Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, which means I may receive a small commission, at no extra cost to you, if you make a purchase using this link. Please see my disclosure for more details.

Do you find yourself often glued to your phone, spending hours on social media?

TikTok, Youtube, Instagram, Netflix – you name it. It’s hard to practice self-control when social media is literally addicting.

Research has even shown the correlation between social media addiction to the mental health of college students and their academic performance.

It makes sense why we’re drawn to our devices and social media, though.

We, as human beings, crave human connection – it’s just a natural human desire that we all have. Social media allows us to connect with others, send DMs, comment on Youtube videos, and see what our friends have been up to.

But the big question is: how much is too much?

When the consumption of social media starts to affect your mental wellbeing and social life, that’s probably a sign that you’re spending too much time on it.

If you want to be more mindful of how you’re spending your time on social media, you’ve come to the right place!

As someone who has struggled with a social media/TV addiction, I’m here to share with you what has helped me how to stop wasting time on social media and get my life back on track.

How To Stop Wasting Time On Social Media

Why am I wasting time on social media?

First, before we can jump into the practical side of this post, it’s sooo important to reflect on why are you wasting time.

Often times, you might think you’re wasting time because you’re not spending it the way other people are. If that’s the case, then I’d encourage you to reflect on your values and what you consider as a waste of time.

On the other hand, maybe you might be avoiding things that you know you should get done or want to do.

Sometimes, we use social media to cope with our anxiety and stress, but too much of it can make us procrastinate on things we need to get done.

I don’t mean to call you out lol but it’s important to ask yourself, Why am I wasting time? What am I avoiding?”

What do I want to do with my time?

If you know you’re avoiding a certain task or goal in your life by scrolling through social media, then that’s a good thing! Being able to recognize yourself is SOO important in order to take action.

Real question, though… what would you rather be doing with your time instead of scrolling through social media?

Are there certain goals you want to achieve in your life?
What are things you want to accomplish with the time you have?
Do you want to make new friends and develop your interpersonal skills?
Do you want to start a side hustle and potentially create some side money to pay off your student loans?
Are you trying to figure out what job you will actually enjoy and want to pursue as a career in the future?

Asking yourself this question will force you to really dig deeper and figure out your passions and priorities.

Here are just some of my personal things of what I would want to do with my time instead of social media.

I want to start working out because I want to feel strong and lean.
I want to cook more so that I can healthier because I want to feel lighter and have more energy at work.
I want to start a blog because I want to have a creative outlet and make it a side hustle.
I want to meet someone new because I want to get out of my comfort zone.
I want to start reading because I want to replace my TV addiction with a healthier activity.
I want to spend more time with my friends because we only get to see each other every few weeks.

I like to add a ‘why’ after each one because it helps motivate me more and they align with my values. So to help you out, here a few questions to get you thinking:

Question prompts:

What would you rather be doing instead of social media?
Why is this particular task/thing important to you?
How does it make you feel?

Hopefully by now, you have a better grasp of your motives to stop wasting time. Because now it’s time to move onto the practical part of this post

Here are my top 5 practical tips on how you can start taking action to stop wasting time.

5 Tips: How To Stop Wasting Time On Social Media

1. Keep Track of Your Time

If you don’t know where you’re spending most of your time, evaluate what you’re doing with it. I’m not saying that you have to track every minute of your day to the T, but having a general sense of where you spend the most time will allow you to plan around your time and take necessary action.

Follow these action steps below:

Write down a list of things that you’re doing right now. Are you taking any classes? Do you have any prior commitments? What hobbies do you do? Do you watch Netflix or spend time on your phone going through social media? Do you do your chores? Write it all down – EVERYTHING you’re doing.
Now look at your list and estimate how long each activity takes you. For example, let’s say you wrote down, “Watching Netflix every night.” Next to it, write down how many minutes/hours you do this activity. And do this for the rest of your list.
Evaluate the areas you are spending most of your time on and ask yourself this following question: Do I need to be spending this amount of time for each activity? Obviously for school or work or any class activities, these are things that are pretty much set. But what about the amount of time you spend on your phone? On the internet? Checking your email? Even sleeping?
Look over your list again and circle 1-2 activities you want to cut down on time. Going back to the previous example, this could be watching Netflix. Maybe you want to cut down from watching 3 hours of Netflix every night to 2 hours.
Turn these activities into SMART goals. Once you know which activities you want to start working towards, now you can turn them into action goals. This leads me to my next tip.

2. Know your priorities

This is so, so important when you’re trying to make time. You need to set your priorities straight. If you’re stuck on figuring out what they are, ask yourself these questions:

What are the things that matter most to me?
Why do these things matter to me?
What are things I’m doing right now that aren’t serving me?

Write down your answers to these questions. Make a list of reasons why these things matter to you. Do they serve a purpose?

Write down the things that you’re doing right now that aren’t serving you and don’t align with your priorities. Reflect on your response to these questions and figure out what you need to spend less time on and more time on. You might need to spend a little bit more time on this section.

And if you’re still stuck on what it is you need to focus on, here is an example of what my priorities look like at the moment:

Faith
Family
Health
Personal Growth

Why these things matter to me:

My faith represents who I am.
I value spending time with people whom I love and care about.
I appreciate that God has created me as a healthy, perfectly functioning human being.
I want to use my time to keep learning and growing as an individual.

Things that do not align with my priorities:

Watching Youtube videos in the afternoon and evening
Binge watching TV show episodes
Spending time on social media mindlessly scrolling
Being indecisive rather than making a decision

Now, it’s your turn! Go through the questions above and write down your priorities and what things do not align with them.

