Are you guilty of reaching for your phone first thing in the morning? Do you lose hours surreptitiously checking your social feeds? Does your phone hijack most of your time? Don’t feel too bad – it happens to the best of us. Social media is designed to be addictive and deliver instant dopamine hits with every click or tap. It is meant to capture and hold our attention for as long as possible. So much so that we end up wasting a lot of time that could have been used towards other, more productive endeavors.

Social media is not all that terrible. There are good sides to social media too.  We get to see inspiration and beauty. We learn new things. We get to reconnect with friends and family. We discover new things. As long as we use it deliberately and keep our intentions focused on the benefits of social media, we are not reduced to being just a passive observer. There’s so much we can learn and so much inspiration we can get online. But if we use social media to waste time or distract ourselves from more important issues, it’s not really beneficial nor rejuvenating.

To avoid the social media mindless scrolling, time wasting trap, here are some tips to be more deliberate with the time you spend on social media.

Question your intentions

When you succumb to the lure of turning to a social media app, here are 2 things to ask yourself:

1. What can I learn? – define the lesson/s you want to take from this interaction. Did you want to learn a recipe? Do you want to see the origin of “king cakes”? Did you want to see images of gift wrapping to inspire new ideas?
2. Is this important? If it’s not – it can wait. Bookmark the page or save the post if you plan on reviewing the information.

Avoid the pitfalls

1. Disable your notifications – it’s easy. Go to your phone settings > notifications > manage all
2. Reduce the number of accounts you follow or subscribe to – don’t follow all the celebrities, product pages, online stores, etc. Really think about who you want to see on your feed. Me? I limit myself to following only “real people”, since my intention is to keep abreast on how my friends are doing.
3. Enable your pop-up blockers
4. Check out social media blocker apps to help you stay focused and productive

Set boundaries

Determine how much time you’ll spend browsing social media apps

Determine how many platforms you’ll visit. Don’t just mindlessly cycle through all of your social media apps hoping for a thing that will catch your attention. 

Step away from social media

We all need a social media detox from time to time. Take a vacation from Facebook for one full day. Stop scrolling through Twitter for a full week. Limit your Instagram uploads to a theme (vacation pictures, food, pets, etc.) Take the time to reconnect with others in person when you disconnect from social media.

What are your tried and tested social media detox tips? Share them with us in the comments. Remember to work smart and be a blessing to someone today. Stay safe and healthy!

Written by Jaie O. TheHelp