Beware of liminal moments. Liminal moments are the transitions from one thing to another throughout the day -- the moments where you check your phone between meetings or during a break. It’s in these “just real quick” moments when thirty seconds could turn into thirty minutes without you realizing it. One of the tools I use for dealing with this distraction trap is the “ten-minute rule.” If I find myself wanting to check my phone when I can’t think of anything better to do, I tell myself it’s fine to give in...but in ten minutes. This technique gives me time to do what behavioral psychologists call “surfing the urge.” When an urge takes hold, noticing the sensations and riding them like a wave—neither pushing them away nor acting on them—helps us cope until the feelings subside. If I still want to perform the action after ten minutes of urge surfing, I’m free to do it, but what I’ve found is that it’s rarely the case. Surfing the urge is a mental skill-building exercise and it helps manage the impulse towards distraction. #Indistractable #HumanBehavior #TimeManagement …see more