May 3, 2024

As you lay in bed to await tomorrow’s amazingly productive day, you plan everything on your to-do list, go to bed early, and even prepare clothes for the morning. But somehow throughout your day, you seem to get nowhere close to what you envisioned the night before.

What happened?

You wake up and check your phone. You scroll for an hour. Make food with your phone in hand, eating while scrolling. Maybe go to work, and at every chance you get, you check your phone. Notifications, social media, shopping, etc.

You look back on that productive day you could have had and say, "I'll do better tomorrow."

Tomorrow never comes.

Social media and your phone can be an absolute game-changer when it comes to outreach, current events, and building an audience. On the other hand, social media can take you to a dark and scary place mentally and be a complete disruption to your productivity throughout your day. Constant comparison, the feeling of isolation, and most importantly, disconnection from reality—maybe an alteration of it as well.

There are two sides to this dilemma: the consumer and the producer.

The consumer is what you see most people do—consume content for hours on end without realizing it. The producers are the people who create that content.

You want to be a producer, not a consumer.

You want to be a person who creates and produces rather than mindlessly scrolls through other people's content. If you think about it, it's honestly crazy how much of a leg up the producers have. Millions of people search for content, constantly on their phones, while fewer create it.

In order to do this, you have to transition from a consumer to a producer.

Control your phone, control your life. Purge your phone:

Delete most of your apps that are taking up your time.

Move everything else from your home screen, not delete but just move them off your home screen.

Turn off every single notification. (I keep only my phone notifications on.)

Put your screen time widget on your home screen, so it's the first thing you see when you unlock your phone.

If you're dedicated, put your phone in grayscale. This will free up so much time, time you need to live the life you want.

Once you have more time, you can start to be the producer. While everyone else is scrolling, you are creating. This could be the art that you have been putting off, the new skill you want to learn, or building a brand on social media.

Now there is something to be said about the ethicality of this digital loop we are talking about creating if you were to go to social media to build something. Maybe I can touch on this in a future blog, but the way I see it, if we should use social media, we should use it for good and educate people and/or promote healthy living. It is mind-boggling how many people you can reach as one person. Businesses years ago used to pay an unfathomable amount of money for the same reach every one of us has the potential to gain in our pockets.

Anyway.

I have had my phone in grayscale for about a year now, and at first, it was difficult, like everything when you start, but now I hate to look at others' screens because of the stark contrast of colors. I use my phone for tools and not entertainment, and man, it feels like a superpower. To know you are getting work done while others are spending hours on their phones.

Remember, control your phone, control your life.

Thank you! If you are reading this, it means a lot to me. Get out there and chase those dreams!

Cam