I used to spend 6hrs a day on social media, now I only spend 1hr a day. Here’s how!

Social media is a double-edged sword. It has a lot of benefits that should always be considered.

It can help you make connections with experts in your field. I myself chatted with some physicians a while ago to ask them certain questions about medicine.

It will help you connect with relatives that you have not spoken with in a long time.

In addition, it will help you become more acquainted with complex topics that you probably know nothing about.

However, recently, I realized that most trends on social media could be self-sabotaging.

The endless videos with people giving you advice on how to make your life better and how to be super rich in 45 days are awful, to say the least.

I presume most of these people are not even rich. And if they are, they are in no position to lecture others on how to manage their own lives. It is ridiculous.

There are also these kinds of posts or videos that give a lot of negative news. I personally can no longer handle such negativity.

This was the last straw.

Months ago, I opened the screen timer on my phone and was bizarrely shocked to find that I do spend around 6–7 hours per day going through social media apps.

I decided that certain actions should be implemented to stop such ferocious consumption from ruining my life.

Certain methods have helped me considerably in regulating my phone time, and I believe they can help you too.

-Be aware that a change is needed.

You should know that despite the merits of social media, most of the time you spend using those apps is wasted.

This amount of time, if spent on any other hobby or side hustle, will bring you colossal benefits in the long run.

That is exactly why you should be regulating the number of hours you scroll through those apps.

The first step to solving any problem is to acknowledge its presence in order to find ways to overcome it.

-Set a timer.

The first step I took, which I believe is the most important, was to set a timer for a maximum of 2–3 hours per day to check social media.

This will help you track the time you spend on those applications.

So, it will now be much easier to know if you have spent too much time during a particular day scrolling through social media.

-Try to find a side hustle.

Well, this is easier said than done.

Personally, it took me years to realize that writing could be my side hustle. And now, I spend a considerable amount of time a week just writing on different applications such as Medium and Quora.

Let’s say you spend around 5 hours per day checking social media. You decided to limit this time to 2 hours a day.

You should be finding a hobby or a side hustle you can do in these extra 3 hours. If not, you will probably fail to limit the time you spend on social media.

That being said, always try to practice stuff, like reading, writing, or any sports, even if you don’t feel like it.

You can try to learn some skills, such as graphic design or video editing.

You never find your side hustle if you are sitting on a couch doing nothing but staring aimlessly at the ceiling.

I suppose writing has helped me immeasurably when it comes to regulating the time I spend using social media apps.

-A personal tip.

This piece of advice may not be very helpful, but I am going to share it anyway.

I deleted apps that had the most self-destructive content.

For example, Tiktok.

The videos that get in your timeline, along with how quick they are and how quickly you can scroll through those videos, make it very likely that you will become addicted to the app.

I am not trying to ignore the valuable content you can see in Tiktok. But personally, I believe you can easily find useful content elsewhere.