「productivity - benefits of quitting social media.」

I’ve talked about the freedom I’ve felt when I quit social media, the freedom to do what I think is more important than my consumption of social media (let’s face it, I don’t believe any of us will say when we are old: ”oh, I am so happy that I spent so much time scrolling through social media and looking at a screen most of my life”. At least, that’s not what I’m gonna say.

And I’ve talked about all the time that I freed up because of taking a break from social media. I believed I had so little time, but I realized that it was just social media stealing my time and attention. I’m happy I read the book "Digital Minimalism" by Cal Newport and decided to go on that social media break autumn 2020.

Now, as a matter of fact, I have deleted most of my social media platforms. The only social media I use now is Messenger (I am not active at Facebook anymore) and YouTube. The other platforms are gone and I couldn’t be more happy.

I use YouTube for releasing my music. I use it to learn more about topics I’m interested in. I have some rules when I’m on YouTube:

1. I don’t use any recommendations provided by the algorithms - instead I actively search for a video.

2. I have a limit of watching three YouTube-videos a day, I often watch less videos than this.

3. I prioritize other screenless activities before YouTube, such as reading, training, meditation.

By minimizing my social media platforms and limiting my screen time I got a lot of benefits from it. I am indeed more productive with my acitivites. I make so much more music and videos and I also get a lot of other tasks done without me being stressed out or tired. I have a better balance between being productive and relaxing, something I believe is necessary. I even have more time to write these posts and share my experience.