Purpose:

This is a really big deal! This practice allows one to regain control of where one's attention goes, and to put one's attention towards the things that matter. It is also an essential skill for high-performance business.

Practice:

I began with my email inbox. Email is one of the main ways I communicate and keep track of what I need to do next. So it is super important that I don't have a bunch of junk to find and discard every time I log in. The practice is actually very simple and only took about a month.

I started paying attention to which emails I was deleting without replying or getting any valuable information. The third time I deleted an email in this way, I hit unsubscribe. If unsubscribe didn't work after a while, I marked it as Spam.

I also tuned up my cell phone, and this was hugely impactful. I've done this on iOS and on Android. I'm currently using Android, so I'll give those details. The process on iOS is pretty similar.

First, I picked a notification sound for my texts, emails, and calendar events that is different from the default sound. Second, any time a notification from any other apps popped up, I asked this question: Do I want this app soliciting my attention all the time, or do I want to see notifications when I choose? For me, almost every app is in the second category. There are precious few that add anything positive to my day by interrupting whatever else I was doing. So, I went into the settings page for those apps and turned off notifications.

Second, I set a Do Not Disturb schedule that starts an hour before bed and ends an hour after I get up. I turned off all sound and visuals from notifications. I enabled the thing where if someone calls twice, it will ring through. This allows me to choose what is entering my awareness during these critical times of day. It really stops the technology companies from yanking my attention around and making me feel upset all the time.