We all know we need a little more freedom from digital distraction, but we also know we need to fight for it.

 

Some people fight by keeping their phones in the living room when they’re in the bedroom, or in the bedroom when they’re in the living room. You can’t reach for it, even if you want to.

 

Some people go for digital detoxes, starting by leaving their phone at home when going for a walk. Others are even brave enough to go on holiday without them. How does that feel?

 

Others go the digital vs digital approach, turning off all reminders, notifications, pings and banners. I wish somehow I could persuade social media to make my thumb ache when I scroll down a feed for more than a few seconds….

 

Our focus and attention are so important that whatever strategy works for you, then please go for it. We need every tool in the box for this one.

 

My personal favourite is to develop mindfulness with picking up my devices, resisting the desire to pick the phone up whenever I feel it.

 

I have a confession to make: I am the person who eats all the chocolate in the house. I don’t buy it, because when I am in the supermarket, I don’t really like chocolate. When it’s in the fridge, though, I love it. And so I eat it all.

 

I am the same with the phone. Once I pick it up, I could be there all day, immediately forgetting why I had picked it up, but like a dog in a thicket, hunting down interesting new tracks and scents, one a second. There’s always something else there.

 

But I don’t have to pick it up. It’s fine. It can stay there. As long as I don’t pick it up, I feel I can do other more interesting things. It might be something as mindless as watching television in a more engaged way, or it might be writing this section undisturbed without looking up a website about digital attention spans.

 

We need something to make it positive though, and so sometimes I count. When I am in the mood, I count the number of times in a row I have looked at my phone and thought about picking it up, and not done it, and then got back to doing something else. Sometimes I write it down, most often I forget, but it gives me enough reason to resist for a while, and be mindful for a little longer.