A lot of things in our environment are currently changing. As a result, the market game we’re playing is also evolving. Days go by so quickly. It’s like in a blink of an eye, and weeks have passed you by. When you look back, what have you changed? Because there are times when you realise you’ve done nothing. You stood idly by and let time pass you.

The reality is there are heaps of distractions happening around us that affect our productivity. Social media mainly power these “distractions” and hooks us all in. There’s an ongoing “notification revolution,” wherein we get notifications, and we don’t know what it’s going to be, so we’re “addicted” to it.

There’s even an experiment in 1971 by a psychologist named Michael Zeiler. He discovered that an unpredictable reward created twice as much dopamine (the ‘feel-good’) chemical in the brain as a predictable one. Social media has adapted this technique perfectly, so we become social media gamblers. We became more driven to seek feedback when we don’t know what we’re going to get. Social media is one huge digital slot machine of unpredictable rewards, so it’s very addicting. This, in turn, affects us on how we go about our daily lives.

There’s this element of “instant gratification” because once you pick up your phone, you get something straight away. You no longer have to wait, so you immediately turn your attention there. Instead of doing what you need to do, you focus on the unnecessary things. You think you’re just going to multitask. Browse on social media and then work at the same time, but that’s actually a productivity killer.

Although the brain can multitask, it’s not really as adept as you’d like to think when it comes to switching between tasks.  Yes, you can be doing two tasks simultaneously, but it takes time to get between those two tasks. So you’re not really “saving time” by multitasking. You’re using more time. And that’s a reality and a big challenge.

As such, you need to focus on your job. You need to put your whole mind and body in running and working in the business because you can’t necessarily control what’s coming at you. The only thing you can control is you and your reaction to all these distractions.

This is a big part of why we feel things go by so quickly. You may think you’re engaged all day and doing work. But the question you need to ask yourself is, are you engaged in the right things? Or are you just going deep into a rabbit hole of notifications, and losing sight of what needs to be done?