How to save time in your daily routine (No other time management tips are better than this one)

We can ALL use more time in our day, right? But how can we? It’s not possible to create more time in a day. We all get the same 24 hours. So, then what?

Before we dive into the what, why and how of the solutions, think about some things for a minute.

If you could save 10 hours in your week, what would you do with it?

Would you spend some of that extra time reading a devotional with a friend or going for a walk everyday? Would you spend some of that extra time playing games with your kids WITHOUT feeling like you should be getting things done? Or would you spend some of that time getting your closet organized so that you can save even more time?

Getting your closet organized can be a daunting task when you’re doing it on your own. The good news is you don’t have to. Inside my program Home Organizing for Beginners you learn the exact steps you need to organize not only your closet but really your entire home with me by your side.

The steps you learn teach you the foundations of home organizing. This is what you build on in every area of your home and through every changing season of life. For example, knowing how to deal with the shoes in the mud room when your kids are 3, 5 and 7 is one thing. When they’re 11, 13 and 15 it’s completely different! So what works today may not work tomorrow and learning how to shift your home organizing solutions over time is critical to setting yourself up for the long term. I’ll drop a link in the show notes below for you to check it out.

As a mom looking for a fresh start in her home organizing journey, you want to be set up for lasting home organizing solutions, right? That means you’ll have to do something different than you’ve done before or what society tells us.

Instead of wishing the days were longer, you can save so much time by managing your social media use. In this episode I share why you want to make this change - other than the obvious time savings, what the main challenges will likely be and the steps needed to truly save the most amount of time in your day and week.

WHY MANAGE YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA USE?
I’m going to be honest with you. Maybe shockingly honest! 

When the kids were little and I would be playing with them I’d feel like I should be getting other things done. The constant pull of needing to be multitasking - which is a complete myth and perhaps a topic for another episode - made me feel like I was a bad mom and wife. I felt like I should be cleaning or doing laundry while I was playing with the kids. But then I felt guilty because I wasn’t focused on them. It was this ugly cycle that truly never came to a stop. My feelings of guilt just made it worse and I think I was so overwhelmed I’d actually make it even worse because as I was playing with them I’d get out my phone to take pictures and then I think my negative feelings would make me want it to at least look like I was doing the right thing… all of this to say I spent a lot of my play time with the kids on Facebook. It all sounds really crazy to say out loud, but I think you may be a lot like me or at least have some of these same things going on in your mind and in your reality.

When I think about it all, I desperately wish I could go back in time and change it. Enjoy that time. They say the days are long but the years are short and it is so so true. My mom heart just aches sometimes knowing that my oldest will be flying the coop in less than 2 years!

Practically speaking, reasons you should manage your social media use.

You’ll probably get out of the bathroom faster without any social media on your phone.

Your opinion can be your own instead of debating with people you really don’t even know. The drama that happens on social media will be gone.

If you’re a Tik Tok fan or YouTube shorts fan - these are unfortunately training our brains to adhere to a short attention span. I fear a shorter attention span will diminish our ability to connect with others or anything on a deeper level. And honestly I’ve found in my older years that these deeper connections are so meaningful, fulfilling and truly life changing.

Kids are compelled enough by their friends to be on all the platforms, I just think they don’t need to see us into it as well. Again, as the kids have gotten older and crave everything their friends have and always get, blah, blah, blah. We can demonstrate a better way. A mentally and emotionally better way.

Have I laid out some compelling reasons to delete social media from your phone?

Let’s move onto the challenges you may face when you decide to do this.

THE MAIN CHALLENGES WITH MANAGING YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA USE

The primary thing is likely how you will learn about what’s going on in the lives of your friends and family if you don’t see their posts?

This will make you really think about your relationships with others. If you’re only getting caught up by looking at what they post, what kind of relationship is it? Does it really matter to you to see those pictures? A simple solution is to just tell them that you’re getting off SM and ask if they would be willing to text pictures instead. If you’re willing to share with others that way, then they will see how truly important they are to you. This would foster a deeper connection with them. So fulfilling!

