Technology
Ramadan: How to stop your phone addiction (Finding out why, changes to make, preventing it, and things to do instead)
In this episode of Journey to Jannah, host Nooshin tackles the pervasive issue of phone addiction, especially during Ramadan. She shares her personal journey, insights on the impact of screen time, an...
Ramadan: How to stop your phone addiction (Finding out why, changes to make, preventing it, and things to do instead)
Technology •
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Interactive Transcript
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Let's be honest here, your addiction to your phone is taking away so much from your life.
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You're done waking up every morning only to scroll through social media and fry your brain.
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It's messing up your focus and wasting time from the already limited time you have on this earth.
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And if you want to stop this addiction, this Ramadan, and beyond, you've come to the right place.
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As-salamu alaykum, it's your host Nooshin and welcome to another episode of Journey to Jannah,
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a podcast curated to helping you become your own dream girl.
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This is the sixth episode of the Ramadan series and we are going to talk about phone addiction,
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or honestly screen addiction in general, doesn't have to be just your phone and how to stop it.
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Let me put this into perspective for all of you so you can understand the severity of the situation.
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Let's say you spend exactly four hours on your phone every single day,
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just scrolling or doing useless things.
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That's almost 61 days out of the 365 days in the year that you're wasting by being on your phone.
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And I know a lot of you guys spend way more than that.
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So let's just put that number a little bit higher.
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Let's say you spend exactly six hours a day on your phone.
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That's a little over 91 days.
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Almost 100 days guys.
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Like that's crazy.
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You know how much time you're wasting doing absolutely nothing for your life.
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It takes 20 hours to build a new skill.
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It takes 480 hours or 20 days to get to an intermediate level in a new language.
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What are we doing with our lives?
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And this addiction is something that honestly is so easy to fall into.
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I used to go my phone for seven, eight hours a day.
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Sometimes it would go up to 12 hours and thinking back,
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what exactly was I doing on my phone for that long?
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What was I doing with my life?
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Like it genuinely blows my mind how I let myself to get to a point that low and unproductive
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and thank a lot for my mother because she has always been on me
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about my screen time and you know just saying how I was going on my phone too much
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and how was bad for me as a mother does.
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And as all teenagers do, I didn't listen.
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I didn't believe her when she said it was bad.
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But after a while I realized like wait a minute, why is she low-key?
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Right.
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And if we're listening to this, I'm sorry for not listening to you sooner.
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I would wake up in the morning.
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First thing I did is destroy my brain by scrolling through social media,
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Snapchat, then Instagram, then TikTok, looking at post, stories and videos.
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Then when I was finally done with that and I did get up,
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I did my work and I was not able to focus because my brain was genuinely so fried.
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Other than that, I had a lot of things I wanted to do,
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but I would always put them off and instead of just working towards them,
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I would go in my bed and scroll because that was more comfortable than actually getting up
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and working towards my goals.
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And not even that, I would scroll so much that I would get bored of it and then binge movies
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hours on end.
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And then when I was done with that, I would go on YouTube.
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Like the way I was living was completely unproductive and that feeling of how fried my brain felt.
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Like I genuinely never want to feel something like that again because of how horrible it felt.
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And at some point I realized that I was spending so much time doing
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absolutely nothing with my life.
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I was doing a lot of nothing and I decided that I was fed up with living the way I was with
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being as unproductive as I was being.
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My detriment was being caused by myself.
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Like I am in full control of my life and this was completely my own fault.
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So I started to make a conscious effort to change that, to lower my screens.
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I'm in to do other productive things in its place and it really wasn't easy at first.
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This cues in the start of me watching YouTube videos on how to stop going on my phone as much.
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And guys, I've tested a lot of different tips over the years.
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So I found what actually works, what doesn't work.
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And I've just learned a lot along the way.
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So I have a lot to share with you guys.
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Now my screen time averages from one to four hours on a daily.
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And I think the highest I've had for the past few weeks was like five hours.
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But most of the time is honestly spent on works since I do work for my phone.
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That's one of the bigger misconceptions that I've had that I have to learn from.
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It's not about how much time you spend on your phone.
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It's what you do while you're on it.
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At the start I had this huge misconception, as I said,
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where I thought the lower my screen time, the better.
