Everyone loves social media.
It's a medium to connect and communicate with friends and family, and also meet new people. So it's engaging. Extremely engaging.
Social media growth increases every day. According to Statistics, more than half of the world now uses social media. The average daily spent time using social media is 2hr 29 minutes.
It's tough resisting the urge to scroll through your feed. Especially when you have a picture uploaded and would like to check the number of likes and comments on the post. However, spending so much time on Social media can kill your productivity and leave you cranky, lazy, and unproductive.
In this post, I'll be telling you how to avoid social media distractions and take control of it.
Let's begin
How to beat Social Media Distractions
1. Create a schedule for social media
There is time for everything including social media. If you use the whole day scrolling through Instagram and Facebook feeds, watching pictures and videos without doing anything productive then you're threading the wrong path. Social media should have its own time. Let's see an example.
Your schedule can look like this:
I will do my homework from 5:30 pm - 6:15 pm, then check whatsapp messages from 6:30 - 6:50 pm.
I will attend classes from 8:00 am - 12:00 pm, then scroll through my Instagram feed during the 20 minutes break.
When you set a particular time for social media, stick to it. Be disciplined and understand that you're doing yourself a lot of good that your future self will thank you for. Also, ensure your social media time comes after doing something productive. Very Important.
2. Turn off Alerts and Notifications
Have you tried focusing on something essential either your assignments, study, or classes, then your phone vibrates? You check it and discover it's a Whatsapp message from a friend or relative that you can't resist. You have no choice but to reply to the message.
Or maybe it's an alert about an episode from one of your favorite channels on Youtube. You rush immediately to watch the video, forgetting the important thing you're doing. That's one of the disadvantages of turning your social media notifications on. Notifications help apps grab your attention.
Whenever you have an important task, I suggest you turn off the notifications and finish your task first. It will help you stay more focused.
For example, I turned off all my social media alerts because I discovered that I was getting addicted to social media. I can only respond to messages, watch videos and check updates when I'm using the app.
3. Control your App Usage
This is very helpful especially when you cannot leave an app on your own. You can set an app's limit. Once it's time, the app closes on its own. You can find this feature on your phone's settings.
This is one of the measures that work for me. I set my limit for each social media app to 30 minutes per day. If you want this to work for you, you have to be disciplined and make sure the app stays closed without extending the limit.
4. Try a Social Media Fast
Okay, I get it. This will be tough in the beginning.
But, trying this method will help you understand that you can be productive without social media. This helps tremendously when you have a tight schedule, during exams, or anytime you have an important task to work on. You can focus more on your task and stay clear of social media till you're done. You'll be surprised at what you achieve when you try this.
5. Create a quiet and distraction-free Place
It's difficult staying away from social media. However, you can stop yourself by creating a quiet place free from distractions. When you do this, make sure that your phone is far from you. Also, resist the temptation of leaving this place. You can do it whenever you have work or an assignment. It will not be easy in the beginning, but with time you will adjust.
Finally,
It's hard staying off social media. Thankfully, there are measures you can take to overcome the urge of staying longer than you should.
You can start by setting a social media schedule to set aside a particular time in a day for it. Turn off alerts and notifications to avoid getting distracted from what you're doing. Limit your app's usage to control the amount of time you spend on each app.
Try a social media fast to stay clear of social media for a particular time, maybe in hours, days, weeks, or even months. Lastly, create a distraction-free environment.