What I Gained by Cutting Out Social Media - At Your Fingertips Organizing

What activity do you think the average person spends 2 hours, 24 minutes doing daily? Is it learning something new? Was it achieving their goals? Is it spending quality time with family and friends? Nope to all three! According to Exploding Topics, that’s the amount of time the average person spends on social media.  

I don’t know about you but I love social media. Yet not long ago I went on a relentless path to greater focus, improved clarity, and increased goal achievement. I realized there are several goals I want to achieve and if I didn’t assign a target completion date to each of them individually, they wouldn’t get done!. There are many smaller goals, each a cog in the wheel of the massive goal I want to achieve by years-end. Talk about self-imposed pressure!

So my dilemma was this—how do I get it all done while balancing the other important things in my life (relationships, fitness, spiritual, financial, and of course, my passion— teaching people how to declutter/simplify their lives, etc.)?

• Could I buy an extra hour to add to each day? Nope!
• Could I buy an 8th day to add to my weekly calendar? Nope!
• Could I examine and modify how I spend the 1,440 minutes God gives me each day? Absolutely!

I used to spend 30-60 minutes daily on my personal and business social media accounts before I decided it was too much. So I chose to take a break—not only for my personal use but also for business. That probably was not the best strategic move I could have made as a solopreneur, but I needed to make a colossal and drastic change to my schedule and declutter it! And if you suffer from any of the following negative effects of social media, you want to consider a change as well.

Possible Negative Impacts of Social Media:

While there are several positive impacts of social media, there are several negatives as well. According to an article in The Job Network:

1. You get down on yourself: Social media increases anxiety and decreases self-esteem.

2. You distort reality: People’s lives on social media are typically not as glamorous as they make them out to be.

3. It’s not actually social: Social media doesn’t come close to spending quality time with family and friends in person, on the phone, etc.

4. You’ve become a jerk: Some people give their phones/social media more attention than the people they’re with.

5. Your life is public: Don’t forget that once you post a text or image, it’s out there FOREVER! Ugh!

6. You’re distracted: Think about all the time you waste on social media when there are things far more important you could be spending your time on.

15 Tips to reduce your online time:

So how do you reduce your social media time? Here are 15 strategies to get you started.

1. Track the amount of time you currently spend and if it’s too much for your liking, set a daily limit.
2. Find an accountability partner and report your results to them at the end of each day.
3. Set up positive reinforcement-for example, social media will be your reward only if/when you achieve your daily goal(s). 
4. Set rules for yourself such as no personal social media during your most productive hours; only access it during your “down” time, don’t check it first thing in the morning or before going to bed, and only check it at certain times and for certain durations every day, etc.
5. Stop being a jerk- don’t use it while in the company of others, while in public, etc.
6. Quit cold turkey for a certain timeframe (as I did) to reset your own and others’ expectations.
7. Reduce social media time by pursuing an old hobby or finding a new one instead.
8. Replace screen time with quality visits with others either in-person or by phone.
9. Don’t carry your phone with you 24/7.
10. Delete apps for social media accounts you don’t use.
11. Turn your notifications off or reduce their frequency.
12. Use your cell phone’s features or an app to monitor your screen time.
13. Deactivate your social media accounts.
14. Activate your smartphone’s grayscale (aka black & white mode) feature. This turns everything into black & white which some people find makes social media boring.
15. Use Focus Mode for apps you want to restrict so you can’t open or get notifications from them when you start Focus Mode. 

What I Gained:

As adults, our schedules are typically booked solid running from one commitment to the next which is far from healthy. Once I eliminated social media from my daily schedule, I experienced the following:

• An extra 60 minutes per day that I instead reinvested in my personal and professional growth
• A decluttered mind
• More time to do other things like move (fitness), practice self-care, plan, reflect, learn and grow, relax, and yes, achieve goals
• FUN because you can fill the extra time you gain with activities that nourish your mind, body, and relationships. 
• Reduced mental fatigue
• Improved mood

This article takes it a step further and discusses additional physical and psychological benefits of more free time:
1. Time slows down: When we practice wonder and feel “awe”, we cultivate patience, gratitude both of which are a gateway to thriving  

2. Boosts longevity: Studies show that people who practice being present enjoy less illness, fewer social struggles, and less toxic stress

3. Flourishes our “flow” state: In other words, our passion connects us to our purpose- the place we explore that is in a “flow” state when we lose track of time and the process itself is the reward

4. Boosts problem-solving, memory, and creativity

5. Less stress and a calm brain

6. Deep connection with self, others, nature, world, spiritual and physical

LET ME HELP YOU:
If you’re still reading, I assume you were intrigued by more than the title of this blog because you continued reading to the end. So may I be so bold as to assume that you’re interested in gaining more time every day as well? If so, what’s your “why?”:

• WHY do YOU want to reduce/delete social media from your life? 
• WHAT do you want to spend more time doing instead?  

Please comment below to inspire me and others.

The more social media we have, the more we think we’re connecting, yet we are really disconnecting from each other.                        JR, French Artist