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I was like, I want my screen time to be under one hour every day.
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And if it went above that hour, I would feel super bad about it.
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But I realized that for me, that wasn't realistic because I do content creation.
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I also work from my phone.
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It's not how much time I spend on it, rather what I do while I'm on it.
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If I'm spending four hours on Instagram scrolling through reels,
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yes, that's unproductive.
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But if my total screen time one day is four hours,
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and that's broken down to checking and responding to my emails,
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responding to work themes, filming content, and reading.
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Because I'm a booker.
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That's honestly fine.
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It's the apps that are taking away from your life,
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like social media, that we need to focus on.
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And furthermore, how you use them,
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because you could use social media to further your life,
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or you could use it to waste half your day.
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The actual process of stopping your phone addiction
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is something that's going to take a while.
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You have years of social media consumption behind you,
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and that's altered your brain to crave instant gratification.
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And you're going to want to give in and go on social media
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to give yourself that.
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I talked about this in episode four on the topic of discipline,
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and this 100% carries on over here to this topic.
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So I want to repeat what I said there.
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Fast food, one click shopping, and this social media scrolling.
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We live in a world that is designed to give us what we want right now.
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The issue with this is that focusing solely on instant gratification
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stops us from being able to achieve actual meaningful goals.
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And if you're constantly looking for the next quick thing
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to give you that dopamine rush,
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how will you ever find the time and focus to do things
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that you actually care about and want to do within your life?
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You're going to have to choose between the pain of discipline
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and the pain of regret.
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Do you want to waste more time going on your phone
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and doing nothing and look back in a few years and think,
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I wish I would have done more.
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Or do you want to look back and be happy that you discipline yourself
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to not give into your want of instant gratification?
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The choice is 100% yours.
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One of the big questions here is,
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why do we have this addiction?
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Where does it stem from?
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And it's important to know your own why
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because that leads to knowing how to fix it.
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The first reason is dopamine.
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Dopamine is the chemical behind our feelings of pleasure and reward
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and social media platforms and many other apps on your phone,
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such as games are designed to trigger this reward system.
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And keep you hooked on the app.
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Some platforms use algorithms to personalize your feed,
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such as Instagram and TikTok,
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which means that your shown content that will likely get a reaction out of you.
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And then when you're scrolling through endless feeds of
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perfectly created photos and entertaining videos,
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your reward system is activated,
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which keeps you on the app wanting more.
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And also on top of that,
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that little ping or vibration
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when you get a new notification is another dopamine trigger.
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It creates a sense of anticipation and urgency.
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Like, I need to see what this notification is.
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Did someone text me?
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Did someone like my story?
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Did someone like the new post I posted?
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And it pulls you back to your phone to see.
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All of these different things are keeping your brain in that cycle
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and triggering more and more dopamine release.
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Over time, your brain has started to correlate your phone
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with dopamine.
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So whenever you want dopamine,
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you automatically grab for your phone.
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It's a reoccurring cycle.
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And this cycle of instant gratification
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also trains your brain for short bursts of pleasure,
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which makes it harder to focus on long-term goals
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that require sustained effort.
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And this is one of the big things
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that this can affect negatively in the long-term.
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The constant new information and quick hits of pleasure
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short in your attention span.
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We see terminology like TikTok brain,
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being used nowadays,
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and it really is such a big issue.
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The all-the-short form content that we're consuming
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is minimizing our attention span
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to like eight, 10 seconds.
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And that is honestly so bad.
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The second reason is because you don't have
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any real sense of direction in your life.
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You don't have a plan.
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You don't have goals.
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Your wasting time on this addiction
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because you don't know what to do with your life
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or with your time.
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Because you have no clear goals or a purpose set out,
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your free time has become time for you
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to aimlessly scroll.
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It makes you feel like you're doing something
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because you're constantly
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in taking information or news.
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You have a sense of busyness and engagement.
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But really, you're just sitting there
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wasting your time scrolling.
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You could also be using it to ward off feelings of boredom
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since it is the perfect distraction.
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It's the perfect way to entertain yourself.
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You could also be subconsciously using your phone
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to procrastinate making bigger decisions
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because of the discomfort there is
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and taking action towards actual meaningful goals
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and creating a more meaningful future.
