how to ACTUALLY stop wasting time on social media

Another day went by, and you spent your whole day scrolling on social media while laying on your bed. You might look back and think, "What did I do today?" Most of us have projects and some activities that we would like to do someday, but for some reason, someday never comes. Are you still telling yourself that you don't have time? It's not that we don't have time; we don't make time.

If you're thinking that you don't have time, I highly recommend you to check your screen time and track what you're spending your time on. How much time are you spending on social media for meaningless scrolling? If we could stop spending time on social media, absorbing unnecessary information, and use this time for the things that matter, don't you think we would be in such a different place?

So rather than getting bombarded with irrelevant information, I think now is the best time to say no and focus on what matters. This video is inspired by the book Make Time. So, the first tip will be to turn off your notifications. You know, notifications are made for stealing your attention because notifications are designed for that. As an app developer, think about it; of course, you want your users to spend more time on your platform so that you can make more money.

Rather than getting bombarded with notifications and getting distracted while you're studying or working, I highly recommend you to turn them off. Because if you don't have notifications, you might not really think about those apps. Notifications are reminders for you to open the app because they're kind of proving that there is a reason for you to use that app.

I turned off all of my notifications, other than iMessage and WhatsApp, and even on WhatsApp, I turned off all of the group chat notifications other than the family group. Because since I live in another country, if something necessary happens, I would like to get informed. So, look back at your WhatsApp, iMessage, and all of the groups, and if they're unnecessary, turn them off. And also, on your Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, Snapchat, I don't know, whatever social media platform you use, turn off all the notifications. They're just begging for your attention.

Okay, so the second tip will be to increase the friction. The more friction there is, the harder it becomes for you to do that act. Unlocking your phone and opening your favorite time-sucking app is, unfortunately, really easy. So in order to prevent spending time on Instagram, YouTube, or TikTok, whatever, the best thing is increasing the activation energy. I recommend using an app called One Sec, which was recommended by my really close friend Izzy. By the way, this video is not sponsored by One Sec or whatever; I just have been using it for a couple of days, and I really liked it, so I decided to show it in this video.

So on the One Sec app, if you do the setup, which is really easy and it shows you on the app, it forces you to take a deep breath before using those social medias. It also asks you whether you want to continue using that. Sometimes I find myself autopiloting to open the Instagram app without thinking about anything or without even getting notifications because I turned off my notifications, but still, it just became a habit for me to open that up and scroll mindlessly.

But since I have the One Sec app, firstly, it just allows me to stop and think back—do I really need to scroll right now? Is there any reason for me to open this app and use a bit of time for my life? You know, and then, while thinking about this, you can take a deep breath. It just allows you to become more mindful.

You might think, "Oh, this is really annoying," but the whole point is that the app being annoying before you open these apps really allows you to kind of increase the friction. So that, you know, rather than just pressing on the app and then scrolling, it's now a bit harder. Trust me, it is really annoying!

For example, let me show you. Let's say I want to click on YouTube. I click it, and the moment I click it, it opens the One Sec app. As you can see, it allows me to take a deep breath and makes me wait for a bit. Then, it also shows how many times you tried to open the app that day. Here, I don't want to open YouTube and also continue on YouTube since I want to show you guys. I'm picking "continue," and then it asks for your intention—for whatever reason you're opening this up. You open "continue," and then the app opens.

So as you can see, it takes a bit of time for you to open that up, and this annoyiness kind of stopped me from opening YouTube because it's so annoying. But since this app requires a subscription, another way you can increase the friction is by deleting every single time you use the app. So let's say for Instagram, I usually find that one Sec is not enough for me to stop using Instagram, because for some reason I'm addicted to scrolling on reels, and these short-form types of content really get me scrolling endlessly.

So if you don't want to pay for One Sec, what you can do is delete the app after every single usage and re-download it whenever you want to use it. Trust me, since it takes a bit of time for you to delete it and then re-download it and re-log in, it increases the friction with time.

