Technology is constantly evolving as a means to increase our productivity, efficiency, and communication. Yet despite the fact that we can now get more work down in less time, communicate simultaneously with multiple colleagues, and even work remotely (in some cases), we aren’t becoming any happier. In most cases, it comes down to our largely negative and unhealthy relationship with technology. The good news is that it doesn’t have to be this way. When used mindfully, technology has the potential to enhance, rather than diminish, human happiness. As technology evolves further and continues to affect our daily lives, it’s more important than ever to learn how to find a balance between our gadgets, productivity, and wellbeing, in order to achieve greater happiness.
Here are five strategies that successful individuals can use to find greater happiness in an age overrun by technology:
Strategy #1: Stay Grounded With Intention
Although our already minuscule attention spans may be forever dwindling, we can learn to become less distracted and more present in our lives. It all comes down to setting the right intention by mindfully choosing when, where, why, and how we engage with technology. By setting intentions we can increase our awareness, tap into a greater sense of flow and fully immerse ourselves in the task at hand. Honing in on these skills can help us ground ourselves and channel our energy toward creating a happier future.
Stay grounded by:
- Using your guiding principles and values to focus your energies
- Eliminating distractions to increase productivity
- Consciously choosing how t to respond to technology: resist, accept, or embrace it
- Understanding others’ intentions as well as your own
- Focusing on tuning in, rather than zoning out
- Bringing your priorities to the foreground
Strategy #2: Know Thyself
Self-knowledge is power. Paying attention to the micro-decisions in our lives helps us to avoid limiting beliefs and reach more of our potential. While new technology can help us to better understand our bodies and minds and promote better decision-making, it’s still important to tap into the greatest supercomputer ever created; the human mind.
Increase your self-awareness by:
- Learning to recognize limiting beliefs that may derail your best intentions
- Magnifying your micro-decisions to achieve more of your potential
- Tracking progress in your life to determine where you have succeeded and where you have room for improvement
Strategy #3: Train Your Brain
Recent advances in positive psychology reveal that we can train our brains to improve happiness and performance by using the S.T.A.G.E. framework (Savor, Thank, Aspire, Give, and Empathize). We can create sustainable positive change in our lives through identifying a target skill set, focusing on one habit, assessing our progress, and making the change stick by setting simple, relevant, and realistic goals.
Train your brain by:
- Developing an optimistic mindset to fuel your growth
- Using the S.T.A.G.E. framework to learn skills for improving your mindset
- Tapping into technology to bolster your success and track your progress
Strategy #4: Create a Habitat for Happiness
In order to use technological advances in a way that fuels our happiness it’s important to make space both physically and mentally for new technologies. In order to create a habitat for happiness and gain control of our busy lives, we need to implement high-impact organizational skills and set effective limits and boundaries on our technology use.
Create a habitat for happiness by:
- Designing the places that we live, work, and learn in for greater happiness
- Making space in your life for future happiness by decluttering your environment and your mind
- Setting limits on your use of tech before you hit the point of diminishing returns
Strategy #5: Be a Conscious Innovator
Our future happiness is undoubtedly affected by how we interact with technology today. While it’s not always at the forefront of our minds, the way we act and behave towards technology is utilized by developers to create the technology of the future. Although the collection of our data may feel intrusive, it presents an opportunity for us to help co-create the technology of the future through how we consciously choose to engage with technology in the present.
Innovate consciously by:
- Actively envisioning the world you want
- Using existing technology to be a conscious collaborator, consumer, and catalyst for change
- Using your influence to model pro-social behaviors, create a ripple effect, and broadcast positive stories
Through setting intentions and consciously choosing how to interact with technology we can positively affect our own well-being, inadvertently affect those around us, and potentially help shape how our communities relate to technology in the future.
Originally published at medium.com