I’m the queen of change, dreaming big, having huge goals, and not getting things completely done. Read this blog for a while, and you know I change how I do my to do list, track my tasks, etc., often…..quite often.

I’m currently reading Deep Work by Cal Newport. Here’s a funny fact about this – I’ve checked this book out of the library 3-5 times….and am only now making real headway. It’s due tomorrow, and I have about 120 pages left. With my normal habits and routine, I don’t think I could have finished it. But just from what I’ve read so far, I’ve made some major life and work habit changes. The biggest one just started yesterday (ha ha, so we’ll see how it goes!), and because of this change, I’ve logged more reading time.

My normal habit was to wake up, check my email, check Facebook notifications, check Facebook On This Day, check my work emails and notifications, and check games I’m playing….all before getting out of bed. So whatever I read on any of those place had the power to change my day, before it’s even begun. Throughout the day, check, check, check. Refresh and scroll. Oy vey! About the middle of the day yesterday, I was reading through Deep Work…it’s a bit of a priority this week, because I really want to finish it before it’s due….and I thought about my social media….and just a number of habits. I’ve started to keep a list of things that bring me joy, and things that bring me down. There are a lot of things on social media that have the power to trigger me (whether it’s nudity, or something talking about drinking, or just someone being negative), and I have taken some steps to try and protect myself from it, but I still slip. So in making this list, one big thing in the Trigger column was Facebook. So I’m like, dude, I need to change this. Here’s where my, hopefully, major mindshift came in.

Check social media twice a day.

I’m happy to report, I actually did pretty well yesterday….and this morning! I decided that it would best serve me if I made a list of the tasks I needed to do, drafted the text I needed to write, before I logged on. Friends, it worked! I think because I made the list, my brain was like, “ok – we’re turning off that desire….or at least, we understand what’s going on here.” I found myself wanting to check Facebook probably half a dozen times….in an hour. Pitiful. But my brain didn’t force the situation. it said, “ok, we’re trying this new thing now. We know why we’re doing this. I’ll still have some residual desires to check Facebook, but, ok ok ok (said in my brain’s best Stitch voice), we’ll try.”)

But I didn’t check again until my PM check in. I had my list ready to go, and I did what I needed to do, and got out…..almost. I had a post that was getting some interaction, so I needed to hop back on later that day. I only checked ONE more time in the evening….mostly out of curiosity. But there was so little immediate value. I just thought, welp, ok, I’ll check in the morning!

It’s 9:30, and I haven’t checked yet. On any other day, I would have checked 3x by now.

We’ll see how this goes….but I’m curious about you! Have you taken a social media fast? Have you tried to cut back on social media? How did it go? Let me know in the comments below.

And here’s a picture of Clearwater Beach….because if there’s anything that’s the antithesis of social media, it’s this beautiful beach. Ahhhhh, can I go back to Florida yet?

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