So it is a free way to do it, but if you don't want to really spend time on it, you can also use One Sec. When discussing about spending our time wisely online, I would like to introduce today's sponsor, Skillshare, which will allow you to increase the amount of value that you get from the internet. Skillshare is an online learning community with thousands of classes and members across over 150 countries who came together to find inspiration and take their creativity journey to the next step.

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And now, let's get back into the video. So the tip number three will be don't check your phone while working, and for that, I would recommend using apps such as Forest or any other focused-type apps. There are tons of them. Unfortunately, Forest on iPhones is not free, but I think on Android it's free, and also on PC, I think it's free. Other than that, you can use any sort of focus working app which kind of works like Forest.

Another thing that I really love about iPhones is that there is a Do Not Disturb mode. As you can see, my phone is currently on Do Not Disturb mode. The great thing about the Do Not Disturb mode is that they updated it, and now you have various types of Do Not Disturb modes. You can really add your own and then change the settings. In my Do Not Disturb mode, if somebody is calling me two times, I will get the notification on the second time. And if someone who is added to my favorites, which are my family members, calls me even on Do Not Disturb mode, I will get the call notification.

This is because my family doesn't really call me other than the really important times because I would usually call them if something urgent happens, and I will always get a notification. So you don't really have the anxiety of, "Oh, something might happen to my family or anything." If you have kids or if you have family, I think you can really relate to this, especially when living abroad. So I would really recommend turning on Do Not Disturb mode and also using apps like Forest.

Okay, so another tip will be tracking your screen time. I think just looking at it at the end of the day or maybe at the end of the week, because it gives you a summary on iPhones, and seeing how much time you spend on each app, and really analyzing it and looking back allows you to give yourself an honest feedback. Sometimes, I feel like time passes on these apps, and when you can see it at the end of the day with a clear number, I feel like it is much easier for us to visualize how we are spending our time.

It is important to understand where your time is going for fixing all these problems, so I would highly recommend checking your screen time each day and giving yourself an honest feedback about what you can improve and why this is happening. In order to decrease the amount of time that you use in these apps, you can use the other tips that I gave.

Okay, so my last tip will be to find an accountability buddy. I think the best way to solve any sort of problem is finding someone who can support you during this hard time because whenever we try to do something alone, it is much harder. But if we know that we're not alone and have someone that can also do the same things together, it's much easier.

You know, the way you can kind of make it fun is that you can share your screen time at the end of the day or at the end of the week, like the average screen time, and compete with your friends. You can either create a WhatsApp group or any type of group, and the one who has spent the most time on screen will give five dollars to the other person or can purchase coffee or boba or whatever for the other person. Or you can create a group with three or four people so that the amount that you need to pay will increase.

That also increases the friction, and I feel like when you make it kind of like a competition with your friends, it's much fun, and it turns into a game rather than trying to quit social media. It's now a challenge with your friends. If you're trying to create a new habit or if you're trying to break a new habit, it is always a great idea to find an accountability buddy.

The last thing that you can do is give up all of the social media platforms that you think are unnecessary. I'm actually kind of planning to leave Instagram for I don't know, maybe 45 or 50 days, but I am not really sure about it. I'm thinking about the pros and cons of leaving it, and since I'm a creator and since I make money from it, I'm currently really thinking about it.

But at the same time, the amount of value that I get versus the amount of time I spent, when I think about it, it's not really worth it. Don't be surprised if I would release some sort of video saying I'm gonna quit social media or something. Being more mindful and creating real connections out of social media in real life, I think it's becoming much more important, especially after COVID time. People are trying to socialize more in person, and there might be a huge benefit of leaving social media.

But I cannot really talk about it yet since I haven't done it. However, I will upload another video after I've done it. For those who are interested in making more time and trying to spend less time on social media, I would highly recommend the book called Make Time. There are 87 tactics you can use and pick from, so I will link it down below too.

Thank you, Skillshare, for sponsoring this video!