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Okay, Sophia Noreen, let's dig into this. I can't wait to tell them all about how we got here.
Sophia Noreen: Welcome to the Boss It Podcast. My name is Sophia Noreen and I took an Etsy startup and launched it in big-box retailers within 12 months. As a creative with an entrepreneurial drive, I left my full-time career in healthcare to find better harmony between career, family, and self-care. We believe you can have it all. Yes, you can launch and run a successful, scalable business while maintaining harmony in all aspects of your life. We believe, we can learn from each other and draw on many experiences to create the best life possible. During each episode, we will share proven life hacks that will keep you on top and striving everyday.
There should be no hesitation. Make a plan. Take action. We are here for you.
Sophia Noreen: Hello everyone. Welcome to another fantastic episode of the Boss It Podcast. My name is Sophia Noreen, and I'm going to be your host for today. And today, we are going to be chatting about how to use your social media a little bit more optimally, and how to also prevent doomscrolling. Yes, it's definitely called doomscrolling. It's when you just continue scrolling through TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, you name it. And you just wasted a ton of time. And we all know as entrepreneurs and as Bosses, busy ladies, we don't have time to be doomscrolling without an intentional purpose. So, let's chat about that. I'm going to give you guys five tips on how to prevent doomscrolling and how to optimize your social media usage.
Okay, the first tip is you should definitely be contributing first to social media before you start consuming content. You may have heard this before but if you have not, listen up. Contribute first. They say, have to contribute and be consistent on social media. So, it doesn't matter what platform you're on. If you're not contributing consistently, whatever your cadence is, it doesn't matter if it's a day, four days, a week, or if it's weekly or bi-weekly, it doesn't matter. Just keep to the same cadence because that's how the algorithm knows when to show your content. And it also allows your followers to get used to a certain frequency of you posting.
So, you want to ensure that you are contributing before you're actually consuming. So, ensure that you have a posting schedule set up and ready to go. And if you have not done that yet, I highly suggest putting together a great social media plan. We'll talk about that in future episodes. But make sure you're contributing before you're going to be consuming the content. And ensure that you're going to set up some boundaries when you do consume your content. So, setting boundaries in your consumption. Many people just get on social and they don't have any limits to the amount that they're consuming.
You'll notice that if you're procrastinating or you don't want to get something done, you maybe just getting onto social. You maybe just clicking on TikTok and you're like, oh, I'll watch a few minutes of TikTok. Or you may be thinking, oh, I'll just look at Instagram in between a lineup if you're waiting in a lineup, for example. And before you know it, you've been sitting on the social media for an hour. And I'm guilty of that too guys. It is definitely a time suck. Not only do I want to ensure that you're going to contribute before you consume these social media content. But when you actually are on social media and you are going and you're scrolling, make sure it's done with intention. And what that means is you need to be social in social media. Again, you may have heard this before but ask yourself right now, are you actually doing that? Are you actually commenting and liking and engaging with the posts? That is the way the social media algorithms know what to show you. It is also the way that the people who you're engaging with will likely engage back with you in the future. So, it's a different form of social connection. By me, commenting or liking a post, I am engaging with that individual. Giving them my attention, which is one of the most valuable resources these days. So if you go and you give attention to somebody else's content, they will likely share the love and give back to your content in the future. And when that happened, it tells the algorithm, oh, this is good content. Let's go share it with people that may look like this particular person. Whatever characteristics they've pulled, they'll go present your content to somebody who may be identifying with a similar group.
So again, I know it seems obvious but ask yourself now, are you actually going and contributing to social media regularly on a cadence? And then when you're consuming, are you consuming with intention? Meaning, are you liking posts or commenting posts? Are you ensuring you take time to engage with that individual who's creating the post? The reason why we want you to prevent mindless scrolling is because it can lead to the FOMO, fear of missing out, approach. It may result in you feeling more self-conscious because you're like, well, so and so has this, this, and this happening. But if you go ahead and you engage with particular posts and you go with a purpose, then you're less likely to feel these negative psychological effects of social media. Again, if you're consuming social media content, make sure you're doing a good intention And this could prevent the negative psychological effects that we've seen social media have on so many people.
Okay, let's move on to tip number two, you need to make a date with social media. You cannot just open up the app or turn on the YouTube at any point in the day. I'm very big on scheduling. I'm blocking and chunking at my schedule so I do not waste time. Because time is the most valuable resource we have. You have to deal with your social media accounts as well. What that means is, if you want to go on Instagram or if you want to go on TikTok, or if you want to go on YouTube or any other platform, LinkedIn, Twitter, you name it, you need to have a schedule for the time you will go and engage.
