The phone is a huge distraction. If you’re stopping every few minutes to answer a text or check an Instagram notification, two to three hours of meal prep can quickly turn into an entire day. When you go into the kitchen to start meal prepping, set your timer for two or three hours, put your phone on airplane mode so you’re not tempted to check it when it dings, and get to work.
Bonus points if you not only turn your phone on airplane mode, but you leave it in another room entirely. Studies show that even if your phone is turned off, simply having it in the same room can decrease cognitive performance and your brain’s ability to focus on a specific task—a phenomenon referred to as a “brain drain.”
You’ll be surprised at how much you can get done in a short amount of time when you’re fully focused on the task at hand. When your timer goes off, you can take a break and check in with your phone and then get back to work or call it quits for the day, whatever fits best into your meal prepping plan.