Description: This week, Dr. Boogren reveals a challenge she's set for herself. Will it also help you?
Listen Now:
Transcription: Hi. Welcome to episode 21 of season three of Self-Care for Educators. I'm your host, Tina Boogren. This week's invitation is to set some limits on your apps, and I don't mean appetizers at the restaurant , although maybe you want to think about that, too. I am thinking specifically about our social media. So, something that I have been working on, and I wanted to share with all of you is the idea of going what I ... Here's what I did. Okay? I went into my settings. I have an Apple iPhone, and I found the little button that says screen time. And, I went into screen time, and I was looking, many of you know this, right? How often you're on your apps. What your average screen time is. All of, all of those kind of startling numbers, for some of us. Some of you have this totally under control, but for some of us it can be a startling number. And, what I did is I found that there's this little option that says app limits. I'm certain this is probably in every kind of phone. I don't know how to do it. I'm just doing this on my Apple. You guys are way smarter than me with technology, so you'll be able to figure it out.
But anyway, when I clicked on that, what happens is it allowed me to decide what I wanted my limit to be for social media. And, here's what I did. I kind of took my baseline data, and I decided that for me, here's what I'm starting with, is a total of two hours a day every day on all a combination of all the social media apps. So, this includes for me, this is Facebook and Instagram and Twitter and Marco Polo, like all of the apps. And, what happens is, when I reach that limit there, literally a screen comes up and it says, You've reached your limit, and you can sit, oh, you can either hit okay or you can nudge it for one minute more or 15 minutes more, or you can ignore it. But, I have been literally just saying, Okay and putting my phone down. My goal is to bring this number from two hours a day down a little bit, a little bit over time. I'm gonna loop us back to last week, episode 20, when we talked about a little more, a little better. I guess it would be a little less, a little better.
And, here's the deal. It works like, again, at the end of the day that decision fatigue sets in, and it is so easy to just scroll 'cuz it's just mind numbing. Right? And, we're just looking for a way to relax. Maybe I should just say I, I don't know about you, I don't wanna make assumptions about everyone else, but for me this is when it starts to come into play, and so I'll be kind of winding down for the evening. I go online, I'm checking things and listen. It's stuff that makes me happy. I'm like checking in with my fitness group. I'm on Marco Polo with my girlfriends. I love to look at Instagram. I've really curated my account to be positive things. But, when that urp! screen comes up and it says, You have reached your limit for the day, it is kind of that wake up call of oof, okay. .And, what I do is I put my phone away, and I grab my book, and I start reading, and it's been really powerful. You know, we have these great intentions of setting boundaries around our time, but for most of us, we need a little outside help, especially in the evening, right?
We are tired. We're exhausted. Our brain is seeking those shortcuts from all the decisions. So, maybe that's something that you wanna play around with this week. Kind of gather up your baseline data around how much time you're spending on your social media and decide what's a good amount for you. And, it's going to vary. I mean, some of you probably just heard me say two hours, and you just thought, Oh my gosh, that's far too much. And, it is a long time. But, I really, I try to keep up with my Facebook group of Self-Care for Educators. I am involved, kind of lead, a fitness group. That's really important to me. I do a lot of communicating with my girlfriends over Marco Polo, so it's not all negative stuff, but that does kind of feel like a lot. Or, for some of you, you feel like, Oh my gosh, two hours. I wish I could get down to two hours. We're all kind of in our own place here, so just deciding like what that number is for you. Put the limit on your phone and see if that helps. Just kind of nudge you, especially in the evening, towards making a different decision at night so that you can kind unwind and go to bed.
For me, this is really helping with that revenge bedtime procrastination that we talked about in a previous episode, which is the phenomenon of knowing we need to go to bed, but we just scroll and scroll and scroll, and we're not even thinking about it. And, we look up, and time has totally gotten away from us, and we panic. So we're like, Oh my gosh. I ... Now I'm not gonna get enough sleep. So, this is just what I like to think of as like a, putting a bumper up. Right? When we go bowling, and we can put the bumpers up. Just a boundary. Just a check. Just a way for me to stay focused on some of those goals that I've set for myself. Some of those intentions that I've set for myself, and having a little outside support with that in the form of technology is really, really helping. So, I wanted to share that with. I hope you have an amazing week, everyone. I'm cheering so hard for you.
As always, a huge thank you to Brooke for making this happen. Thank you, Marzano Resources and Solution Tree for this job I get to do. And, as always, a huge, huge, huge thank you to all of you. Thank you for listening. Thank you, my bad-ass Self-Care Squad. Thank you for spreading the word. We ... Our numbers continue to grow in the number of listeners that we have, and I love it because as you know, just like Glennon Doyle reminds us, we stand in horseshoes instead of circles. We welcome new people, and so if you're so inclined to maybe rate or review us or just word of mouth. Just share this podcast with others that you feel like could use this little kind of daily boost. Thank you for that. Have an amazing week.
Commentaires