For example, I used to post very regularly at 9:00 AM on Instagram. It was a scheduler that was doing it. But what I did is I would go on 15 minutes before the post. And I would stay on for 15 minutes after. During that time, I would engage with my social media followers, be answering DMs and ensuring the account was active before and right after the post would go out. That was my Instagram time. And pretty much after that, and then maybe I would hop on at 2:00 PM when I had my coffee as a little break. That's it. There was not much scrolling happening. I wasn't going into the social media black hole where you are scrolling and forever spending time on other people's Instagram accounts without contributing. I was very intentional with how I was using my time.
I want you to ask yourself, is there a time in the day where you're planning on consistently posting or you are posting? Can you chunk your time before it, before the post goes up? And can you chunk your time right after? And in my opinion, that's the best time because you never know, sometimes the posts may fail to go up online. It could fail for many reasons. Sometimes the scheduler's a little clunky so it's nice to be online during that time. Plus, if you put the post up and people start commenting on your post, you want to comment back. Again, that's another reason why you would want to contribute your time on Instagram when your post goes up. So ask yourself, is there a particular time of the day which is ideal for you to post? And you can look at your analytics to see if there's an ideal time when many of your followers are actually online and engaged. And then, best to post at that time. And then after that, it's best to block your time before and after the post so that way you have time to contribute to the engagement on Instagram. Be intentional with the time that you spend on any social media account. I've been using Instagram as an example, primarily. But this goes for all accounts, and ensure that you are almost time-blocking so you don't get stuck in the black hole of social media which many people call doomscrolling.
Tip number three. If You're the type of person who just happens to always gravitate to the social media apps, then consider taking them off your phone. I'll say it again. If you're the type of person who is always gravitating towards the apps, whatever social media app it may be, consider removing it from your phone. And the reason why this should be done is because it's become a compulsion. You're not able to control your urge to be opening that app. And it could be sabotaging you and how you spend the rest of your time during the day. Really do consider moving it. Some people will remove it off the home screen so it's within a folder. If you're able to just put it out of sight, out of mind and that's good, then go ahead and do that before you actually remove it from your phone. That's the first step. But if you're still gravitating to the app, then remove it off your phone and perhaps even use a desktop version if the social media account that you are planning on using is compatible like LinkedIn, obviously, very compatible with the desktop version. And I actually don't even have the LinkedIn app on my phone at the moment. It's all on the desktop. That helps me really hone in on my LinkedIn time. Same with Facebook, really hone in on my Facebook time when I go on Facebook because it's on the desktop, versus Instagram and TikTok. Those apps are very chunky, I would say, on the desktop so I can see why people keep them on their phones. But be careful because that could be a trick. They may want you to use the app because apps are very, very user-friendly, especially on the phone. And you know how addictive they can be.
Okay, let's move on to tip number four. There are so many third-party apps out there. And I believe apps like Instagram, for example, even have their own built-in timers that will cut you off as soon as you've hit that specific marks. If you are on for 30 minutes, and that's all you want to give yourself in one sitting and your 30 minutes is up the app The third-party app cut you off. Or Instagram has a feature now that will cut you off. So that is a great way of controlling your compulsion, especially if you want a time block and you want to say, okay, I'm only going to be on for 30 minutes a day. I'm going to be on from 8:45 AM to 9:15 AM. And just in case the social media content that's out there that day is that good, this app will cut you off.
I'm not going to name any of the apps because I know within one year it will be a whole different bucket of apps. But my suggestion is just Google time-limiting app for social media, and you'll get a whole list of suggestions which are currently in Vogue and have the best options for you. So go ahead and do that. I highly recommend it. We have apps for our children to control screen time, and I can actually pause their accounts. Highly, highly recommended. And so if you're an adult and you need that level of control, highly, highly recommended, you will not go wrong.
And tip number five, you may have the compulsion still to do something during the time that you may have had set initially for social media scrolling. For example, some people come home from work and they're just so tired, or they get off a long meeting and they're so tired, they don't want to do anything but sit on their couch and sit on their phone. And I'm sure many of us here are guilty of that. That's the way we wind down. That is the way that we entertain our minds. That is the new form of TV back in the day when we watched TV after school, for example. You need to replace that action now.
