5 Ways To Balance Your Social Media Life
So Remember when I mentioned that I had a little Social Media Detox earlier in the year?
& also how important & wonderful the power of social media can be?
Well, I've often found it quite difficult to maintain a healthy balance between using technology & completely switching off.
So here are 5 ways to balance your social media life & not let technology completely over!
5 Ways To Balance Your Social (Media) Life
- Go on Holiday
Okay. No. Hear Me Out.
What I mean here is take regular SCHEDULED breaks that are non-negotiables when it comes to the internet, devices or social media.
For me, this is the morning & last thing at night where I’ll enable ‘Calls Only’ on my phone. That way only the really important phone calls would come through.
don’t want my newsfeed to be featuring anywhere near my dreams, thank you v much!
I've been trying to use an old school alarm clock & an old iPod with the Sleep Cycle app as an alarm clock [yes, I do need a back – up just in case I hit snooze! & yes, it *may* be a placebo but I've dipped in and out of it & whatever it is, something about having it on has had a positive effect on my sleeping patterns!]
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It might also mean you turn off work emails at the weekend or at the end of the day.
This has helped my stress levels NO END. If you're like me, seeing constant notifications/emails (often actually really unimportant) gets me into a little frenzy.
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Whatever line of work you're in, it's easy to feel you're indispensible or that the work or project may fall through if you're constantly not available.
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Don't get me wrong, there's a time & a place to keep these things on, particularly if you're working to a deadline but in general, it's healthy to leave work at work from time to time, when you can.
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I've mentioned this before but sometimes we can get so 'addicted' to 'feeling busy' that we kid ourselves into thinking some technology free time is an actual fact so refreshing and perhaps the best antidote to being more productive.
- Set a Time
For Emails, Facebook & Twitter
You may be a person that gets hundreds of emails.
We’ve been brought up thinking multi tasking is respectable when actually it’s actually been shown to reduce our productivity! Mindfully focusing on one task at a time by not checking your emails constantly has helped me & maybe it can help you.
- Out of Sight, Out of Mind.
I love social media as much as the next person. It can be fun, exciting & educational. However, it can also be all-consuming & overwhelming.
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Once I post using either Twitter or Instagram & I’m done using it, I’ll delete the app from my phone until the next time I want to use it.
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There used to be a time when by default, I’d find myself on social media & I wanted to stop it.
By deleting the app, I’m not tempted to refresh everytime I have a spare minute. Instead, this now acts as a mental tally as to how many times I would have actually just clicked mindlessly.
- Use Self-Control
So yes. You might be thinking, well, I don’t need to any of those thing. I have self-control.
Well hats off to you because I’ve had to cultivate my self-control over the years.
For those of us that need a helping hand in this department, you may also want to use a ‘Self-Control’ esque app. For Mac Users, this is available to download & for PC users, there are other equivalents e.g 'Cold Turkey'.
For a set time scale, the app will block all sites you have added to your ‘blacklist’:
e.g. popular social media sites or even your emails
- In Social Situations
I talked about how this image below has sadly become the norm in some social situations
&
how I consciously wanted to try and stop it where I could.
Have a ‘BlackOut Rule’ –
e.g. no devices at the dinner table whether at home or out and about.
& introduce a forfeit e.g.
Out ::
Pile all devices in the middle of the table & anyone who’s tempted will need to fork out for the bill.
At home :: Same principle but the person who gives in first can be left the washing up ;)
Do you have any tips to regain balance and control over your social media life?
I’d love to hear from you!
Until The Next Time,
Namaste | from Ananya xo
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