And I’m not talking about food! Being selective about our social media use isn’t a new idea, but I’m having some success with some of my little rules so I thought they’d be worth sharing.
No apps: I don’t have any social media apps on my phone- (only exception is Tik Tok and YouTube- see below for their rules.)
Do not disturb default: The normal mode for my phone is do not disturb. That means that nothing interrupts me unless I want it to. When I have time to check my phone, I physically have to check for any messages or phone calls. It’s incredibly freeing being on my own clock like this. It does seem unusual to me that we should be interrupted all day at any time simply because technology now allows it. I don’t think it’s natural to be at everyone’s beck and call.
Email: This is definitely my weakness so I have to be strict sometimes. All of my work is attached to emails so there are seasons when I’m in and out of email all day BUT I take a leaf from Tim Ferriss’ book here. He teaches to batch email, that is check it and deal with it only twice a day- 12pm and 4 pm. You’ll be amazed at how quick it actually is. The alternative for me was checking it sporadically throughout the day and that wasted so much time and energy. Batching is where it’s at.
Delayed gratification: As mentioned above, I do have YouTube and Tik Tok on my phone. They’re there because I upload my daily video to both platforms. I found this was a bit of a flaw in my plan, because I’d go on to upload ad get trapped. Worse still, I’d go on before I’d made my video and check to see how many likes or views my previous video had. This wasn’t helping me. New rule! I can only go on these apps ONCE per day and that’s to upload that days video. This means I’m using it to produce rather than consume AND I get the added treat of seeing how my previous video is going. It’s win win.
