Just like most people these days, I use to spend too much of my time on Twitter. I’m talking about 4 hours each day! Scary, I know, but I managed to gradually reduce it to about 30 minutes. And yeah, it’s still work in progress, who knows, I might just stop going on Twitter altogether. Kidding!
So, let me share my secret on how I reduced the time I wasted on Twitter from about 4 hours to 30 minutes. This isn’t a clinical method to deal with twitter addiction but it’s worth a try, I mean, it worked for me it could work for you too.
1. Delete the App!
That’s harsh! You might say, but the time I spent on Twitter started affecting my actual life. Even when I have deadlines to meet, I’ll still be scrolling through the app in search of the latest trend.
When I came to the realization that I might be becoming addicted to Twitter. Though it’s wasn’t easy, I brought myself to uninstall the app from my phone. Now the Interesting part is, I didn’t miss it that much, of course whenever I’m Idle my muscle memory would direct me to the folder where the app was, but with the app gone. I’ll just have to do something else.
After about a month, I reinstalled the app to manage my business’ page (at least that’s the excuse I gave myself), but I noticed something. You know when you just pick up your phone and the next thing you know, you’re on Twitter without consciously thinking about going there? It was gone for me! I think all the time I spent off the app somehow erased the pattern from my brain. I think.
2. Be Conscious
So, after reinstalling Twitter, I decided to be conscious about how much time I spent there and since I wasn’t magically finding myself there anymore it was kind of easy.
3. Find a healthier thing to do when you’re bored
“I’m bored, let me go on Twitter.” That’s the thought that preceded my multiple Twitter sessions every day. After reinstalling the app, I realized I might have to find something else to do when I’m bored in order not to return to my former state.
What I mean by finding something healthier, is finding something to do that’ll have some positive result at the end of the day. Call a friend, plan your budget, read something (books, articles etc.) These might not seem to be as interesting as seeing savage comments on Twitter but in the long run, you’ll be better off doing this.
4. Follow less accounts
This might not have much impact since you can still spend hours on the trends page, however, having fewer things on my timeline helped me spend less time on Twitter especially when I’m on the desktop version.
5. Mute all notifications from Twitter
Notifications will make it difficult for you to control how you use the app. There’s something about “@lolade replied your tweet” that’s hard to resist.
So, make sure all Twitter notifications are turned off, then you can check Lolade’s reply whenever you decide to.
