It was a regular day, and I was getting ready for my evening prayers, like most of us, I have many apps (applications) on my mobile, however, the settings are set in a way where all notifications are closed except for the GPay UPI app.
It means; I have none of the apps given permission to notify me of the constant feed they are receiving round the clock in the background.
This is my conscious effort to stay away from distraction and in “Focus”.
Of the many listed on my mobile, one of the apps is called Pillars which helps me with the prayer’s times for the daily five prayers. I often check it for the evening prayers because the sunset time around the twilight zone is on a constant shift and change.
One day,
I picked my mobile to check the evening prayer time, but by error ended up clicking on app next to Pillars which was X (formerly known as Twitter.
The moment I was on the platform, my eyes immediately started to scan the notifications tab on it. (this is the place where all the inputs of our content are received).
I saw someone made a very nasty comment to an old tweet of mine; alongside I saw people retweeting my new post also several of them liking it.
To the nasty comment,
I wrote a strong reply which was replied with another nasty tweet, I was furious now, so leaving my manners behind, I rolled up my sleeves and was all out on a war of words with a stranger on a topic that was nothing to do with the person or me or for that matter anyone else.
Lost in my war of words,
I got a DM someone asking for a client call, and another one offering me content marketing plan for free, and then another one seeking a donation to an orphan somewhere miles away in Afghanistan.
I was furious—>Happy—>laughing—>angry—>sad—>confused—>enlightened—>normal—>neutral—>Curious
The train of feelings and emotions were scattered ,with their own share of ebb and flow
45 minutes later,
,I realized after 45 minutes that I was supposed to check the time for prayer and instead I was on a different platform lost in the rigmarole of words, feelings scrolling through an endless feed!
By the time I was back in the present moment, the time for prayer has ended and I was left feeling ashamed and baffled by my own behavior.
This was the focus circuit behavior of someone like me who have consciously established a plan to watch social media only in set given hours and has shut down all notifications, At this juncture I realized, if I was so addicted ,I can imagine the level of focus of those who are constantly hooked on to the social media platforms with never ending notifications beeping all throughout 24/7.
This incident filled me with remorse for not only missing my prayer, but it was also an eye opener for me to understand where I was losing my focus to!
Just like me ,if you also find yourself distracted with too much to respond to and struggling to focus , these 3 steps can help.
3 steps to regain your focus
Step 1 – Observe , what point you lose your focus ? observe not one time event , but a pattern over a period of time, one of the best ways is to write it down almost as many times as you have been losing your focus. Example – In my case cited above, I lost my focus when I was not intentional about my social media usage.
Step 2 – Connect the pattern to understand what the source is -where do you lose it?
Example -in my case cited above, the source was social media that I often visit and engage in.
Step 3 – Work out a solution that suits you best – In my case, I have removed the Twitter icon app from the home page of my mobile, which was next to the Pillars app. While I still visit and use the social media platform in the time I have allotted to it, removing it from the home page, I no longer end up visiting it when I’m headed for something else.
Focus is a culmination of a complex working of our brain, which involves various regions of it, while we have no control on the process part inside our brain, what we still control is what we choose.
The working of our Mind and Brain and the grey matter, is what that sets us apart from all living species on our planet earth , it has evolved over billions of years and is also responsible to bring out the best of the creative genius that you are, let not squandered it to social media, whose only aim is to steal that from each one of us.
The choice is yours, choose wisely!
© Mehnaz Amjad 2017-2025
Mehnaz Amjad | Coach
Hyderabad, India