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The third reason is FOMO,
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you're missing out.
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We got so used to seeing what's going on
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in everyone else's lives
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that we feel the need to open social media
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every hour to see what this friend posted on their story
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or who posted on Instagram.
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It could also be the same thing to text.
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You don't want to miss when someone texts you.
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Girl, it's fine to respond back a little bit late.
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You don't need to be on your phone
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waiting for someone to respond
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so that you can text back in like five seconds.
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There are plenty of other reasons.
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These are just a few, but again,
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find out your why
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and you will find what areas
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you need to specifically focus on to overcome this.
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Now let's go over a few changes
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to make in your phone settings
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to make not going on your phone a little bit easier.
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Number one is turn on screen time.
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By doing this,
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you'll be able to see a report that shows
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how much time you use your device.
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And then you can also see more specifically
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which apps and websites you use
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and how long you spend on all of them.
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You can also set limits on apps.
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Once you hit that limit,
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the app gets great out
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or it restricts certain futures
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which forces you to take a break.
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You can always press the ignore button on these,
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but it does act as a really great first barrier
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just to remind you,
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hey, you've been on this app for a while.
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It's probably a good idea to get off.
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You can also schedule downtime periods
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which is basically when all of your apps are restricted
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except for calls and maybe essential apps like maps.
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I like to set this for evening,
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so I'm less tempted to go on my phone at night time.
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If you do have an Android,
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there are apps that you can download to do this.
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Number two is turning off your notifications.
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One of the main reasons we go to pick up our phones
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is because of notifications that we get.
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We feel the need to check every time we hear that buzz.
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All of my notifications are off
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besides my banking app messages,
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but only for my family, my prayer app, canvas,
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and then a few of my work apps.
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This has genuinely helped me so much
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because I basically took away all of the background noise
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that was there and it's only the important stuff
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that I have now.
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We all have a different balance,
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so find what works for you.
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I'd say definitely 100% turn off your notifications
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for your social media apps.
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That's not a need.
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Keep on notifications for the important things
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like your school, work, prayer, etc.
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And on top of that, don't be afraid to put your phone
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on Do Not Disturb.
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If you want to make certain people
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be able to bypass this to text you like your parents,
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that is an option that you can use,
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so you don't have any excuses there.
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Number three is turning off Race to Wake.
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This is the future that allows your phone
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to turn on whenever you pick it up.
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This is also the future that allows your phone
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to turn on whenever you get a notification.
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To turn this off, you go to settings,
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then go to display and brightness,
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scroll down a little bit,
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and it should say Race to Wake.
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You're going to press the toggle to be off.
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I thought this wasn't going to work.
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It wasn't going to be effective.
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When I first heard of it,
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but after I implemented it,
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I realized it really did help.
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And I was honestly surprised.
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Because although it's like a really,
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really municipal thing to implement,
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it sort of forced me to be more mindful of
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when I pick up my phone.
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Because I have to take that extra step
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and press the power button
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to actually turn this screen on.
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And also, when I do get notifications,
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I have to go out of my way to go and turn my phone on
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to see what the notification is.
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So again, it just really forces me
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to be overall more mindful of
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whenever I go on my phone.
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Number four, make your phone black and white.
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Whenever you go on your phone,
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there's so much color in everything.
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And that's a big factor that pulls you in
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when you're on social media or playing any games.
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So by turning that off,
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you're taking away a lot of the interest that you have
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because it becomes a really dull environment.
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To do this, you go to accessibility,
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then press display and settings,
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scroll down a little bit,
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and then press color filters.
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There will be a toggle future
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which you want to press on,
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and then press grayscale.
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Also, guys, I'll have the specifics on this,
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on like the directions and everything on my website,
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just so you have directions written down.
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If that helps you out,
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I'll have the link to that in the description.
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I tried this technique for a little while,
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and it definitely did keep me off my phone.
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There wasn't any flashing colors,
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and there was literally zero dopamine
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that I was getting from it.
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I ended up turning it off
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because it was working too well.
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Like I genuinely just didn't want to go on my phone anymore.
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Scrolling on social media just wasn't appealing at all.
