After reading the title, it’s pretty clear what this post is going to be about and why and I’m sure the second you read it, it immediately makes sense and there’s no real reason to go into much detail. But, I’ll get into the how, the why, the when, and the how again.

I don’t remember exactly when I started incorporating this self-appointed rule, but I think it’s safe to say it’s been at least 5 years that I’ve been practicing this.

For most of us, starting the day off with social media is a sure way to set ourselves up for failure the rest of the day. What I mean exactly is not necessarily full blown “failure”, but the rest of the day will be more bumpy for sure. I’ve noticed that in the morning, our brains and bodies are a lot more sensitive to what we take in, whether it’s a sugary breakfast or negative nonsense from the news, when we take that stuff in too early, it can throw off the rest of our day.

I noticed if I were to start the day off with social media, and give myself that unneeded dopamine hit or a dash of doom and gloom, it’s hard to break out of that negative mindset, or the constant urge to check your phone the rest of the day. You checked your phone early, you saw something “triggering”, now you’re stressed, angry or depressed, or all the things at once! You have an urge to argue with people online, or maybe you’re arguing with people in your own head, you’re not as present as you could be, now your relationships suffer, your work suffers, or both.

Or maybe you managed to side step the doom and gloom, but you still checked your phone. You got distracted scrolling, compared yourself to someone, or saw something funny or cute and you gave yourself that instant gratification dopamine hit. So the cycle continues regardless, you’re reaching for your phone more than you realize, checking social media, ah shit! Now you saw something negative, now you’re doom scrolling, life feels hopeless, we’re all screwed, what’s the point?! AARRGHHH!!!!!

Ok let’s take a breath and relax, things got a little dramatic there, but let’s be honest with ourselves, that’s kind of how it works more times than not. So what do we do?! We don’t wanna delete social media or quit cold turkey, maybe you use social media for business or as entertainment, and that’s ok!

I find that later in the day, the mind and body are a little more resilient, especially if your started the day off strong. Maybe you went for a walk or a run, maybe you made it to the gym before work, maybe you just had a nice quiet moment with your spouse, or cat, maybe you had a high protein breakfast, or maybe a combo of 2 or 3 of those. Now, whatever is thrown at you, whether it’s a sweet treat after lunch, or some useless negative news, you can brush it off a little easier without falling into a doom or stress spiral.

That’s where my rule ‘Social Media After 12pm’ comes in.

I look at social media like candy for the brain, and we all know that waking up and eating a bowl of gummy worms is a very bad idea. I find when you wait, just until 12pm, you won’t crave your phone as much. You won’t start the day off on a negative note. You might even find that you kind of forget about social media for a bit, and not even care to check your phone. Now, without even really trying, you haven’t checked social media all day! Even if you do check it right at 12 or at some point after, you may even notice that scrolling isn’t as satisfying or doesn’t grip your attention as strongly, and you log off with ease, not wasting precious time mindlessly scrolling. Maybe you’ll find yourself to be in a better mood, a little more present, less stressed, and with barely any effort, your life starts to improve.

Now I know I may be making this sound like some grand life hack that’ll fix all your problems, it won’t. BUT, it can improve things a lot and I truly believe that. Ask anyone who has decided to quit, or at least limit their social media use. I bet you they’ll tell you it’s one of the best things they’ve ever done, and that they’re never going back.

The beauty of this rule is that it’s easy, requires basically zero effort and you’re not telling yourself “you can’t”. When it comes to almost anything, whether it's eating habits, exercise, social media use, video games, etc. The second you try to bring down the hammer on yourself and tell yourself “NO!”, your inner child is going to want to rebel and you’ll probably fail pretty quick. So, it’s not that you can’t have that cookie, you can have that cookie(social media), but just after 12pm.

So give it a try, what do you have to lose? Just check it after 12pm, you’ll be fine.

Joshua

A few more things to help set yourself up for success:

1. Turn notifications off of EVERTHING! Do you really need your phone buzzing every time someone likes a post or a game app tries to trick you into playing? Probably not. Of course leave the necessities on, like phone calls, texts, or emails. Or if you wanna take it to the next level, turn those off too!

2. Leave your phone on silent. I do this almost everyday, with less distractions from texts or emails, my phone doesn’t even buzz when I get a phone call, so I miss calls a lot! But, fortunately for me, most of the calls I’m missing are spam anyway.

3. Put your phone away before bed. Do you have a hard time not using your phone in bed? All of a sudden it’s midnight, you’re wide awake, eyes are bloodshot and you have to be up at 6am? If this is you on some level, try leaving your phone in the bathroom or different room at night (on silent). “But Josh, it's my alarm clock!” Ok fine, leave it at bedside tonight, then go buy an alarm clock!

4. Avoid listening to or watching the news. Ever since I was a teen, I noticed how negative the news was/is, and how it contributes nothing of value to my life. Another great way to avoid a daily dose of doom and anxiety, is to avoid the news as much as you can.

Again, I’m not telling you that you “CAN’T” go on social media, or enjoy time on your phone, it’s just about setting up healthy boundaries around social media and our phones in general. So don’t go cold turkey just to rebel 2 days later! After 12pm, that’s it.