7 Day Instagram Detox: Habit changing life hacks.

At first I called this experiment a Digital Detox. The reason?  Out of an impulse to reset my habits I thought the first thing to tackle was my Social Media usage.

As a media, the phone serve it's purpose of communicating, sharing and connecting people physically isolated from each other. Although, within a range of apps I have installed on my phone to serve that purpose, Instagram is by far the most used.

Over the past years/weeks I realised I've been spending way too much time on Instagram, so last Sunday I told myself  I would be going on a 7 day digital detox. The things I wanted to change:

How it started? I switched off the phone completely on Monday. 6th February 2020. I started journaling about my experience in order to cope with it.

Monday 8am: Woke up, felt the urge to check my phone, went to the restroom and got myself ready instead.

8:22am Sat for breakfast, looked around the house in order to find my phone and realised I wouldn't be looking at it. Got back to the breakfast table.

9:37am Starting to feel liberated and having more awareness of my surroundings. Writing a to-do-list for the week. Feels so good.

10:36 Got baby ready to go out with daddy, put breakfast dishes away, tidy up my laptop, put laundry on. Started to tackle my to-do-list.

12:00 I've been working non stop without any interruption. Feels refreshing and productive. Got my LFT: Girl Boss playlist going on Spotify which makes work fun. Break to have a clementine also drinking lots of water.

12:30 Scrolling through my Spotify playlists kind of feeling a sense of disconnection from my phone. Need to regain focus.

1pm Turned the phone on to call hubby and check on baby. It was literally 30 sec and here we go off again.

17:19 Between lunchtime and dinner I've got stuff done mostly working on my laptop. I am feeling very productive, so far it has been a good day. Also, I want to high-light that mental health wise is very good not to be pushed to be anywhere else rather than where I am now.

20:30 I've cooked tacos for dinner and also did a yoga session. Afterwards I reflected about how the detox is the very start of a habit change.

Overall impressions:

Eventually I felt social isolated and turned the phone on Day 2, Tuesday 7th to use WhatsApp and talk to friends and family.

I started under the assumption I was addicted to social media. What I realised instead, it is just a habit that takes a lot of mental space.

I thought I would  feel anxious and would have to focus the anxiety into something else e.g. journaling, exercising etc. However, by redirecting my focus from looking at the world through a social media lenses, I became more present and aware of my surroundings, driving attention inwards and spending more time involved with my personal projects.

I had a big low on dopamine and that reflected directly on my mood. Although I became more focused on tasks and realistic about life and my surroundings, I also experienced anger, pessimism, and less excitement about things in general.

I spent more time with my son, engaging with him on different activities from cooking, singing and dancing and watching his favourite cartoons to playing and strolling in the park. Also became more aware of his behaviour observing him a lot and improving our connection.

I struggled to adapt to a new sleeping routine. Firstly, because I was used to use the phone a  lot at night after baby is down in bedtime. Eventually, I started to go to bed earlier and slept more.

Things I accomplished

✔️ I am currently dedicated to a new career challenge and have been having calls back and forth with recruiters in the UK in order to find the perfect company fit. I work as a Senior Growth Marketer on a mission to connect brands with customers in a sustainable way.

✔️ I am currently editing LFT website so managed to do a lot of improvements on the e-commerce side of things, soon launching a new shop.

✔️ I wanted to convert some of my photography artwork during these past years as a travel and lifestyle content creator into NFT's. I finally made some pieces available for sale via Ethereum blockchain on Open Sea. You can add my collection to your watchlist. First items go on sale on London Fashion Today revamped website launch date (still to be announced).

✔️ I had a therapy session which was enlightening from a personal development point of view. ( I speak with a psychiatrist who is specialised in postpartum recovery since my son was born last year).

✔️ Had back to back meetings with my business co-founder @doffsco and worked on our product/ content development.

✔️ I did 3 yoga sessions with Sarah Beth which I absolutely love it.

Conclusion:

Funnily enough, social media's formula to success is advertising, so if us as users and creators are being triggered to consume something in there, then its own purpose has been accomplished. It remains to users, to ensure they're using whichever Social Network responsibly.

The flip side of this, as humans beings, all we want is to be sufficient, and these constantly unachievable standards imposed through highly compelling lifestyle narratives on social media and beyond, consequently distort the image we have of ourselves and our surroundings.

There are no limits for aspiring to be something in the 2022's Web 3.0 Era, there are indeed limits to become something, still. No one wants to be noise, everyone wants to be relevant.

I will start introducing "Social Media with Purpose", which means, during the next few days I will be looking at building a consistent and sustainable strategy to optimise my time online using planning and automation as a driver for it.

Look forward to sharing more of this with you all. If you like this post or have any questions feel free to DM me on Instagram or via our contact box here. 🙌