Reducing screentime, that’s what matters.
Some people have been messaging me to ask me this. Instead of replying to you all individually at once, I thought it best to get it all out in one go.
Have you been wondering “Where are you, Kieran?”
I bet you have, you don’t have to say anything.
This is an update on where I’ve been.
First of all, I spent June in London with my girlfriend. Now I’m back in Belfast.
My girlfriend is highly disciplined and not easily distracted. When she sets out to do something, she keeps on going until the task is done.
One of the ways she inspires me to challenge myself and do better.
Being with her, she helped me to realise that I was on my phone way too much. Like I mindlessly scroll so much. In particular, Twitter, Instagram and Youtube.
I would also let the negativity of social media get to me. It would lead me to post deliberately antagonistic content.
There was a point where she and my friend and mentor, Jose Rosado, essentially had an intervention. They were both curious about my motivation when it came to posting content meant to wind people up.
When we got down to it, it was about me wanting to feel like I had some form of control.
So I was able to cut back on posting, but I was still consuming content.
Now, this is not news but much of what you see on social media, Twitter and Instagram are negative or people bragging. No nuance, this is the internet after all.
The negativity had a bit of a detrimental effect on my mental health.
Also, there was a mediation track I was listening to that was just bad. (I will talk about this at some other time) and it was giving me the most depressing thoughts.
I would waste time on Youtube. Watching as my girlfriend would say, “Reviews of films you haven’t watched, don’t intend on watching and wouldn’t like them if you did watch them,”
A change had to be made.
I can’t keep consuming like a mindless drone.
Here’s what I’ve done.
I’ve grayscaled my phone, that means the display is dull. Part of a phone’s appeal is the bright colour. It’s intended to distract you. You can find it in your phone’s accessibility section in the settings, look for “Colour enhancements”
I’ve installed an app blocker too.
Now I only have 30 minutes per day to use Instagram, Youtube, Twitter, WhatsApp, and Facebook. (I don’t even use Facebook anymore, but I thought I may as well)
I’m rebuilding up my daily routine.
My white whale is this; there’s a daily system out there that I need to perform to maximise productivity. I just have to find that award-winning combination.
Here is the current one I am road testing in case you want to experiment.
So far:
Phase 1-
- I wake up
- Meditate then pray
- Exercise either push-ups, squats or sit-ups
- Affirmations, Gratitude and Goal setting
(This first phase, takes approximately an hour)
Phase 2
- -Two Space Janitor entries are written (600 words in total) Here’s the latest compilation.
- – Write another 1400 words on other projects (I’m focusing on an ebook at the moment: Write Your Screenplay in 12 days. Will be out before the end of August)
- -Client work
- -Duolingo lesson (Mi Espanol no es bueno, pero yo no estudio mucho)
(This second phase takes 2 hours)
Once I have this more ingrained I will be working on setting up a phase 3. Phase 3 is scheduling social media posts and devoting time to study (still haven’t learned an instrument).
Anyway, that’s where I’m at.
This post is more a form of accountability for myself than anything else.
If you got some use out of this, that’s great, and I wish you all the best.
Reach out to me at kieran@kieranmajury.com if you want to talk more.
Oh, you’re still here? If you want to hear me talk about writing habits, I appeared on Marcus Keeley’s Instant Feedback podcast.
All the best.
Kieran.
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Thank you and have a great day,
Kieran
Reducing Screentime Reducing Screentime
