Have a Better 2025 With This One Crazy Trick
A new year, whenever you celebrate it, is a chance to look forward and think about what you want to accomplish in the new year.
These goals might be in terms of revenues and profits. You might also want to set personal goals: training for a marathon or triathlon, or building in that all-important pause before you react so you can make sure it’s your thinky brain helping with the decision and not the emotional one, maybe connecting more with your existing network.
Setting resolutions typically doesn’t work (the gym that’s full after work in January is empty at the same time by end of February.) Some people have a word or phrase they use to guide them through the year. I haven’t figured out what mine is yet.
One “resolution” to rule them all
Having said that, I think most adults, especially business owners, can improve their 2025 just by deciding to spend less time in front of screens at home. Whether that’s your phone screen, your laptop or tablet, or your TV screen.
When you’re constantly scrolling through your phone, you are allowing other people (especially advertisers) to take over your time and attention. They dictate what you look at and what you see on “social” media and other algorithm-based platforms. So getting off your phone allows you to take back more control. Same for laptops and tablets.
I’m as guilty as anyone of scrolling through “social” at the end of the day and “engaging” with my friends on an asynchronous platform. When I know that it’s not satisfying the need all brains have for actual human connection the way phone calls and in-person visits (and probably videoconferences) do. I’ll watch YouTube instead of getting out my cross-stitch. Some nights I don’t practice my cello but watch something on a streaming channel instead.
When it comes to screens after work, I am very much not perfect! (I am usually pretty good when I’m at work though.)
We’re all so used to being overloaded with content that you might wonder… if you're not passively consuming someone else’s content, then how can you possibly entertain yourself??
There’s more to life than screens
Now, I get why younger generations like Millennials and younger are so hooked on screens. They’ve mostly grown up with them and are used to games with specific rules and characters. They had less time in unstructured play as kids than those of us who are older.
GenX, though? (I do know a bunch of Gen Xers who have no presence on “social” at all.) We were kicked out of the house and told to go play outside all summer. We didn’t have games ready-made with plots and stories and characters. We had to go out there and make horses and guns out of sticks so we could play Cowboys and Indians (I know, bad name for it.)
We had to invent stories about trolls who lived under bridges or monsters that were coming through the forest to eat us RIGHT NOW. We had a lot of unstructured play, which meant we had to use our imaginations. And yes, the TV was sometimes the babysitter, but we were limited in what we could watch because there were only a handful of channels. So our generation, of all people, should be able to put the screens down. (And yet!)
Even as an adult, being able to entertain yourself without a screen to scroll through is a skill worth having. Staring blankly out the window for a while is actually a good way to get the creative juices flowing — not just for the arts, but also for creative problem solving.
Screens by and large don’t give us the socializing that we need (except possibly videoconferencing.) Hanging out with your friends in person or calling one up on the phone is a great way to connect and have fun.
Crafts, creative play, hobbies, and other fun activities that you enjoy are also good for you. You don’t have to be good at anything. You might want to be, but that’s not really the point. So what if your quilt is crazy and the colors don’t match?
So what if your pottery objet looks like someone mashed it with a hammer and then tried to set it on fire? So what if the painting you made of your cat looks like Satan coming to life? (Actually, that one might be spot on. NVM.)
These activities are better for your brain than what you consume passively which means… drumroll please… they actually help you be more productive when you’re back at work. They help you refill your productivity tank. Working long hours, scrolling through “social”, reading soundbites about the news? They don’t.
So what will you do differently in 2025? Make it something that brings joy and/or harmony. Life’s too short for anything else.
My book, featuring the LaserBrainTM method of productivity, is coming out in 2025! To get on the mailing list (including some freebies!), click here .
Photo by Anton Shcherbakov on Unsplash.