A growing movement called “monk mode” is said to be helping people overcome the challenge of helping people focus on work or other tasks without being distracted by social media.
Monk mode is a productivity approach that involves dedicating yourself to a single task with no tech or other distractions. It’s become increasingly popular in recent years, with videos marked with the hashtag #monkmode now having more than 77 million views on TikTok.
One person who credits monk mode with helping her to be more productive is Susie Alegre, a human rights lawyer and author based in London. When she needs to really focus on her work, she uses an app called Freedom to block her access to social media sites for however long she requires.
“I think it’s incredibly hard by willpower alone to have a smartphone and not waste a significant amount of time on it,” she says.
Another popular monk mode app is FocusMe. Its co-founder, Vladimir Druts, believes social media addiction should be taken more seriously.
“Society focuses on drug addiction or gambling,” he says. “But I think a lot of time we don’t know we are addicted to our devices and our digital crutches.”
Druts sees monk mode as a movement against an increased desire for instant gratification.
“Monk mode is a necessary contrast to say ‘you’re not going to accomplish anything unless you carve out the time every single day and just show up’,” he says.
The sources for this piece include an article in BBC.