What about my kids' social media? Won’t I lose access to seeing what they’re posting? If you follow your kids social media you’re not really seeing anything they don’t want you to see! Don’t shoot the messenger!  I only know this because I tried to do this, but they can pick who they show things to and they figure that out super fast! Instead you can manage the settings and such openly on their social media accounts. Both iPhone and Android have apps and functionality to manage THEIR devices from your phone.

Anyhow, I just think the positive impact you have on your kids by getting off SM is far more beneficial to your relationship than it is to stalk their accounts. Hopefully, you’re not to this point yet of them having social media on their own devices. And I highly recommend you hold off as long as possible to give them a device at all. I will say it’s super difficult though!

THE STEPS NEEDED TO MANAGE YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA USE (OR DELETE THEM)

In all sincerity the best thing you can do for yourself is to completely delete all your social media accounts. This forces you to let it go. It eliminates the need to manage another thing completely. That may be a pretty HUGE first step though. So,  let’s walk through the steps you can take over time to get to this point of deactivating, deleting, canceling your accounts.

I told you that I’d share with you how to implement this from start to finish today if you so choose. It’s pretty easy really. Delete your SM accounts. I’d say completely delete them, cancel your accounts, then delete the app off your phone. That’s if you’re ready to do away with them right now.

If you’re not, I’m going to share the steps to progress through to get you to the point of making an intentional decision on how to or IF you will use SM in your life at all.

STEP 1

Setup your phone to track your social media use.  With an iPhone you use the screen time function in your settings. With Android you use Digital Wellbeing. By turning on or reviewing the information these functions compile, you’ll see just how much time you can save in a day or week. I’d recommend using this for at least 3 weeks because as soon as you turn the tracking on your usage will go down because you know it’s tracking. Over time your habit will normalize and you’ll see exactly how much you’re on social media.

STEP 2

Update the settings to limit your use of social media on your devices. Based on your Apple ID - all your devices will be tracked and manageable from any one of your devices. I think Android is the same but am not entirely sure how this works. I do believe it’s an option though and just a bit of research would be needed to figure it out. Anyhow, use the settings to automatically lock you out of your social media apps after you use them for a certain amount of time. For example if you find that you are on SM for 2 hours a day or more, the first week set it to lock you out after 1 hour and 45 minutes. The second week you can set it to lock you out after 1 hour and 30 minutes.

Does that make sense? Reducing your use over time?

STEP 3

Next, you can delete the SM apps from your phone. You’ve not deleted your accounts, just taking the apps off your phone so that they aren’t easily accessible. This step makes you truly think about whether you desire to scroll or not because you would have to intentionally download the app again. Plus, you may need to know your login and password to get back in! That really makes you think twice, right! 

STEP 4

My prayer is for you to see that eliminating your SM accounts entirely will be the way to go. Even if you’re not ready today, in the future - 3 months, 6 months - down the road. When you’re ready each SM platform can be deleted. I think I still have my SnapChat, Tik Tok and Instagram accounts, but I have no clue what my logins or passwords are so those have never really been a draw for me.

Facebook though is what I would waste all my time on mindlessly scrolling. This is what I  managed this process through.

I would delete the app from my phone, then put it back on, then take it off. When I was ready though I went through the process to look through all of my FB “friends” . I did a first pass of deleting anyone I didn’t personally know. I had thousands. I did this because I thought it would be nice if it was just people I actually knew. I think I wound up with about 600 left. Then I was just done and decided to completely delete my account. I contacted each of the 600 and let them know I was going to delete my account and if they wanted to stay connected I shared my cell number. Only 2 of all those people actually reached out to me on my cell. Only 2! That says a lot, right!

Anyhow, STEP 4 is to actually go into the SM account - which you likely need to do on a computer - and mark your account for deletion. Facebook left my account intact for 30 days and gave me a zillion warnings that it would be deleted. So, just be aware of that. They are working hard to entice you back.

SUMMARY/CLOSING

So, how much time do you spend on social media today? I’m guessing if you aren’t tracking it, it’s actually much more than you think. There is so much time and mental energy lost on these things. I would love to know if you’re considering making changes to your social media use. Leave me a 5 star review and let me know your thoughts!