If you're trying to reduce your doomscrolling or scrolling into the black hole of social media and you want to be intentional with your social media consumption and usage, you need to replace that time that you may have been spending on social media with something else. There are so many suggestions you could put in place here. So, think about a hobby that you would like to do more of. Perhaps it's reading, perhaps it's drawing, perhaps it's cleaning out your closet. Not that that's a hobby, but some people love cleaning and organizing. It could be even journaling during that time. You can meditate. But the goal here is to replace the time that was being spent on social media with something else. You want to replace it. The whole activity of being on social, it needs to be replaced. And again, the reason you're doing this is to calm your mind. You want to intentionally do an activity that will make you feel more invigorated when you come out more accomplished. Consider those things when you're selecting your activity that you're going to replace your social media scrolling.
Okay guys, let's go from the top. The five tips on how to use your social media a little bit more optimally, and also a little bit more responsibly. We want to ensure that you're not doomscrolling. We want to make sure that you're not scrolling into the black hole of social media and that you are getting the most out of it without feeling like you are missing out. We don't want you having the FOMO, which many people have when they watch social media accounts. The tip was contribute to the social media content before you consume. And then also, if you can ensure that you have a scheduler in place to really optimize your time. Then next, make sure you have boundaries and dates around how much time you are spending on social media. Again, I say half an hour, 15 minutes before and 15 minutes after a post is supposed to go up, and make it a really concerted effort to be social on the social media. Don't just scroll every time you see something that you are in line with or you like to comment and like. And engage with your community.
Tip number three was go ahead and remove the social media app from your home screen of your phone if you're having difficulty with managing your time. You have a compulsory tendency to go and click that app on the home screen, remove it from your home screen. And you may have to remove it from your phone altogether if you know how to find it in the folders. And ensure that you are not tricking yourself and heading to the app when it's not within the time limits you've set for yourself. And then tip number four, if you are having trouble staying within your time limits or your boundaries, then consider getting limiting app that will ensure that you stay within the parameters you've set. So I gave the half an hour exam. These apps would be great to help you stay within that time limit because some people will say 30 minutes but you know, five more minutes here and there. It may not seem like a lot, but it becomes a habit. So, we want to break those habits. And then tip number five, you need to replace the activities of scrolling with something else. Again, pick an activity that you want to do that will make you feel energized and refreshed. A lot of people, again, use social media scrolling as a way of resetting during the day. Pick something else so that way you still get that downtime that you need. I call it transition time between home time and work time. And some people need that. And I suggest to not give that up, just replace your scrolling with another activity.
Okay guys, five tips. I hope you put them to use even just one or two. I know social media is a very valuable resource in our community, within our industry as well especially if you're an entrepreneur or considering going into entrepreneurship. It's a way for us to connect with many, many people around the globe. A way for us to market without paying a ton of money, really. But remember, there is negative psychological effects that occur when you are on social media and you are constantly comparing yourself. So, we want you to prevent that from happening. We want you to take the best from the social media experience and not put yourself in the situation where you're feeling less than, or having imposter syndrome or any of the other negative connotations that could come along with social.
Okay guys, that's all for today. Remember, we drop a new episode every Tuesday. And if you're loving the Boss It Podcast, go ahead and subscribe and share these episodes with friends. Because we know that the entrepreneurial journey is much more exciting and fulfilling when you're in it with a community. So, go ahead share these episodes so others can also benefit from the knowledge. Okay guys, that's all for now. I'll talk with you guys again next week. And remember, make a plan and take action. And yes, you can have it all. Take care. Bye.
Sophia Noreen: So my fellow bosses, did you enjoy that episode? Now, it's time for you to make a solid plan and take action. But first, remember to subscribe and follow the Boss It Podcast so you receive a notification whenever we drop an episode. Remember to leave us a review on iTunes. Take a screenshot of your review and share it on Instagram as a post or a story, and tag us at @bossitclub. If Instagram is not your thing, no worries. Email your screenshot to [email protected]. As a massive thank you, we will be sending you our top 50 tips for starting and scaling a business. This list is exclusively for podcast reviewers so don't miss out. Now remember bosses, make a plan and take action in all aspects of your life. Yes, you can have it all.
So my fellow Bosses, did you enjoy that episode? Now, it's time for you to make a solid plan and take action. But first, remember to subscribe and follow the Boss It Podcast so you receive a notification whenever we drop an episode. Remember to leave us a review on iTunes. Take a screenshot of your review and share it on Instagram as a post or a story, and tag us at Boss It Club. If Instagram is not your thing, no worries. Email your screenshot to [email protected]. As a massive thank you, we will be sending you our top 50 tips for starting and scaling a business. This list is exclusively for podcast reviewers so don't miss out. Now, remember Bosses, make a plan and take action in all aspects of your life. Yes, you can have it all.
