708: Reclaim extra time, attention and peace from that thief in your pocket

There is a relatively new thief that is stealing our time, attention and literally...peace. It’s crept up on us. Even a decade ago you’d never stand in line and see everyone starting at a little screen in their hand. They were looking around, noticing the world around them. Maybe talking with someone. At lunch you just talked with whoever you were with, the only distractions being other people in the restaurant or a possible phone call to your cell phone. Now we find a constant companion on our smart phone that we as a culture rarely ignore for more than 5-10 minutes at at time. The smartphone made a seemingly benight entrance into our lives but has now commanded a literal cultural shift. What started with text messages has now ballooned to over 2.2 million apps. Enough to keep your attention 24 hours a day. Though it’s just a handful of social media apps that command the lion’s share. The question is, how are you doing? Do you control your device time or is it controlling you? I went to the Ziglar audience and asked them, “Have you done anything to limit your smartphone usage? Have you found yourself being distracted by it?” Most cited steps they are taking to limit their time and many admitted to the very real struggle and how they are finding it’s much more than a time-waster, but a literal depth-of-life culprit. I brought an expert on the show with me, Cal Newport, our computer science professor and best selling author from show 703. The conversation went immediately into some major issues affecting us at the hands of big business who makes money the more they get us looking at these screens. It was inspiring to hear what some have gained back now that they’ve put limits on their phones. You’ll get some great ideas from this show on how you can better manage your smartphone usage, and what the positive pay off truly is!

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