Is this your 9th or 15th time on social media today?
A study revealed that we check our social media accounts, on average, 17 times per day. To some that may not seem like a lot, but add it up. At 10 minutes a check and that’s almost 3-hours of your day, gone. And for what?
Oh Good Lord The Inefficiency Is Out of Control!
When we get distracted during a task, like emailing for work and then clicking over to our newsfeed, it takes us over 23-minutes to get back to the same work efficiency that we were at pre-post check.
I don’t know about you, but I want to get my work done and get on with life. So this to me is garbage and a habit I need to kick, like yesterday.
I Would Just Work More
Maybe or maybe not. If it’s choice chores that you are choosing to do you can improve your boundaries and not do them. If it’s work work you may need to have a meeting with your boss about how efficient you have become (after a few months) and discuss a raise or even taking Fridays off.
Connection Complaints
We openly admit that we are connection starved. That the texts, tweets, posts, snaps, and IMs don’t fill up our cup like a good old fashion meet up does. I mean the last time I got a phone call I was like “OMG who died!”
So let’s look at what we could do 17 times a day that would actually ADD to our lives:
- Hug my kids.
- Tell myself that I’m beautiful.
- Say “I love you.”
- Take breath breaks–like smoke breaks without the cancer stick.
- Say “Thank you.”
- Check in with nature.
- Take 10 minute walks.
Wow just think if we did any one of those things we could change the way we feel on a daily basis. Our level of happiness and overall life satisfaction would increase.
It’s A Butterfly Effect
As with any choice there is a ripple effect. If we choose to add to our lives rather than clicking, pinning, or scrolling it away we could be happier. I bet that would be more attractive for our partners to reach out and touch us more, our kids would want to cuddle more (good thing or bad depending on how clingy they are already), and our friends would call more (ER free) to hang out.
Our lives could exponentially improve if we choose to do something other than to check if the high school jock is still hot, or if our neighbor repainted the kitchen yet, or if a stranger that we have never met in person did go on that trip they won.
Let’s Do It Differently
The next time you go to click over, tap on, or swipe right just pause and think of one thing that you could do other than that. That’s all you have to do. Take a second and think, what could I be doing right now that would add to my life and make me and others around me happier.
Typically all you need is a new awareness because once you see things in a different way you can’t go back to the old way of thinking. Follow that up with a simple action like putting the phone down or closing the social media tab on your computer and now you’re on your way to doing something great with your day!
Jessica is the author of Back 2 Love and How to Start a Mental Health Private Practice. She owns a practice in New Prague, Minnesota where she lives with her husband, two kids, and two pups. For more relationship advice follower her on Twitter. Don’t forget to check out her video series, Back 2 Love on her YouTube channel Super Living.