My first day of scheduling social media time (twice a day for about ten minutes each) is nearly over, and I can already tell it will make a good difference. When I had some downtime this morning between two activities, I could feel my brain reaching for that easy and familiar digital distraction. My goal is to begin to fill those moments with thoughts about writing projects.
I admit that I did check (but not interact with) Twitter a few times today, and it made me think of one of Manoush Zomorodi’s “Bored and Brilliant” challenges: Delete That App.
Your instructions for today: delete it. Delete that app. Think about which app you use too much, one that is the bad kind of phone time. You pick what that means. Delete said time-wasting, bad habit app. Uninstall it.
This will be difficult, because app designers are pretty smart. And they are pretty good at building things we want to just keep on using, over and over and over. In this episode, Manoush breaks her cycle. She deletes the seriously addictive game Two Dots. It wasn’t easy and it followed a pretty, er, dramatic confrontation with the game designer. It might be cathartic for you. Read more…
I don’t check the Facebook app all that much on my phone, and I don’t use my phone for games (except Words with Friends, which brings far too much enjoyment to give up), but, ever since last year’s presidential campaign and election, I check the Twitter app more often than I probably want to count. By now it is more of a habit than a choice, a way to fill in-between moments.
But any breaking news will still be there if I wait until the allotted time, and I’ve begun to wonder: What if every time I had the urge to check my Twitter feed, instead I wrote on my phone a sentence or two or even an idea or phrase for a work in progress?
Bye-bye Twitter phone app, at least for the summer.
This post is part of the DIY Summer Writing Retreat blog series, with daily posts Monday through Friday. Subscribe to receive full-length new posts in your inbox or catch them on my Facebook page.
Just read your post on my phone and lost track of what I was supposed to be doing! 😂 So, some discipline about not turning to the phone whenever There’s a lull in the action will need to be step one for me. Will need to ponder which apps are most time wasting for me. Keep encouraging us!
ha ha! I do see the irony of using a blog (and Facebook shares) to discuss managing our electronics. 🙂 Something I’m just realizing is how automatic is that itch “to check”, whether it’s email or social media. I’ll post more today about the Bored and Brilliant project–great stuff.