Put down your phone and pick up a notebook
When life feels overwhelming, a majority of people pull out their phone for surface-level relief.
This learned habit provides us with a quick hit of dopamine, but never provides a feeling of satisfaction. The next time we need a quick break, we’ll run right back to the same apps we did 30 minutes earlier.
This cycle continues day in and day out. While we’re at work, home, and even out in public.
Whenever given a free moment of boredom, we reach for our phone and light it up. Regardless of how boring of repetitive it may feel, we’re chasing that next new post, notification, or text.
But what if we, even part of the time, pulled out a notebook instead of pulling out our phones?
Self-Therapy Through Journaling
I’ve been using pocket notebooks since 2017. Before that, I was using old school notebooks as a journal since 2013. And before that, I remember having designated time for writing or drawing in a journal in elementary school.
Ever since I discovered this amazing exercise, I’ve loved it.
It provides an escape from the hustle of daily life. It causes us to take a deep breath and be present. It drowns out the noise around us, allowing any and everything to flow onto the page.
It’s like therapy with yourself.
The problem is that taking time to write in a notebook always feels like a chore compared to the ease of scrolling on your phone.
Smartphones & Information Obesity
With a smartphone readily available at any given time throughout the day, we have immediate access to a world of information waiting to be consumed. And that’s exactly what we tend to do:
Consume more and more and more information.
Bad news, breaking news, exciting news, gossip, headlines, and anything else that will catch our attention.
The more negative it is – the more likely we are to click on it.
This has caused a majority of smartphone users to become full-time consumers.
We consume information, stories, posts, and videos all day, every day. If information was measured in calories – we’d all be extremely obese. And that’s exactly the result of this constant dopamine chase.
Information bloat.
As humans, we can only handle so much information. We aren’t wired to keep up with everything that’s happening across the entire globe. We’re not even meant to keep up with the 500+ “friends” that we follow on social media. Our brains don’t know how to process this much information without resulting in a feeling of extreme overwhelm.
How are we to feel compassion for the 100+ heart-breaking things happening in our social media feeds on any given day?
We’re stretching our information intake further and further – until it’s eventually bound to snap.
Notebooks: The Tool For Turning Consumption Into Creation
The opposite of consumption is creation.
How would the world look different if a majority of people were stuck in a repetitive cycle of creation instead of consumption?
What if we pulled out a notebook to document our lives instead of pulling out our phones to distract us?
Like a smartphone, a notebook can be used in hundreds of different ways. The options are limitless.
Keeping one handy – stashing it in a pocket or purse – gives us “another option” to choose from when boredom strikes. It’s no longer just our phone to keep us entertained. The pocket notebook is another fun, unique, and healthier option.
Because unlike our phone, the notebook has nothing to prove.
It isn’t designed with addictive behavior in mind. It isn’t showing you ads, commercials, or opinions. It actually isn’t providing you with any information at all – only the things that you decide are worth writing down.
For once – you are in control of what you allow into your mind.
The most important part of pulling out your notebook is that it provides a second to breathe. It gives you a second to think. It gives you a second to listen. To observe. To receive.
Not just a second to consume.
When pulling out your notebook, you have a couple different options:
- You can review the things you’ve already written
- You can write something new
This is important because you can set up the notebook however you like.
Here’s a video about how I use my pocket notebooks specifically.
If there are certain things you want to dwell on throughout the day – write them down in the notebook and review them often.
If you decide to write something new down, this provides you with the opportunity to create instead of consume. And we could all use a lot more creativity in our lives.
Takeaways For You
If you’re burdened by the constant noise and distraction of a smartphone, carry a pocket notebook.
It will provide you with a reliable, controlled source for consumption, and a blank slate of dozens of pages for creation.
We weren’t created to consume. We were created to contribute.
Dwell on things you truly care about. Create things that are meaningful to you.
You never know what could be a result of this simple habit change.
–Eric Pfohl