A lot is going on in our lives from work, social life, family and everything in between. But one thing that takes up a chunk of our lives is social media. The need to be always on it to support each other. I want to talk about ways to avoid the constant pull to grab the phone to check social media.

Create Time

When we allow ourselves to always be available for social media engagement or support, we take away time in our day for other tasks like meaningful work. Sometimes, we believe that engagement is meaningful and makes someone’s day a little better, but we forget what this is taking away from us. I know the rationale is it only takes a minute or two to like a picture, yet it never is as brief as we think because we fall into the rabbit hole. The intention to check Instagram leads to Snapchat, TikTok and all the other social apps on our device.

When we finally surface, ten minutes to an hour or more is lost. As we do this more and more throughout the day, it compounds to being the majority of the day. Not to mention builds up more anxiety about our other daily tasks.

However, by creating specific spaces, we can remove the ability to fall into the rabbit hole. I tend to set a timer if it is during work hours or as a notification to stop. But, you can easily set a time that is before work begins or after it.

Put The Phone Down

We keep our phones next to us or smartwatches on our wrist to relieve the feeling of missing out even though we mask it as being there for emergency purposes only.

Yet, now it is also a source of escaping being in the moment or alone with our thoughts. By doing this, we permit ourselves to burry stress, anxiety and even personal growth instead of dealing with them as they come.

However, we can bring ourselves into the present moment to deal with anything that arises by moving our phones out of sight for a few hours a day, muting social media notifications while leaving emergency ones on, like text, phone calls etc. The excuse that social media is an emergency tool is a load of crap. Anyone who counts as essential or emergency has other ways of contacting us.

I guarantee doing this will allow for a more productive day. Furthermore, it will remove the emotional and physical drain that comes with constantly checking our phones.

Create a System

For those who find themselves unable to put the phone down or create time. Creating a reward style system is a good starting point. After finishing up a work task or a few, take a brief break. During this time, check all your socials to relieve some tension that was building up.

By doing this, you are creating a habit that prioritizes productivity instead of social media.