Increasing QOL through Purpose-Driven Device Usage

Recently, I've been feeling like my life has become lazy, and my self-esteem has been on the decline.

This habit of laziness is something I've cultivated over the past 24 years, and it's a formidable enemy. It's not an opponent I can defeat through motivation, willpower, or my own mindset. If I could win through mental strength alone, I wouldn't be in this situation.

Even so, I want to break free from this laziness and improve my quality of life. Even if I don't have a specific goal.

Driven by such a vague impulse, I spent a month turning these thoughts over in my mind, and

currently,

・Two hours of input time after waking up
・A healthy diet of two meals a day
・A massive reduction in social media time
・A massive increase in reading time
・30 consecutive days of daily German study time

I have succeeded in these.

It's a transformation I couldn't have imagined from my life just a month ago. I, a lazy person, have succeeded in drastically raising my QOL.

By the way, my laziness and my character haven't changed at all. The only thing I changed was my "environment." Just by changing my environment, my QOL changed.

The environment I changed, as the title suggests, is "purpose-driven device usage."

I currently live with three devices: an iPhone, an iPad, and a MacBook Air. The iPhone is basically my main device, used for everything from social media like Twitter and Instagram to YouTube, TikTok, Kindle, TVer, and more. I barely use the iPad. I used the MacBook mainly for writing longer texts, such as posts on note or emails.

What happens in an environment like this is that I keep my iPhone with me at all times and spend the majority of my time with it.

At first, I can enjoy it. I can consume endless amounts of time with entertainment like YouTube and TikTok.

However, there is a limit.
I get bored, and the amount of content can't keep up with my consumption speed.

So, when I can no longer consume content, I turn to social media. When I touch my iPhone and unlock the screen, my fingers move to open Twitter immediately without me thinking about it. The smoothness and efficiency of those finger movements are so unconscious that it's surprising.

Well, I'm not the kind of person who thinks living like this is fine.
My self-esteem just keeps dropping.
Even if I go for a walk occasionally, it doesn't change much.

So, I realized that if I didn't do something about this, it would be bad, so I pondered and arrived at the conclusion of "changing my environment."

Even though I say I changed my environment, it's not that big of a deal.
It's simple.

・Delete Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook from the iPhone
・Install Instagram and Kindle on the iPad
・Install Twitter on the MacBook
・Install the German learning app "Readle" on the iPhone

That's all.

That is all, but this environment setup was incredibly effective.

Listing the effects I gained:

・The number of times I opened my MacBook because I was curious about Twitter increased.
・After checking Twitter on my MacBook, I started doing work or clearing my to-do list while I was at it.
・When I felt that opening the MacBook was unexpectedly troublesome or annoying, I couldn't check Twitter, so I shifted to a different time.
・The number of times I opened my iPad because I was curious about Instagram increased.
・I started trying to read books on Kindle while I had the iPad in my hand.
・Increased time using the iPad meant increased time watching movies in German or reading books.
・The time spent on social media dropped drastically.
・I started wanting to do something in my spare time, so I began studying German.
・I have been studying German every day for 30 days straight.
・When I have free time, I now think about reading a book or doing some training.
・Input time has increased.
・Since I only carry my smartphone when I go out, I started reaching for German apps when I have free time while out.
・Since the only things I can do on my iPhone are use German apps, LINE, or Apple Music, my iPhone usage time while out has dropped drastically.

And so, I am feeling the effects in a good way.

Motivation is proportional to the time invested.
Motivation is something that wells up after you start cleaning.

By changing my environment, I fully utilized these principles to "automatically" manipulate myself.

What kept me tied to my smartphone were Twitter and Instagram. These were, so to speak, large customer attraction devices. I used this to my advantage, using Twitter as a lure to guide me to my MacBook, and Instagram as a lure to guide me to my iPad. I created a flow leading to my MacBook and iPad.

And waiting at the destination I was guided to were my to-do list and writing work for the MacBook.
For the iPad, reading was waiting. By baiting myself with social media, I prompted myself to do these things.

As a lazy person, I am foolish, so I fell right into this trap and ended up improving exactly as I had hoped.

In this way, I succeeded in increasing my QOL.

By the way, because of this, the money I spend on reading and learning German has exploded... which has caused a different kind of problem, but I'll consider it fine.

I wrote this text on the spur of the moment, inspired by the following article.