Scrolling Less and Claiming Back Time for Yourself
Have you noticed that your screen time is creeping up at the moment?
I have recently and I’m starting an exploration into how to scroll less - I’ve been umming and arring about a hashtag and I’m going for #scrolllessquest. I hope this journey of screen time reducing discovery is something you can join in on and benefit from if you’d like to control your scrolling and claim back quality time for yourself too.
This isn’t about never using a phone again.
That would be like saying I’ll never eat crisps again, and I can be sure that’s an impossible task. But this is about controlling the scrolling and claiming back time for more quality moments of: self care, truly enjoying a moment, remembering events without an fb notification, and being present. Social media can be a brilliant platform for people to show their creativity, passions and be part of a community. We live in a moment where a lot of us have the opportunity to display our depths of creativity, dancing, photography, and talents, which is amazing and exciting. What I want to reduce on my phone is how I scroll randomly and thoughtlessly when my time could be spent looking at more specific and concentrated things I’m interested in.
I’m making a change to the way I use my phone because I’ve had far too many evenings where I’d planned to make a delicious dinner and watch a good film, but instead the night became just like any other because I spent it transfixed to my phone and scrolling for nothing in particular. Have you ever done the same?
A couple of years ago I wrote a blog post called 4 Ideas for Scrolling Less and it was the beginning of the scroll less journey. Now I’m diving deeper and further into really understanding why we scroll and how to set the foundations to reduce scrolling time. Each Monday I’ll be sharing the Scroll Less challenge I’m setting for myself that week over on my Instagram @WebbandFarrer. Join me on this expedition towards scrolling less and gaining back more time for yourself.
I often feel like I could have lived a good few decades ago because I’m a nostalgic person. However, even with all that technology-free nostalgia, I’m still a person who goes straight to their phone when I have a spare moment, find myself in a queue or feel the need to avoid something and procrastinate instead. Part of me really wants to be the sort of person who doesn’t always need their phone with them, but there’s another side to me that feels slightly panicked if I’ve not brought it to the shops with me. And it’s time for that latter feeling to change.
This #scrolllessquest is for you, if you:
sometimes feel like your phone is a magnet to your hand
have been on your phone for 20 mins and can’t remember why you picked it up in the first place
feel that scrolling on your phone rarely brings you much joy
have a nostalgia towards a time when phones were ginormous and weren’t something we picked up 85 times a day
still want to enjoy the community feel we can get through our phones but want to scroll less
have noticed your screen time growing more and you’d like to start reducing it
I want to make this #scrolllessquest enjoyable, rather than another thing to feel bad about. Week one of the challenge I looked at setting a measurable goal and then chose a reward. I’m aiming to reduce my average screen time by half by the 30th August this year. And my reward for myself!… is a new piece of jewellery.
So, are you with me? If you’d love to be a part of the #scrolllessquest, come and follow along on Instagram where I’ll be sharing the screen time reducing challenges I’m trying out. I’ll also be posting more on the blog too as the exploration progresses.
Take a look at more from the blog here…
