Social media distraction

I hit Facebook at least 5 times a day, twitter  at least 10 times, gmail around 5-10 times, HN at least twice. Amidst these, there are multiple times I chat on IM, answer phone calls or read messages. At the outset, this behavior colludes concentration and focus required for churning out good software products. Nicholas Carr describes this behavior more elaborately in his book The Shallows. He describes what the internet and google especially, is doing to the human brain.

Is this rampant multitasking essentially bad ? While it's a debatable question, I think it's bad for creativity. Anyone who's seen John Cleese's video on youtube will immediately recognize this. For creativity to bloom in your mind, you need a meditative sort of an atmosphere, in which you can let your thoughts flow freely. This has to be done for a specific duration of time, let's say 30 minutes to an hour. Today's internet setting, like the one I've described as my day-day affair, is extremely crippling for unleashing creativity and without creativity, innovation is crippled as well. 

While I don't believe that my behavior is an exception, there are measures that can be taken to void distraction and be more focused and creative. Several thought leaders have suggested these methods but I personally find these very hard to follow:

1. Wake up early, between 5.30 and 6 and reserve about 30 minutes for creative thinking by just sitting still and letting the thoughts race across your mind.

2. Do not open email as the first order of the day. 

3. Focus on the most difficult task of the day, first. 

4. Reserve time slots for email and social networking activities. Preferably twice or thrice a day. Definitely not early in the morning.

5. Take scheduled breaks during the day to just walk around.

6. Finally, before hitting the bed, just remember a gist of your completed tasks.

I'm trying out most of these suggestions, but I find sitting still to be the toughest, closely followed by waking up early. I've been moderately successful at not checking email as the first order of the day and taking scheduled breaks for walks are fairly easy. 

I am getting tired of these addictive social media habits, and can feel their effects on my mind. However, it's very difficult to get out of this addiction, one because it's so damn easy to type a URL in a browser and get distracted. Reminds me of a friend who said why it's so hard to quit smoking - it's so damn easy to find a cigarette and light it.