My Story: How I Reclaimed Over 3 Hours from Social Media Distraction

Distraction is a significant issue, and many things can pull our focus away from what we need to do. This reduces our productivity.

Sometimes, distraction can be positive and intentional. For example, when you've been staring at the same problem for a long time and feel stuck, it can help to take a break and shift your focus.

One strategy that works well for me is to stop what I'm doing and distract myself for a bit by going for a short run. Other positive ways to distract yourself could be:

• Meditation and deep breathing

• Exercising

• Reading

• Creative hobbies like drawing, painting, playing a musical instrument, or crafting.

• Listening to music or podcasts (Check out The GrowthPlug Podcast)

• Social interaction

• Cooking or baking

These activities can help you rest and recharge without leading to prolonged periods of inactivity or loss of productivity.

However, the problem arises when these breaks consume your entire day. They are meant to be brief pauses, not a way of life if you have other objectives. This becomes a negative distraction.

One major source of negative distraction is our phones and social media.

Have you ever told yourself you'll spend just 10 minutes online to take a break, but then find that two hours have passed? What was meant to be a quick distraction ends up derailing your entire day. This isn’t good for personal development or productivity.

Being able to control distractions like this is a sign of growth and something worth mastering.

My Story

For about three to four years, I barely used a popular social media platform. It wasn’t a platform I enjoyed for personal reasons. However, when I decided to grow my brand online this year, I had to reactivate my account and start sharing content there.

Initially, I stuck to my plan: I would post the content and then exit, optimizing my time on the platform. But over time, I noticed I was spending far more time than I intended—sometimes up to two hours a day instead of the 20 - 30 minutes I actually required. I knew I needed to break this habit before it became ingrained.

Solution and Benefits

I took intentional and specific steps to cut back on my time on that platform, and now I've drastically reduced my time from over five hours a week to less than two, averaging just 16 minutes a day. This singular act helped me reclaim over 3 hours per week. I have since used the same strategy for other platforms.

These are the simple steps I took to reclaim time:

1. Self-awareness: I recognized that I was spending more time on the platform than necessary to accomplish my goals there.

2. Measurement: I found a way to estimate and track my time spent.

3. Setting limits: I established a daily limit of one hour on the platform, knowing that was sufficient to complete my tasks.

4. Discipline: While I had the option to extend this time, I disciplined myself to stick to the limit.

5. Weekly review: I conduct a weekly review to evaluate my progress and adjust as needed.

If you're struggling to manage the time you spend on a particular platform that distracts you or hinders your productivity, consider following these steps.

7-Day Distraction Control Challenge

Here's a 7-day challenge designed to help you apply the strategies mentioned in this newsletter to reduce distractions and reclaim time, especially from social media. Each day focuses on a specific step in the process, helping you build habits that will improve your productivity and personal growth.

Day 1: Self-Awareness : Identify your main distractions, especially those consuming time on social media.

Day 2: Time Measurement: Track how much time you spend on distractions using a time-tracking app.

Day 3: Set Limits: Establish daily time limits for distracting activities.

Day 4: Practice Discipline: Stick to your time limits and use positive distractions when tempted to exceed them.

Day 5: Positive Distraction: Replace negative distractions with positive activities like reading or exercising.

Day 6: Weekly Review Prep: Reflect on your progress by reviewing your time-tracking data and effectiveness.

Day 7: Weekly Review: Evaluate your week, adjust limits if needed, and set goals for the next week.

This challenge will help you better understand your distractions, control your time, and build lasting habits.

Feel free to reply to this email with your progress from following the challenge.

If you're interested in a coaching session to help you get started, please also send an email so we can discuss it.