How do I stop feeling like time is slipping away while working on my phone?

This is the oldest complaint dressed in new clothes. Laozi would recognize it instantly—the feeling that you're moving without moving, busy without progress. The trap isn't the phone itself; it's that we've forgotten to notice the gap between intention and action. Start small. Before you open an app, pause and name what you're actually doing. Not 'checking email'—that's vague. 'I'm responding to three messages about the client proposal.' Specificity creates a container. Your attention knows where it's going. Then notice what happens after. Did you do the thing? Or did seventeen minutes pass and you're now reading about someone's vacation? No judgment—this is information, not failure. The examined digital life is the only one worth living. Time doesn't slip away. Our attention does. You can't stop that completely, but you can stop pretending it's not happening. That awareness alone changes the rhythm. You might still lose ten minutes. But you'll know you lost it, and that knowing is the first move toward wu wei—action that doesn't exhaust you because it's not fighting your own nature.