Do You Have Popcorn Brain? 😵‍💫

Ever heard of popcorn brain?

It's the effect of always looking at our phones. We're constantly checking for updates - in line at the grocery store, while you're waiting for a meeting to start, at a red light, on the toilet 🤭

All that checking creates hyperstimulation in our brains, making things feel busy and fast. 

Life offline feels much slower. Try it. Put your phone away in an inconvenient location (a friend locks hers in her car) for a few hours. Notice what happens. 

You may feel anxious at first but don't give in before you get to enjoy the feeling of freedom and spaciousness that comes when you're not constantly scrolling cat videos and checking for email, Facebook updates or the latest summer sale items. 

Want a real eye-opener? Keep a sheet of paper nearby and make a small mark every time you think about checking your phone. In just 30 minutes you'll have a sheet full of marks. 

Nothing's gone wrong here. We have a primal urge to stay aware of what's happening around us. The digital age puts that urge into hyperdrive.

So, take control of your phone use with digital boundaries. Here's how:

Keep your phone off your bedside table. Get a simple alarm clock and put the phone somewhere out of reach. If you stop looking at it at least an hour or two before bed that's even better for your sleep quality. And don't check it first thing in the morning either. Give your mind a rest and set a calmer tone for the day. 

During the day, keep your phone out of reach, in a drawer, so you can be more intentional about how often you look at it. Even just having the phone near you, reminding you of the potential for a distraction, creates brain drain, feelings of stress, overwhelm and burnout. 

Put your phone in grayscale (it's in your accessibility settings) so it's less enticing to look at. I tried this over the weekend and am amazed and how it decreased my desire to scroll and watch videos. It's boring!

If this feels hard then that's all the more reason to do it. Do not allow Meta, TikTok, advertisers and the pressure to respond fast create popcorn brain! 

This is how you protect your time and mental and emotional health.

Reduce your stress starting today! Click here to get my free Unplug Your Brain from Work checklist.