Last week I should've been firing on all cylinders.
I'd come back from my time off feeling really refreshed. I was feeling great from disconnecting and having had a week offline.
And I was
hoping that after my 'social media detox' I'd come back with better habits around my phone and be super productive.
Well that definitely wasn't the case...
I got to Friday and embarrassingly my screen-time had been the roof!!!
I'd just slipped straight back into the same old habits. (With a few new bad ones thrown in there too)
Work emails on my phone FAR TOO long mindlessly scrolling on social media throughout the day Checking emails before
bed Looking at emails and social media as soon as I woke up
It’s so easy to fall into this trap. But it doesn’t make me feel good.
I know that when my screen time is too high I become more stressed. I feel distracted and less focused. And this easily leads to be feeling more tired and overworked.
You end up in this horrible middle ground where you aren’t fully
focused when you’re working. And you aren’t fully relaxed when you’re not.
You feel like you’re failing at both!
The reason all
this happens is boundaries. Or a lack of them.
Being fully present – whether that’s when you’re working or in your down-time – doesn’t happen by accident.
So here are the rules I’m reintroducing to bring back those boundaries...
And by setting ‘rules’ I’m being definite. No vagueness or good intentions. I either do them or don’t.
1. No social media, emails, messages for the first hour of the day (I want to start my own day first, on my own terms and then feel
ready to deal with whatever the day throws at me)
2. No work emails on my phone (I'm on my laptop enough throughout the day to respond to all emails, they don’t need to be on my phone)
3. Social media limited to 1
hour per day (It still sounds a lot doesn't it but it’s a big reduction from what I’ve been doing. I’ll set limits for these)
4. No phone on the sofa (If my phone is there I’ll pick it up. Having it away from me means I
can enjoy whatever we’re watching/reading) 5. Phone away from me when I’m working (Out of sight, out of mind. And able to fully focus on my work) 6. 30 mins reading everyday (I read loads when I was off and loved it. Filling the screen time with something positive like reading is a great way to avoid slipping back to old habits)
7. No social media, emails, messages for final hour of the day (I want to be able to fully wind-down and feel relaxed when I go to bed. Plus it'll help me sleep better)
8. Reintroduce my phone-free Sunday (This has slipped in recent weeks and I love it)
These are all things that work really well for me.
And what’s great is that I know how quickly I’ll feel better from reintroducing them.
It would've been nice to think that my ‘social media detox’ last week would’ve had more of an impact when I came back online.
Unfortunately that’s not been the case.
And that’s often the thing with detoxes.
They can be helpful in the short-term. But unless they lead to lasting behavioural change then it’s always just going to be a short-term fix.
It’s the same with things like diet and alcohol.
People do dry January and drink nothing for a whole month. Then most drink way more in February as a result. And go back to drink normally afterwards.
People will give up chocolate. Have nothing for a week or two.
Then crack, eat 3 family sized bars and that’s the ‘detox’ done.
What’s generally far more effective (whether it’s your phone usage, alcohol, chocolate, whatever) is to learn how to moderate your usage without having to go all or nothing.
That’s not to say the odd break or detox can’t be a good thing. But it needs to be combined with actual changes day to day too.
For me that means having a complete break from my phone every Sunday – along with the additional rules I'll follow everyday.
After just a few days of these new rules I already feel better. And I know that I'll see my focus, concentration, creativity and general productivity increase. As will my mood, energy levels and general mental wellbeing.
If you're spending longer on your phone than you’d like to, feel free to get on board with this too.
Steal any of these rules that I’m going to be introducing and see what works for you. And please let me know how you get on?
(I'm predicting you'll feel a lot better, very quickly!)
And if you could do with some help making changes like this to your health, wellbeing and performance, feel free to book a call and we can chat through what's going to work best for you.
It really makes you think about just what an impact social media, our phones and technology is having on our lives and our ability to focus.
(Spoiler alert – it's not a good impact!)
I'm only about a third of the way through it but I've already taken a huge amount from it. And it's making me feel a lot better about the changes I'm making to cut down my own screen-time.
