Top 5 Distractions in Life

A lot of days, I tend to find myself being lazy and not really wanting to do anything besides lay around and just relax even though I do that every single day. The other day, I came across a picture online that asked what your five top distractions were in life. I decided to make a list- just out of curiosity and well, a blog post is coming out of it!

Top 5 Distractions:

1) phone/social media

2) TV/Netflix

3) sleeping in

4) feeling unmotivated

5) mental illnesses

If you're wondering how I came up with these, I literally sat down at my desk and brainstormed reasons why some days I don't feel like writing or doing something productive. These five things were basically the result of me brainstorming about all of my days!

To others, some of those might seem like excuses and you very well might be right! I think if someone asked how I would list those, it would probably be mental illnesses, sleeping in, feeling unmotivated, TV/Netflix, then to my phone and social media. I tend to let these things distract me on a daily basis and in the long run, it isn't good. I could be so productive because we aren't promised our next breath let alone to wake up in the morning.

I would like to think that all five of these control my life. Like I said, I analysed how my days played out and almost every single day one or all of these distractions effect my creativity and actually it effects my mental health even though that also plays a factor in why I feel unmotivated and sleep in.

Now, I am in no way stating that you must be productive with your life every single day. Let's face it, we work and we get tired so some days, yes, we want to not do anything and relax. There is nothing wrong with that! What I'm saying is doing that every single day, every week, is not beneficial to you or your life.

How Do You Deal With These Distractions?

Phone/Social Media

For me as well as almost everyone else in the world, having a phone and using social media is the easiest way to connect with friends and family; it's how some run their businesses; how most people know where they are going (GPS) and well, for me, I use social media to promote my poetry book as well as this blog which holds book reviews.

Using my laptop is different from my phone- in my eyes. On my phone, I get distracted by memes and/or GIFS usually found on Facebook. If I could, I would spend all day watching and reading them because they're absolutely hilarious. However, on my laptop, I can just focus on my writing and use my phone as my radio and listen to music to motivate me even more.

For my poetry Instagram which is @louvelywoe, I try to post at least once a day while maintaining an active status by commenting on others videos and photos, liking things, replying to direct messages and stories. Same goes for my poetry page on Facebook. (I will leave a link at the end of this blog!) If I post at least once a day, then I can use the remainder of my time working on blogs or finishing up a book for another book review.

TV/Netflix

Growing up as a kid, my "father" would almost always be in control of the television and what we watch. With my husband and father-in-law always working, I actually have control of the TV without thinking I would get yelled at or anything. Now, my hubby and father-in-law let me watch what I want even when they are home but growing up the way I did, I always let them have control of it when they get home since they work. It's just something I've grown up doing.

To distract myself away from the TV, I would usually find something that I did not like to watch or have any interest in so I could use that as background noise while I write. Before I accumulated a desk in my bedroom with my two bunnies, I would have to sit on the couch and it was uncomfortable writing in my journal as well as being in my laptop at the same time. With having a desk in my room now, I have so much natural lighting in here and I can do all my work comfortably. Plus, instead of watching TV, I just put a playlist on from Spotify on my phone!

Sleeping In

This is everyone's weakness besides the inhumane people who naturally wake up super early in the morning in a good mood. Not me- if I could sleep all day, I probably would even though I would still be tired. I can never win!

My husband works swing shift (firsts, seconds and thirds) so when he is home for the weekends or works seconds, I usually sleep in. I'm wanting to change that. When he works firsts, I have to be up at five in order to take him into work but I come back home and sleep til ten. Throughout the week, I should just stay up and get my day started and sleep in on the weekends or when he is working seconds. I am usually up at 5:30 am when he works thirds so I can go pick him up.

I've been use to having set times when I should be up mainly because of the group home only letting us sleep in for so long as well as my mom, and others whom I lived with. My mother-in-law hated when my husband and I overslept although we worked swing shift together so it was exhausting. Now living with my father-in-law who doesn't care when or how much we sleep, I feel weird. Because I don't want to make anyone mad. He always says I should sleep as much as I need to and not worry about him getting mad because he won't. And that's helped ease my anxiety a lot!

To be honest, I hate sleeping in. In the moment, of course I love it but I feel like I am wasting my day away especially if I was up after 10:30 am. I could get so much done if I woke up at eight or nine. Plus, I like to lay in bed for half an hour and check my social media before I get my day going.

Setting alarms and just staying up when I have to take or get my husband from work would actually be very beneficial for me!

Feeling Unmotivated

My mental illness plays a huge factor in this. I tend to either talk myself down or promise I will get "x" amount of things accomplished in a day or put some off til the next day. But instead of staying true to my word, I keep promising myself I will eventually do those things and for sure do whatever in the morning.

My best advice to myself if this: do not think about it, just do it!

Mental Illnesses

This plays a role in my daily life. I might wake up in a really good mood or an okay mood. Or, sometimes, something so small happens that it actually effects me to the point where I don't want to do anything- I would rather mope around and think about the things I need to get done.

My mental health also triggers my sluggishness and why I want to sleep all the time. It is so mentally exhausting dealing with what I hear in my head all day every day. It gets quiet most of the time yet I can hear the whispers of me mocking myself. I am not sure how to really explain it but just take my word on how it's exhausting.

When I was living with my mother-in-law before we moved down to Mississippi with my father-in-law, the atmosphere with her and her boyfriend was cold and gloomy. Part of that was there was no natural light in that house. To me, natural lighting and no lighting really sets the mood of a home as well the people residing there. I always felt depressed and it didn't help how childish my mother-in-law acted with me. It was annoying and I spent most of my time with my dogs, Mr. Holly, working and sleeping. Just to stay away from the negativity.

Since I was surrounded by it 24/7, it was hard not to feel depressed. My mental health was slipping form my grasp faster than I could comprehend to the point where I wrote a few suicide notes in my journal because I was that depressed. Also, knowing your mother-in-law snoops through your journal when you leave it out (because you trust no one would go through something so personal)

Seriously- just go open some curtains and play some happy music. Read a book or clean- go write in your journal you haven't touched for months even years. Only you can change the way you live your life.

linktr.ee/louvelywoe