Social networks, checking email, and Telegram distract from truly important tasks.
For myself, I decided that while I need focus for work, I will reduce how often I check social media, including Telegram and email.
Why is this necessary?
1. Proactive state.
“There is a well-known concept about reactive versus proactive states. In a reactive state, you respond to external stimuli, reply to incoming requests, and refresh your Facebook feed. In a proactive state, you can create things, brainstorm, and work on long-term tasks.
Messaging apps and social networks drag us into a reactive state that is very hard to escape. It feels like as soon as I reply to everyone, I’ll finally be able to get to that important task I’ve been putting off all day. But people keep messaging constantly, and there’s no end in sight.”
2. Urgent, unimportant tasks
“Another famous concept is that important, non-urgent tasks should take priority over unimportant, urgent ones. By getting distracted by messaging apps, you delay those important, non-urgent tasks. After all, nothing bad will happen if you reply to someone in a couple of hours instead of right away.
But these minor, unimportant tasks eat up your entire day. I know this very well firsthand. I have days where I spend the whole time just replying to people without accomplishing anything truly important. You try to multitask, but you constantly get distracted.”
3. Multitasking.
By constantly jumping from one window to another, you waste strength and energy needed for important work.