3. Create SMART goals around your time

I know, I know. You probably hear about SMART goals everywhere – in school, online, at your workplace, etc. But there’s a reason why it’s mentioned so often. Because they work. So if you haven’t already learned the acronym for SMART goals. Here’s a refresher for you.

Specific (be specific about your goal(s))
Measurable (make sure you can measure them)
Achievable (they need to be attainable)
Relevant (make sure they are realistic and results-based)
Time bound (your goals need to be time-based)

I think the most difficult part about setting goals is about not knowing where to start and how a SMART goal should look like. Not to worry. I’ve provided 3 examples of SMART goals that will hopefully give you a better sense of what they could look like for you.

Example #1: Let’s say you want to cut down on your time spent watching Netflix from 3 hours per day to 2 hours per day.

SMART goal: I will reduce my time spent on Netflix from 3 hours to 2 hours on the weekdays. I will schedule this into my calendar and create a time block from 8-10 pm. I will also set an alarm for 10 pm, which alerts me to turn off my laptop/computer and get ready for bed.

Example #2: Let’s say you want to spend more time with your friends, but you’ve just been putting off your plans.

SMART goal: I will look over my schedule for this week and find available days/times to hang out with my friends. I’ll text them my available days/times and wait for them to get back to me. Once we work out at a time, I’ll schedule it into my agenda.

Example #3: Let’s say you want to start a blog but you don’t know what to do or where to start.

SMART goal: I will set aside 2 hours this Saturday to research how to start a blog. I will make note of the 3 most helpful websites/articles and follow along any practical steps/tips included. I will schedule two 2-hour time blocks this week into my schedule to focus on my blog.

4. Focus on one task at a time

If I’m being very honest, I sometimes still struggle with this one. My mind often tries to convince me that I have this superpower to multi-task (I still wish that were true), but I’ve realized that is far from the truth.

Instead, multi-tasking can significantly hurt your productivity. It can be a huge time waster.

Rather than focusing on what you have to do in the present moment, you try to attend to 2-3 tasks at the same time. And so, it may take you even longer to get stuff done.

For example, let’s say you have an English paper that’s due tomorrow, but you also have a psychology quiz and a math quiz to study for. You choose to write your English paper first, but two paragraphs in, you start to get tired. So you decide to study for your psych quiz, but halfway studying, you get bored, so you decide to move onto math.

This is an example of ineffective productivity. Although it may seem like you’re getting a bit of everything done, you’re actually hurting your progress. You’re never really completing the things you start to do.

So here’s a challenge for you.

Write down 3 goals at the start of your day.
Start with your top priority goal.
Use the Pomodoro technique and go through as many rounds as you need to until you complete your first goal.
Once you complete your first goal, write down how many rounds it took you. This will give you a general idea of how long it will take you to complete similar tasks like your first goal.
Then, move onto your second goal. Continue the process until you finish.
Now it’s time for your final goal. Repeat the process.
And look at that, you’re done!

Once you start focusing on one task a time, it will get easier and easier. Focusing is a skill that you have to build, which will take time. The more you practice it, the better you’ll get. Eventually, your productivity will skyrocket and your focus will significantly increase.

5. Remove distractions

In order to focus on your tasks and really make use of your time, you must remove any distractions that hinder you from achieving your goals. We live in a world full of distractions.

When a notification pops up on our phones, we get a sudden urge to check who it’s from. When we don’t feel like accomplishing a goal, we try to distract ourselves with other things. Even chores can serve as a distraction.

You’re doing yourself a huge favor by removing any triggers that can cause you to get easily distracted. Here are several ways you can remove distractions around you.

Find a distraction-free environment. If you know you easily get distracted at home while trying to do homework or work on a side project, force yourself to drive out to a coffee shop, the library, or school to get stuff done.
Put your phone far away from you. It’s easy to get tempted to check your phone every so often. But our phones are huge time wasters that hurt your productivity. So if you must, put your phone in your backpack or somewhere where you can’t see it.
Download website-blocking apps. Sometimes, we need that extra push to really get things done and set boundaries around our time. The SelfControl app allows you to manually set a timer and create a domain blacklist of websites to block.
Block out external noise. I don’t know about you, but I get easily distracted by noise. When I type my blog posts, I use these earphones to block out any distractions. This allows me to really get into my zone and concentrate on blogging.

This post was all about how to stop wasting time on social media.

What you do with your time is important. How you spend it matters.

I’m not saying that for every waking moment, you have to do something productive. It’s all about finding balance, too. You don’t want to stress yourself out, thinking that you always have to stay on top of your game.

Start small and work your way up.

When you focus on what you want and why you want to achieve your goals, you will create time to do those things that matter. So to recap this post, here are the main takeaways to remember:

Keep track of your time and choose 1-2 activities that are taking up most of your time that you would like to cut down on.
Figure out your priorities and come up with 1-3 reasons why each one matters to you.
Create SMART goals for each activity that you want to decrease time on or an activity that you want to spend more time on.
Pick one task to focus on and use the Pomodoro technique to complete one at a time.
Remove distractions and any triggers that lead to you getting easily distracted.

I challenge you to start applying one of these tips into your weekly routine. Remember, you can be in control of your time. Time does not have to control you. You got this!

If you found this post helpful, comment down below which tip resonated with you the most! I’d love to know. And if you have any helpful tips on how to stop wasting time on social media, comment below!

IF YOU LIKED THIS POST, YOU’LL LOVE THESE TOO!

How to Combat Laziness and Procrastination

How To Plan And Organize Your Month Ahead Of Time

28 Productive Things To Do Before Bed Instead Of Social Media