21st Century Addictions – Matt Jennings

I’ve always been obsessed with this term ‘life optimization’.

It’s where your attention is only placed and consumed by the things in life that are going to support you and your endeavors now, and into the future.

Its the epitome of your perfect day. It’s how you want your dream day to be.

The thing is, we have more control over our time than we’d admit, but every day we succumb to modern day addictions which rob us from the future we all deserve.

These modern day addictions are keeping us fat, sick, time poor and distracted.

The worst thing is, these aren’t even considered addictions in modern society.

But they are.

The 4 Deadly Addictions of the 21st Century

Consider this list for a moment:

Coffee
Screentime
Alcohol
Sugar and/or Carbs

I can almost guarantee that one of these is a vice of yours.

While you might not think of them as addictions, removing them from your life give you the level up in life you need.

Like others…

You’ve thought about giving one of these up.

You’ve tried to give one of these up.

But you failed.

Don’t worry, you’re not alone.

Society has been designed to keep us as good little brainwashed worker bees, bringing honey back to the hive. If we didn’t the hive would collapse.

These 21st century addictions and cheap dopamine hits are our reward for being good little worker bees.

Break the chain of cheap dopamine and regain control of your life with these clever little hacks.

Giving up your Vices. Start Here.

Cutting out the above vices will give you such a boost in your health, productivity and finances. I recommend you work on removing them from your life.

The problem is, they are so engrained in our lives that they become hard to give up. They are addictive by nature.

So to embark on this journey.

Choose one habit at a time and put in place the steps I outline below to remove them from your life.

1) Caffeine

I love coffee, and when I say that, I actually mean it.

But, there came a point where I started to question if the positives outweighed the negatives. Negatives I was experiencing like:

The excruciating pain in my stomach after drinking coffee on an empty stomach. I’m so desperate for that first coffee of the day.
Coffee being the first thing I thought of when I woke up each day – desperate to get my fix.
Every time I drank coffee my throat became dry, making speaking difficult.
The fact that I lost the ability to focus for long periods of time without feeling like I ‘need another coffee’.
The issue with adrenal fatigue and how come midday I felt wired yet unnecessarily tired.

Once I started noticing these negative effects, I asked myself what I did and how I felt before coffee.

I had loads of energy, I could focus for hours on end, I didn’t feel wired, and I slept well.

All without the addiction to caffeine.

It’s been almost two months now and I’m pleased to say life is better without coffee. Yes I still crave it, but I know that my new found ability to focus far outweighs the short term buzz I get from coffee.

Quit Coffee Now

Follow these steps to reduce your reliance on coffee and get off it for good.

Decide whether to ween yourself off coffee or go cold turkey. If you are going cold turkey you’ll feel the effects of caffeine withdrawal for a good few days – life won’t be as fun. If you ween yourself off coffee, you might find the addiction creeping up on you after making good progress getting off it.
Substitute with a replacement beverage. It’s not just caffeine you have to break your addiction from, it’s also the habit of preparing and drinking a beverage at a certain time of day. Replace your usual caffeine habit with an alternative like decaf to assist in making the transition off caffeine.

2) Screentime

The amount of time we spend in front of the screen is killing our productivity. Rather, the amount of unproductive time we spend in front of screens is killing our productivity.

When I started looking at my productivity against how much time I spent on a screen, I was shocked to see how little I actually got done on a day to day basis.

The amount of ‘tiny paper cuts’ that fragmented my day was wrecking havoc on my productivity.

In the modern world, those who can manage their attention are going to be the ones who excel in life.

So its imperative that we manage it.

Thanks to a few apps, I am pleased to say I am finally getting a handle on how I am spending my time on a screen. As a result I am more productive, have more time and experience less stress.

Reduce your Screen Time Now

Start tracking your time and see how much you spend on wasted activities. Download an app called Timing (P.S if you want a good deal check out the version on Setapp. It’s much cheaper.)

Here, you can get a break down of all your screentime activity across both iPhone and Mac. Then, categorize your usage depending on the rules you set.

After a few days of tracking, you’ll be able to see where your time goes, and how to optimize it best.

Other things that can help you reduce screen time include:

Keeping your phone on silent mode
Not having your phone in your bedroom ever
Putting the phone in a different room while you work
Changing your screen profile to grayscale

3) Alcohol

Alcohol robs happiness from tomorrow, for today.

Fact.

Alcohol is one of the worst things you can do if you want to have a healthy body and clear mind. It’s poison, but for some reason it has normalized in society and , ‘has health benefits’.

Its a lie.

Not to mention the expense.

Drinking alcohol is also keeping us poor. We choose to spend money on alcohol rather than save for retirement.

Reduce Alcohol Consumption Now

To be honest it took me quite a while to get off the booze. But now I hardly ever touch it. A couple of things that helped me include:

Substituting alcohol with apple cider vinegar and soda water
If you go out drinking choose to drink non alcohol beers – no one will know you’re not drinking.
Recognize that you will feel better tomorrow if you don’t drink. Productivity gains for the win.

4) Sugar

Refined sugar is in everything. It’s making us fat and sick. The more refined sugar you can omit from your life, the healthier you’ll be.

Reduce Sugar Consumption Now

The problem is, refined sugar seems to be in everything that packaged these days . Here is what helped me get off it:

Spend a period of time on the carnivore diet to help reset your gut and remove the cravings for sugar. Initially, it will be hard and you may experience a ‘keto flu’, but after a period of time these cravings should subside.
When reintroducing sugar into your diet restrict it to fruit and honey. When every you feel like something sweet, have either fruit or honey. You’ll find that the craving subsides farily quickly. Trust me, you won’t regret it.

If you can at least get a handle on one one of these bad habits you’ll start to turn your life around. You’ll either regain your time, or improve your health.

Either way you win!

If you want help with breaking any of these habits, give me a shout and I’ll talk you through the process step by step.