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I turned it back on a little bit ago,
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just to get back onto that,
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and to try and stay consistent.
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I do turn it back on when I'm FaceTiming people,
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or buying something,
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or when I'm making a video to post.
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But I've been trying,
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I feel like this is the hardest out of all of them
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because it genuinely has the biggest effect,
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I mean, for me at least.
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Now we're going to cover a few things
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that you can do instead of using your phone.
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We have a limited time on this earth,
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and we should be using that time wisely.
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You don't want to be old and regret the things
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that you didn't do,
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or the opportunities you didn't chase,
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or the experiences that you missed out on.
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Spend your time doing things
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that actually matter to you,
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things that are meaningful.
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You can invest time into yourself,
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try out skincare,
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and make a routine for yourself.
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Journal out your feelings.
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If you want to learn a new skill,
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go ahead and do that.
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Read a book,
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write a book if you want.
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Paint.
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You can start working out.
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Get a gym membership if you can.
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If not,
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go for a walk-around your neighborhood.
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Try it on your sport.
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You can also take a Pilates box in your karate classes.
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You can start a new hobby,
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or get back into an old one
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that you haven't done in a while.
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Try new things that you've wanted to do for a while
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that are maybe out of your comfort zone.
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Another really big thing
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is spending time
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connecting with your loved ones.
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Spend time talking to them,
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make plans to go places together.
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If you have siblings,
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ask them if you want to bake something with you.
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It's such a simple thing,
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but activities like this help
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and building your relationship with people,
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just spending time together
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and enjoying whatever it is that you're doing.
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These people won't be here forever.
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You don't have unlimited time.
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So spend that limited time
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that you have with them by doing things
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that you will actually have some meaning to you in the future.
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You can also volunteer every week.
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Somewhere like I would volunteer every week
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at the Mushted for Sunday School.
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And that took a few hours of pre-planning for the lesson.
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And then it was just a nice way
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to spend my Sundays
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since I was giving back to the community.
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I also wanted to cover talking about social media
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and how it's not always a bad thing to use.
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I've learned so much from it.
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And we should be able to use these platforms
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to further ourselves.
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But most of the time they tend to lead
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to doom scrolling or using them unproductively.
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So putting in all of these countermeasures
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and on top of that,
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being mindful of your social media consumption
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is really important.
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When I first started this whole thing,
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I decided I wanted to delay all of my social media.
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And after a while,
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I came back because I realized it's how I use it.
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I would still want to go through that phase
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of absolutely no social media
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because to help you break out of that habit,
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you get to spend so much time with yourself.
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It helped me become more grounded.
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It helped me actually appreciate life.
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Like one of the things that I didn't realize
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is how draining social media is.
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And because of that experience,
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when I did come back to social media,
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I was able to use it more mindfully.
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One of the big parts of this
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is curating your feet to work for you,
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not against you.
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So this means one, you're following,
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go through everything
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and unfollow anyone who isn't adding to your life.
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Remove people as well.
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Block people if you need to.
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Like I have absolutely no issue blocking anyone.
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Like it's my phone.
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Why am I going to allow a random person
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to make me feel bad and stress me out
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when I'm going on my phone?
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We're not doing that.
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To go through your feed
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and press not interested in all the content
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that isn't benefiting you,
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and then go to your search
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and search up things that you want.
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Like self-help content, religious content,
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and favorite and like a bunch of those.
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And this will cure your feet to work for you.
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That brings us to the end of this episode.
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I hope you all take some positive information from this
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and apply it to your life to help you.
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Make sure to follow my Instagram for daily motivation
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and to see my life.
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I'll have a link to that in the description.
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I'll also have a link to the journey to general website.
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There are free resources like a weekly planner
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and a sellout tracker that you can download and use.
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I also have two Ramadan planners.
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Along with that, I'll post notes from today's episode
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that you can use if you would prefer a revision.
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Also, a huge announcement.
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I am starting a newsletter subscription.
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That will be sending out like tips and tricks
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to your email.
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And I hope all of you guys do go and subscribe.
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It is linked at the bottom of the page on my website
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if you want to go check that out.
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With that, Assalamualaikum.
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And I will ensure I'll see you guys in my next episode.