- Acknowledge your addiction. You know whether or not your addicted.
- Maintain a journal to see how much time you’re spending online. It just may shock you into cutting back.
- Choose healthy alternatives that get you out of the house more often: go for a walk, bowl with friends or even watch an uplifting movie.
- Develop yourself (personally and professionally). Isn’t that why you’re reading this book? Focus on accomplishing your goals versus wasting all of these hours a day on nonsense.
- Regulate your texting, emailing, gaming, Internet surfing, social media accounts and establish rules:
- Never check your apps before going to bed. Research states it effects your mind and will prevent you from going to sleep at a decent hour.
- Put your phone away when eating meals, driving, or exercising.
- Determine the amount of time you will dedicate to technology use per day.
- Who will hold you accountable? Let’s be realistic, to date you haven’t been able to control your usage. Find a friend or family member to help you.
- Schedule specific times during the day to check your accounts.
- Stop posting everything you do. Enjoy the moments and enjoy the people and circumstances that surround you.
- Block people that post too much.
- Limit the number of social media accounts you have to the ones that are important for business and your personal life.
- Don’t leave apps open in a web browser tab all the time.
- Block the Internet temporarily using software like Self Control (selfcontrolapp.com) or Freedom (freedomapp.us).
- Deactivate all of your accounts. Also, remove these apps from your cellphone to avoid the temptation. It’s important you don’t see the apps on your home screen. You can even change the passwords and turn your accounts over to a close friend or family member.
- Set a goal of going 21 days without social media. That’s how long it typically takes to form a new habit.
- As a last resort, seek help from a therapist trained in this area and/or support groups.
Although I paint a gloomy picture regarding the addiction to technology, it has many great benefits such as global connectivity, improved communication, higher levels of productivity, social media apps galore, e-commerce platforms, and an unlimited ability to research like never before. Utilizing this powerful technology as a catalyst to be productive and efficient is a great thing, but unfortunately due to your undisciplined mannerisms, your bad habits trump the benefits at this time. Learn to control your technology usage now, gain discipline, and then you can better tap into the pros of technology that await you.
