At the start of her Bates Commencement address, Angela Duckworth asked President Garry W. Jenkins to hold her phone, to avoid potential distractions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Then, Duckworth asked Jenkins to give her his phone. And then she asked everyone in the audience to hand their phones to their neighbor \u2014 again, to avoid distraction.<\/p>\n\n\n
There was a message to the unusual exercise. A psychologist and author of the bestseller Grit<\/em>, Duckworth focused on the power of \u201csituation modification”: how we can use “physical distance to create psychological distance,” especially the proximity of our phones to our selves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It’s what successful people do, she said. “Achieving what you want out of life has very little to do with forcing yourself<\/a> to act in one way or another. [S}uccessful people rarely rely on inner fortitude to resist temptations in the heat of the moment.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n Instead, they find ways to avoid temptations or distractions altogether. “Successful strivers…deliberately design their situations in ways that make wise choices easier.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n Here are 12 tips from Duckworth’s talk about how to pursue situation modification to live more mindfully:<\/p>\n\n\n\n “If you don\u2019t like how your phone grabs your attention, directs your thoughts, triggers your desires, then push it away. On the other hand, if you want something to take up more of your conscious awareness \u2014 art, poetry, a really good novel \u2014 keep close, as close as possible.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhen you need to focus deeply \u2014 put your phone in another room. Out of sight is out of mind.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cGet up and walk out the door. The blue canopy above, even on this cloudy day, while it has no marketing department, no fancy algorithm designed to keep you hooked \u2014 but whoa, what an awesome alternative to the glowing blue rectangle in the palm of your hand.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhen you\u2019re having dinner with people you care about… agree to keep your phones off the table, ideally in a zipped pocket where your habit of reaching for it will be interrupted.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cEach year, distracted driving causes nearly 800,000 accidents, more than 300,000 injuries, and more than 3,000 deaths.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n1. Use physical distance to create psychological distance<\/h5>\n\n\n\n
2. Out of sight, out of mind <\/h5>\n\n\n\n
3. Change your sky-to-screen ratio <\/h5>\n\n\n\n
4. Don\u2019t let your phone ruin dinner <\/h5>\n\n\n\n
5. Keep it out of reach behind the wheel <\/h5>\n\n\n\n
6. Move your phone out of the bedroom <\/h5>\n\n\n\n