Simply put media can suck the life out of us. I don’t mean mainstream media necessarily. I’m talking media of all sorts! From movies to tv shows and social media to games on our phones and computers these things can be colossal time sucks! And time is our most precious asset. We can’t make more of it. When we squander it, it’s gone. And we have a limited supply of it.
Be wise in how you use your media time. Today’s weekly habit is to create a system to organize and monitor how much media time you’re actually indulging in. Then setting healthy boundaries and limits on what is right for your particular situation.
Now I can hear some people saying that they’re not doing anything wrong on their devices or when they watch tv so why is it a problem? Well, think of it this way, you don’t have to be doing something wrong to be missing something good.
Practical Steps
- Use your screen time function on your cell phone or tablet to help you see how much time you are spending on different forms of media.
- Make a list of your go to forms of media and how much time you think is reasonable to spend on each one. Add up all the times to see how much time you’ll be giving to your technology.
- Turn off autoplay on your video streaming devices.
- Set timers for how long you will be on a device and stop when the timer goes off. No excuses.
Our technology is a wonderful tool and a great asset. These things can really provide the breaks in our day that we need and allow us to shift our focus to something mundane for a needed break. But they can also be a terrible waste of time that we will never get back. Be mindful of who and what you’re giving your precious time to!
