Your Phone Is Ruining Your Creativity

So I recently had a theory that I’ve since tested and it is for real. Here’s the hypothesis: your phone is ruining your creativity. Now before you string me up by your charger let me flesh this out. I don’t just mean your phone, I mean all entertainment, everything from Netflix to Instagram to whatever else you do to fill empty time. And I’m as guilty as anyone, so I tested this on myself. I stopped watching shows or movies of any kind, and I had my wife set a password protected time limit on my social media apps on my phone so I could only use them for 15 minutes a day, aka Instagram. I also stopped listening to music in my car, which, I know sounds brutal and for me is extreme because I’m basically an audiophile. But again, the idea is to give myself emptiness, time and space just to think, to look around and notice. One other thing I did is I left my phone on silent in my home office with the door locked during non-work hours and most of the day on weekends. So, how has it gone? Well I thought it would be helpful, but I did not know it would be life changing. I’ve heard people like Simon Sinek talk about this, and I actually just recently heard a kid’s science podcast talk about a study on boredom that showed that the more bored you are the more creative your ideas become. And now from personal experience, they are both ridiculously right. Literally on the second day with all this empty time I just started filling pages with notes on ideas for how to approach my business, creative ideas for films, for new Zero Fluff episodes, for ways to spend time with my wife and kids. And now that it’s been a few weeks I can not say my ideas have slowed down much at all. It also hit me like a ton of bricks: this is why people have so many of their best ideas when they’re in the shower! because typically (unless you’re really trying to run from something inside yourself) you aren’t watching shows or scrolling through Instagram while you’re mindlessly scrubbing yourself clean like you always do. And it’s also pretty classic for people to have dawning ideas while driving, again, a place where you’re not mindlessly entertaining yourself with TV or your phone, at least… I hope not. (Pause in the music) “ehhem.” And beyond creativity I just have more time to think about what I’m doing, rather than perpetually cruising on autopilot. And when I think about what I’m doing, I make intentional decisions about what I want to do next. One of my greatest fears is waking up 10 or 20 or 30 years from now in a place I just don’t want to be and thinking, how did I get here? There’s no shortage of hate for the effect of phones and tv, and to be honest they aren’t the real problem, they're just like any fine thing we abuse to avoid pain; to avoid being uncomfortable. But like I’ve said before, we need what you have to offer, your thoughts, your talents, your presence, and you need those things of yourself as well, and it’s beyond worth the discomfort it takes to get there. Here’s what I suggest: Try this experiment and take a month to starve yourself of distraction. No shows, movies, music in your car, limit your screen time and if you find yourself waiting in a public place whether it’s for a friend to meet you for coffee or you’re in a waiting room at a doctors appointment, leave your phone in your backpack or purse or whatever and just give yourself a break. I would love to hear about what it does to you… The benefit for me has been priceless, and if it changes your life too, for you, I’ll only charge $50 bucks.