The things that are saying, "Choose me!"

 

From Courtney Carver

Put a time boundary around where your  attention goes.

Most things don’t require or deserve your time and attention. Even though it feels like we are pulled in a million different directions, we do not have to respond or devote any energy at all to most of the things that are saying, “choose me!” It’s not just the big things either, really see where your minutes and moments are going. Save this precious resource of attention for something precious.

This reminds me of the "Feed Me!" section of Stephen King's Under the Dome.  What is "something precious?"  She quotes Mary Oliver:

This is after all (as Mary Oliver calls it) your “one wild and precious life” and it’s being eaten up by your never ending to-do list, commitments, and trying to show up for everything and everyone.

One of her goals on the same page might be a good "attention game" to play in order to reduce the attentional demands of our world.  (Maybe we need BOTH to practice mindful attention-focusing and to limit the choosing.  (the sabbatical, the fencing in of attention)

Pretend the internet is broken.

I think we all know where the biggest time sucks are. Email, Instagram, searching things, news alerts and all the browsing and scrolling. For a little while every day and a little bit longer every week, unplug. Create pockets of quiet, get bored, and embrace solitude. Track how much time you spend online each week. If you cut back 25% how much time will that give you? If you aren’t ready to fully disconnect, try removing email, browsers and social media from your phone. It’s likely that just by setting this time boundary, you’ll create that extra hour a day just for you.