The sound of doing one thing
With all the buzz around Jev, I find it hard not to fall back into old patterns of endless YouTube.
At the beginning of this year, I decided to minimize my smartphone use further. With a screen time of around 1.5 to 2 hours a day, I didn’t consider myself a heavy user, but two apps stood out in my usage stats: Chess.com and YouTube.
I used those apps in very different, yet time-consuming ways. Playing blitz chess (3+2) made me laser-focused on the screen: there was no headroom for anything else. I found myself playing game after game. On the other hand, I would watch YouTube videos every evening while doing kitchen chores, like packing lunches for my kids. It was a side thing and an escape from the repetitive chores.
I uninstalled and reinstalled Chess.com several times before I ultimately got rid of it. I now just play over-the-board chess in the office after lunch and occasionally a game online on a computer.
To stop consuming YouTube in the background was more difficult. I’d been doing this for much longer, and besides the occasional entertainment (cars, chess, football), I mainly watched informative content, educating myself on topics around programming, or learning from TED talks and documentaries. What’s wrong with that, right?
It was easy telling myself this was okay, until I deeply felt it was taking too much of my precious time: there are more important things I want to focus on, and my time is limited. A bit of stoic urgency suits me well.
The time I spend in the kitchen has dropped significantly, because I’m just doing one thing now: chores. And how much attention did I really pay to these videos?
We aren’t built to multitask anyway. Not only do tasks take more time when we do so, but the quality and satisfaction suffer under the stress it brings.
Out of all the self-help books I’ve read over the years, it’s the message from Slow Productivity that clicks with me most:
Do fewer things.
Work at a natural pace.
Obsess over quality.
Those lines, in combination with the realization that I can’t produce while I’m consuming, and that passive consumption quickly and quietly eats away at my valuable time, are great forces behind my goodbye to YouTube as background noise.
But the biggest treat I’m giving myself is the silence. I’ve come to realize I like my own thoughts and the stillness surrounding them more than escapist consumption. My imagination thrives on it.
Am I afraid of missing out on new things now? Yes, a little. And no, not at all, because—and maybe this just comes with age—I’ve seen enough to understand I’ll never have the time to watch it all anyway. Good things last and will find their way to me.
Like now, with Jev. And instead of jumping on the consumption train, I’ll just watch a couple of videos with full attention. For me, it’s a win-win: I feel more in control of what I consume and I enjoy it more.
And the screen time on my iPhone? It’s now between 1 and 1.5 hours a day. My goal is to see it drop below 1 hour per day on average: an ambitious resolution for next year.