I have a confession. Instagram and Youtube are hindering my productivity.
Once I open these apps, I go down a rabbit hole, wasting hours and hours just consuming pretty pictures and/or funny videos.
I didn’t think it was an issue until recently, when I did some basic math to calculate that I spend about an hour to two hours on these apps, daily!
Even a conservative estimate meant that I spent 365 hours a year on these picture and video apps. In my defense, looking at pretty pictures makes me feel good and Youtube helps me keep up with current events, but who am I kidding?
I was basically throwing my life away using these mind-numbing and FOMO-inducing apps. While I recognized that it was an issue, I wasn’t that gung ho enough to delete the apps completely.
Instead, I placed youtube on the second page of my home screen and IG on the third page, and just by making these apps a tad bit inconvenient has reduced the amount of time I spend on them!
I have mixed feelings about this. I’m happy to report that this simple trick has reduced the amount of time I spend on these apps, but at the same time, what does it say about me when an additional swipe or two is all I needed to break a bad habit? What da fuck? I have no words to describe this feeling.
Instead of trying to come to terms with my disappointing self, I’m going to focus on the fact that NYTimes and Kindle are getting more love as a result of this switch. Yay, more reading time!
This was my simple yet effective way to reduce the time on IG and Youtube — do you have any tips and tricks that you want to share to reduce wasting time on apps that were designed to make money off of your attention? Please share!
upbeat dabbler 