Reclaiming Your Time: Strategies to Combat Screen Overload and Boost Self-Care

“Starve your distractions and feed your focus”

I’m not sure who said this, but they were onto something.

I recently heard a statistic about this topic. The average person will spend 20 years of their life looking at a screen. 

What?! You say? Yes, and I couldn’t believe it but also when I thought about it, yes, I can see this. 

Between the way we work, social media and email, yes. But 20 years though. 

I don’t know about you, but this was a wakeup call for me. That feels like a waste of a whole lot of living time and for a large portion of the population that continuously says, “I have no time”, I believe this is an important deep level self-care topic and it’s at the top of my self-care list this week. 

So how many of you are like me and are guilty of these statements:

• I go on social media to maybe check a few messages and do a few things and before I know it, three hours have passed.
• I sat down at the end of the day to watch one of my favorite TV shows with the intention of just watching one episode and when I lift my head up, I notice I'm five episodes into the future.
• I start to check my e-mail and once again I get sucked in and before you know it, I'm listening to a podcast. When I should be doing my yoga class or going for a walk.

I believe these are very common to all of us and I would like to help all of us get some of those 20 years back.

After all, I believe not all screen time is bad. You know the saying, everything in moderation. For example.

• A lot of us work in front of a computer.
• Spending time taking a class on your computer.
• Connecting with people all over the world on zoom.
• Reading a book on your Kindle.
• Watching your favorite movie with your family at night.

These are some of the positive ways to spend your screen time. But we have to remember to insert an endpoint because all of these tech companies don’t want to do this for us. They want us to keep watching and scrolling, the want our attention and our time. 

They purposely make these types of media addictive, so we have to take charge and start to insert our own end point. 

The first way you can do this is to very simply set a timer. When you're hopping on your email, social media, TV, set timer for the intended time you want to spend. Plan out what you will do after your done so you have a place to move on to and then there you go, you have the interruption needed. 

For example, At the end of the day, I love to settle down by watching one of my favorite TV shows, but I don't want to watch ten of them. I sett a timer for 30 or 45 minutes. I know that the TV show will be done at this point  and then after that I am going to do my yoga class or go for a walk.

The second way to get some of your time back is to set aside time every day to unplug completely from all screentime. 

I already do this naturally sometimes, but I want to be more intentional about it.

One of the ways I already do this is when I go out into my garden, I leave my phone inside, especially if it needs to charge. Before I head out, I text anyone that might try to get a hold of me and I tell them what I'm doing so they know that I won't be able to be reached. This just makes me feel better and gives me peace while I'm spending that time unplugged.

I also think one of the best times to unplug is in the evening. We all know that staring at the screens and exposing our eyes to blue light interrupts our circadian rhythm and interrupts our quality of sleep.

I can very easily unplug for an hour by turning down the lights, putting my phone on silent, reading a book, maybe taking a bath or a shower and doing some light stretching before bed.

I call this super sizing yourself care because not only are you unplugging, but you're also Improving your sleep.

Think about a time that would work for you and then dedicate 30 minutes to an hour or more to unplugging completely. I feel like if we make a point to being more intentional about this every single day, we can get a large portion of that 20 years back.

I did a live talk on this yesterday and some of the people were like, I can do this but not every day and so I just want to make a point. You can have the intention to do this every day, but obviously things are going to come up in your life. It's about doing the best you can and not being judgmental of yourself or coming down harder on yourself and feeling like a failure. It's about moving forward and giving yourself the time, space and the care that you need as much as possible.

Some of the things that you can focus on during those periods when you unplug to help you restore your energy and restore your health are:

• Closing your eyes for a few minutes. This doesn't necessarily have to be a meditation, just taking away that one way that you're bringing in sensory information helps you instantly relax. 
• Getting outside in nature. Also, if you can add being active while you're outside in nature, taking a walk, going for a run, these super sizes the restorative effect.
• Being close t any type of water element. A pond, creek, ocean, lake.
• Spending some FaceTime with friends and loved ones.
• If you work in front of a screen, taking small breaks away from the screen even if it's only a few minutes.

All of these things help you restore your energy and improve your health.

So, there are three ways that you can get some of that 20 years back and then also help restore your energy levels and improve your health.

Remember:

• Set timers when you're spending time on social media and watching TV.
• Create a committed time for yourself every day to unplug.
• And when you're unplugging, be sure to do some restorative activities.

As usual, please reach out and let me know if you tried this and the experience that you had. I love hearing from you. You can follow me on Instagram and message me there @tinastinsoncoach.

Listen To the Podcast Here: Reclaiming Your Time: Strategies to Combat Screen Overload and Boost Self-Care

Remember to always add deep level self-care into your life every single day.

Before I leave you, I want to share a new space I created to help you heal from stress, anxiety, overwhelm, or burnout, and then support you as you move towards thriving in your life. 

It's called the Soul Aligned Self Care Circle and you can join us starting in mid-June HERE.

This is a brand-new BETA community so there will be a huge discount when you sign up now! 

Hope to see you all in the Circle.

Xo, T