When was the last time you spent a day without excessively consuming media or using your phone?
Lately I got to realise more and more how dependend I am on social media.
- Wake up, check Discord
- Take a shit, watch a video
- Take a shower, put on music
- Before even entering the shower, browsing for the track I want to put on for a good 2 minutes
- Cleaning the kitchen, cooking or both, put on a long form video
- Get to the computer, stalk Discord notifs and watch/listen to more media
I could list off more examples of my addiction, but at that rate it would just become ever more depressing and excessive.
Lately I have been cutting back on consumption big time, because I noticed more and more how destructive it is to my day to day life. I wake up and consume up until I go to bed, and even in bed I consume some more. Humans were not built for this and I will allow myself to make this sweeping generalistic statement:
If you use your phone or computer all day because you are bored, then you have a serious problem.
You have no time to let your mind wander, no time to be bored, no time to become motivated. You also likely built this false notion that you need to make yourself hyper accessible to people around you, which also is not normal. Your friends can fuck off for the day if you need to get stuff done, you are allowed to just do your own thing and check the inbox infrequently, honestly, more people should!
I am writing this blog right now, because I am bored. And procrastinating. Alternatively I could just watch 15 YouTube videos and get into pointless discussions with people which eat hours of my time I should spend on more pleasant tasks. Not that talking to your friends is bad, of course it isn’t, but making yourself so available that you allow yourself to rob your own time, is destructive.
Try the following regimen for a week
And optionally come by to https://portal.entropicdomain.net and let me know how it went!
- Don’t use the phone ever when using the bathroom
- Ban the phone from the bedroom and use a regular alarm clock to wake up
- Go to bed at humane times, whatever works for you
- Completely disable Chatting platforms’ push notifications
- Actively ignore those Chatting Platforms and provide some contact method for important things. If it is important people will use the alternative
- Do not use platforms that infuriate you and in turn lock you into using them more
Since I have been doing these things, and more, so much more time opened up to me during the day. I wake up early, I rarely take more than 5 minutes in the bathroom, which is a HUGE decrease in time when compared to previous bathroom trips which could stretch on to even an hour or more and the only technology I do use when I want to entertain myself a little unless I’m cooking or doing repetitive chores is by using the Nintendo Switch and playing some Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate, a time sensitive game that always puts time you spent in your face.
I fall asleep faster, I am more intent on working, I engage with my own community more through my Zulip instance and Discord bridge (you can btw read something about my thoughts on the Discord hysteria in the Replacing Discord blog) and I am exploiting the fact that most people do not care about replacing Discord by locking out direct communication with me throughout the day.
And the last part really is a crucial point, you do not want a platform to control you. Just because a creator you liked uploaded a video, doesn’t mean that you gotta drop everything and put that first. Just because a friend sent you a meme, also doesn’t mean that you need to make yourself available as fast as possible. You should control the Inbox, you don’t run to the post box every time you think you got a letter either.
It also isn’t “mean” or “inconsiderate” when others have a harder time reaching you. You are the most important person in your life, and if others take issue with you bettering your use of time… then that is not your problem!
It is crucial to pair this with good sleep
And if you want to go on this test Regimen yourself, then start by buying an alarm clock with snooze functionality. I got a little quartz alarm clock that you hit the top of to make it snooze, and every 5 minutes the alarm just goes off again. You turn the thing off by flipping it over and engaging the ON/OFF toggle. Whatever device keeps you up at night, is banned, that means no Laptop and no Phone for me, while the Nintendo Switch so far has been a treat to use, as the many flaws I find with the Switch being a very restrictive console… ironically comes in great for providing entertainment in a contained format.
Once your sleep normalises, and you actually enforce the ban of your devices from the bedroom, you will hopefully wake up earlier and have more of your day. Now you can implement the more extensive phone control regimen and you will see how much more time opens up to you.
Diagnosing problem areas
The best way to see what media you fall victim to the most, is by checking out your screen time app on your Phone. I use the digital wellbeing application that Nothing OS provides on my phone, and the results were… shocking.
On the daily I open…
- Discord an average of 20 times
- YouTube an average of about 15 times
- TikTok an average of around 15 times
When it comes to notifications, Discord ranks highest, with dozens of notifications being sent every day.
when it comes to screen time, the results are even more embarrassing.
The average screen time I had before starting the regimen, was about 5 hours a day on the phone, some days even reaching up to 10 hours on the phone. Yeah.
TikTok and YouTube had the highest screentimes stretching on for hours and hours especially due to the intermittent use throughout the day.
Checking the screentime I have so far, the new average is settling at about an hour a day which is considerably better giving me more time to pursue work and other activities throughout the day.
I hope this information helps, digital hygiene is severely underrated these days. Try it out yourself, stick to your own rules, and see how much time will open up to you TRUST.