Technology was meant to make our lives easier. Allow us to focus on the things that matter. To unleash our creativity.

But increasingly, I’m finding my mind more scattered than ever. I feel a relentless pull in different directions, thoughts constantly fighting to claim their space in the spotlight. All the while draining my energy, and leaving me feeling frustrated and exhausted.

I glimpsed a post (can’t remember where, now) talking about how AI has made us feel more anxious and drained rather than unburdened and free. That’s exactly how I feel –– a barrage of ideas, words, tasks, things to remember tumbling at me from all directions. (Many of them of my own construction –– the progress of tech only making it easier to try out just one more thing, tinker with just another idea, all the while letting the dozens of other ideas languish in the discarded “I’ll get back to that soon” pile).

And so I feel it pertinent to consider the concept of slowing down. Unplugging from tech is just a means to the end –– not the end itself. Because simply deleting Instagram, or setting screen time limits, is a fix that can easily be reversed. And its absence only exacerbates the problem. Its absence creates a mounting backlog of things to do once the timer resets –– all the while leaving one feeling more anxious than when they disconnected.

It’s about finding nourishment to fulfil that absence. For me, I think that’s in words. It’s easier said than done, however. The stream of ideas –– accelerated by the allure of that prompt box eager to answer the next seemingly pertinent question that’s shoved its way to the coveted top of mind spot –– means distraction is a common companion. I find it harder to slow my mind, to be able to just relish in my own thoughts and focus on one thing, solidly, at a time. Its the reason why that third draft of the mystery novel lies in a state over in Scrivener.

It’s a good thing, then, that the crispness of late autumn is finally here. That brisk air does wonders as a natural F5. And exercises like this very post help to literally slow my mind down, to intentionally disconnect from the cycle of ideating, and just revel in the blank space of the composer, the blinking cursor, unfolding one letter after another.