Sometime in February, after reading the Power of Habit, I realized my morning routine started with 15-30 minutes if mindlessly checking social media. How did I let that happen? It was a completely involuntary impulse to grab my phone when I woke up, check to see my sleep score through Fitbit, then start scrolling through the pretty pictures on instagram and the autoplay facebook videos. So one day last month, I deleted all social media apps on my phone. Well, except reddit.
My two reasons for going against the norm are simple. 1. I wasted SO much time and received no benefit from it and 2. It was making me feel discontent with how my life was progressing. I’m at the age where everyone is pregnant or has had babies and as I near a milestone birthday I was getting anxious that I’d be late to the party. J and I have our reasons for waiting. It’s silly for me to feel my life lacks in any way. I know we will in the future (either naturally or through adoption), I need to enjoy the end of my child-free life while I can.
It’s a terrible downside to social media. People post cute “gram worthy” pictures that don’t tell the whole story or worse, fabricate the story completely for more likes. That’s not a world I feel compelled to be part of anymore. I will say, however, I really miss the hilarious memes from some accounts on Instagram, which is why I kept Reddit. It doesn’t have the same negative mental impact on me the way Facebook, Instagram, and pinterest (which I also deleted) did.
It’s been about a month since I have been on any of the three social media apps I previously couldn’t stop scrolling through. I am amazed how removing the temptation has impacted my daily life now.
Mornings.
These days I rise around 6-7 am. When I wake up, I instantly check my fitbit app to see how I slept. Then sometimes I read the Skimm, which is an email subscription for news summaries in a casually written tone. I’ll read that when I’m groggy and can’t quite convince myself to leave a warm bed just yet. Other days I instantly put on sweats and go walk on my treadmill until I burn 100 calories. Then I spend 30 mins thinking about what I want to accomplish at work or personal relationships I want to check in on that day while I stretch and have my coffee. After breakfast I typically have 30 mins before I have to log on for work so I will read or practice my ukulele. It has been so calming.
Evenings.
After work, I’m always tense and stressed out by my demanding job. The first the I do is take my dogs for a walk. Get the heart pumping and just get out of the house to release the horrible knot in my shoulder that forms throughout a day. After cooking and eating dinner, I typically workout and fill the time I used to scroll through social media by cleaning while listening to an audiobook, playing my ukulele (sometime J joins in with his guitar) or watching a show or movie with J without any distractions.
The result.
In February alone I read 5 books and went from not knowing how to play the ukulele to learning 10 chords and several songs including La Vie En Rose. I exercised 19/28 days and my productivity at work has increased.
I’ve really seen a drastic change in my daily life and would recommend that people try this experiment if they feel at all inclined to take a break. I’m not sure if this is a break or a permanent change for me, but as of now, I’m content living with a more intentional life for just my own benefit.
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