Have you ever gone scrolling through your mobile with a plan of just doing it for 10 minutes but instead you end up consuming a full hour?
Do you regret those minutes and felt that you haven’t been using the internet (bless all the souls of people that contributed to its invention!) to its full extent? Says who? After all, social media is made for consumption, it was there to foster good relationships that transcends distance and culture. It is now one of the environments you expose yourself into thus, influences your behavior on a different scale.
There are times you could reward yourself to a relaxing stalking mode (whether it’s your ex or crush, or even this cute K-pop star), however, falling into this habit and doing it mindlessly will not only affect your physical health but also your relationship among the actual people around you.
So exactly what are the other things we can check in our mobile to get us right off this bait?
1. Weather
Whether (pun not intended) you’re checking the weather today or the entire week, doing so enables you to plan ahead on tasks you can take on.
Are you getting all those laundry out to dry today so you can save on energy from using your washing machine’s dryer?
Is it a best day to start a jog alone or invite a friend whom you want to encourage to become active? How about a walk for your dog whose been indoors for awhile?
Nevertheless, knowing what to expect ticks you to come up with things you can do instead of just checking out meme pages (which aren’t so bad as long as you’re sharing it with people you want to happiness with).
2. Your E-mail
Often times, reading on too many online resources result in us subscribing to different email newsletters. While the only intent we mostly have to sign up is to get that free eBook or printable colouring activity for our kids, the traces of these linger and haunts us on to our cluttered inbox.
When you find yourself today having an extra 20 minutes to burn on the internet. Do yourself a favor and unsubscribe yourself from these list that are no longer relevant to you.
- Avoid missing out the important emails from that job application you sent or that best friend who still does the old school email correspondence.
- These emails sent to you gets checked whether you have opened them or not – so if you don’t ever plan to – Email marketers would be thankful that you are unsubscribing
- Focus on e-mails that actually gives value to the skills you want to hone or if you subscribed to follow a series – seeing only your most preferred emails lets you see these important updates firsthand instead of learning it from a co-fan who might as well spill the beans to you accidentally.
3. News
If you’re like me who uses internet to check out the news instead of the TV, I want to tell you this story. I was never a news fan. I hate all the negativity and crime in the headlines. I also dislike how petty stories of these celebrities being built-up are being tackled with too much concern by the anchors. It’s their job anyway! The only reason I checked the news was to keep me awake on one of my previous corporate job. It was way back 2012 and each of our computers is monitored, with all access to non-work-related sites being blocked. What else was available back then were Yahoo News and News on Bing.com. (but nobody ever blocked https://icanhas.cheezburger.com!!)
From there I developed a habit of checking on these sites and found how helpful they were as you get to choose the articles you can read and inform yourself about. Although it’s not a long read, I just check if there are any reports of price hikes on basic products in the market or if there are any updates about the health guideline, any traffic interruptions within my area even electric, water, or internet interruptions depending on your service provider.
4.Your mobile phone’s gallery
I am one guilty mom who has been lazy to print recipes and life hacks that I kept taking screenshots of anything I deem useful. However, in the end, I am only left with a cluttered and disorganized gallery. I had to scroll through all of the photos just to find that one photo and it has resulted, a lot of times being wasted, with me just searching it up on the internet again.
So if you intended to cook up that recipe instead of it fermenting on your gallery, find time to organize by designating a folder for these photos.
Add another folder for life hacks such as cleaning, folding.
Note that I am aware that there is such thing called Pinterest where you can easily pin these images on a board but this advise is for people with limited internet access and relies on screenshots. (You’re welcome!)
5. Your browser’s bookmark folders
Unlike email newsletter where you opted in to be updated, blogs or websites of shops that you saved in your browser won’t be checked unless you completely find time to visit them.
This is also a good time to delete pages that have been bookmarked but are no longer useful to you. An example were those pages I bookmarked while I was reading more about post surgery care when my father had his lumbar operation in 2017. Perhaps, you’ll find it easier to religiously check your bookmarked faves if they aren’t too cluttered.
6. A call with a friend
Your dear friends will remain one despite the distance and silence.
But let’s not discount the fact that you’re both getting old and the possibilities of being not able to catch up again are always present.
In the past, I’ve regreted not talking with one dear friend just because her girlfriend at that time was jealous of me. I thought that being in our 20s, we still had much more time and we could just catch up once he gets married and his girl has more trust and confidence in herself.
But things called cancer are traitors. They steal people’s lives in a snap. Before I know it, my friend died and all that’s left is to reminisce our good times.
When you get a hold of your mobile phone today, surprise a friend by calling them. Be it to set up a date with them or just a chat to talk about how they’re doing. It’s much more refreshing to have a sincere talk with one than just scrolling through a pool-of-friends-filled newsfeed.
I hope this article was helpful to you. If you have already figured out how to veer away more from the mobile, then yay – that’s one step close to redeeming a real me time!
Are you still ending up staying more time in social media? I’d be happy to listen, please leave me a comment below.
