference is how I felt about myself after spending time with them.
On the one hand, with TikTok and Facebook, I would usually feel annoyed and mad at myself for spending hours scrolling without even realizing it.
On the other hand, with Substack and blogs, I felt inspired to improve my life by reading their experiences.
#mydailylearning
Since realizing this, I’ve moved the social media apps I want to use more often, such as Substack for reading blogs, to the main screen and hidden the ones I don’t want to give my attention to in a folder.
Thanks for reading to the end and I wish you an awesome day full of kindness and positivity. See you next Sunday morning for a new blog of #sonofavietkieu. 🥰
Fully agree 🙌🙌