Tag: social media

Posted in life hacks, mental health, productivity, wellbeing

Monday Matters: Information overload and 5 helpful ways to deal with it

Posted on by Laura
Photo credit: Abigail Keenan for Unsplash

In our current society, information overload has become a real issue for many, if not all of us and one which can seriously impact our mental and physical health and general wellbeing. In today’s Monday Matters, I’m going to consider what is meant by the term, discuss ways in which an information-rich environment can affect us and present 5 ways you can make it easier to deal with.

Put simply, information overload is when we are faced with so much information (much of it irrelevant to us) that our brains become overstimulated and we find it impossible to fully process it all. If I were to make a list of all of the types of information we’re bombarded with every day for most of us it would include texts, emails, news articles, search engine results, news broadcasts, advertisements: online – via banners, pop ups, game and social media interruptions, on TV, radio and on billboards, notifications from social media, the stuff we read as we mindlessly scroll through the aforementioned social media, telephone calls, radio shows, TV programmes, blog articles, discussions in meetings, with customers, colleagues or other acquaintances – the list goes on and you’re probably exhausted after reading just this sentence. All of this can lead to feelings of overwhelm, stress, inadequacy, anxiety, confusion, exhaustion and a general lack of control. It can also result in physical health symptoms such as headaches, increased blood pressure, vision problems and insomnia. It can affect our work quality, decision making, memory, efficiency, self esteem, confidence and sleep.

With that list of unwanted side effects of information overload, it’s pretty vital that we find ways to cope with and control what we consume each day. Hopefully the following tips will help.

Make your morning routine tech free

When I say tech free, I don’t mean giving up on using your alarm clock to wake up, lights to see clearly, or your heating to keep yourself warm, but avoiding the use of communication devices such as your phone, tablet, laptop and TV can help make your morning routine both mindful and productive but also a relaxing and stress free one. On my best days, I will wake up using my new Sunrise alarm clock (so I don’t immediately have to pick up my phone) and fill in my 5 minute journal. I’ll then make myself a healthy breakfast of wholewheat cereal with soya milk, a piece of fruit, a glass of squash to take my morning medications and my first cup of coffee of the day. Whilst eating and drinking, I try to focus on being mindful, showing gratitude for what I’m consuming, thinking about the nutritional content and how this will fuel my body, and not allowing anything to distract me from the process. Next, whilst I’m finishing my coffee, I begin reading, highlighting and completing journalling tasks in my current non-fiction book. At the moment I’m reading Manifest by Roxie Nafousi and I have the hardback edition which feels good in my hands and makes it much easier to mark important points, annotate or complete tasks. My reading lasts for around 20 minutes and is another quiet, slow and relaxed element of my routine. Finally, I’ll get myself ready in the usual way by showering, brushing my teeth, washing my face and doing my skincare before starting on my tasks for the day.

As I said earlier, the above is followed on my best days when my morning routine is a mindful and relaxing start to my day. However, on some days (thankfully not very often since evaluating and making changes), I will pick up my phone, check notifications from in the night, view the content from these, look through my emails, go on YouTube to see if there’s any new videos from vloggers I subscribe to and then watch the content, check the news, pop on Facebook to wish friends or family members a happy birthday (and then start looking at my feed) before taking a second to breathe and think about all of the ideas, things on my to do list and random stuff which is filling my mind from all of the information I’ve already consumed before I’ve even finished my coffee (which I’ve probably barely even tasted!). So, which routine would you prefer to give you a good start to your day?

Of course, I’m not saying that my personal routine would suit everyone, and I’m conscious that some of you will have responsibilities towards others or an early work start, but I think we can all benefit from a calmer, more peaceful and mindful start to our day.

Think about the content you wish to engage with and why

There are certain types of information which we have little or no control over. For example you might tire of listening to your boss and other members of senior management talking about targets or sending you long-winded emails, your colleagues might frustrate you by regularly interrupting you from your flow of work to ask questions etc. but you can’t really tell them that you’re going to ignore them for a week and stop attending meetings because you’re trying to feel less overwhelmed by all of the information you consume (well you could but I’m pretty sure you would be waving bye bye to your job pretty soon). However, outside of work, we can generally make choices and set boundaries which help to limit our exposure to information. Here’s some ideas to think about:

Focus on your current interests Choose content from a reliable source which is relevant to your current interests. For example, you might read non-fiction texts and watch videos about watercolour painting because it’s something you enjoy doing in your free time and want to get better at. You might search for Pinterest content which shows Spring outfit and fashion ideas because you want some ideas on how to update your wardrobe. Or, you might search online for exercise ideas from qualified instructors which focus on building core strength because you’ve heard it will help to improve your posture and make you more toned.

Consider your goals Think about your current aspirations, desires and goals to help you decide what kind of information will benefit you in the long term. For example, if you want to work on creating a vegetable garden so you can enjoy your homegrown produce in your meals, you will probably want to read articles in magazines or online from from reputable sources such as Gardener’s World or RHS. You might also plan to watch YouTube videos for planting tips or buy a comprehensive guide to making the most of your plot. The key is to live in alignment with your current priorities whilst making choices which reflect you values and beliefs.

Ignore information and media content which doesn’t make you feel good Think about the effect certain information has on your mood. For example, if reading and watching local or national news makes you feel sad, angry, frustrated or anxious, try to limit your exposure or try avoiding it for a while and see how you feel (if there’s anything major happening in the world or your local community, you’re certain to hear about it somewhere and then you can find out more if you need to). If looking at your friend’s social media feed makes you feel inadequate and as though your life is uninteresting and uneventful, try giving it a miss for a while. Similarly, if you follow content creators on YouTube who always appear to be super-organised, productive and well put together and it makes you feel like your life is an absolute mess or that you’re a domestic slattern, it might be time to unsubscribe.

Remember, social media is designed to be addictive The designers of social media platforms and the teams running them want you to spend hours scrolling and thrive on the fact that you keep coming back for more. That’s why it’s so hard to cut down or stop. In their book Make Time, Jake Knapp and John Zeratsky refer to these apps, and other sources of ever updating information, as infinity pools, which provide constant distraction from what we would actually like to focus our time on each day. If you struggle with productivity issues or decisions about what to prioritise in your life, their book is well worth a read. For now, try spending a little time reflecting on your current social media usage, asking yourself questions such as:

  • How do I feel after using (insert S.M. platform)? Why?
  • What times of day do I find myself using S.M.?
  • How much of my time per day / week is spent on S.M.? (Some mobile phones can track this for you and compare your usage over consecutive weeks)
  • What impact does my S.M. usage have on my mental health? Do I feel more connected with others who share my interests or inspired by the content I consume? Alternatively, does it leave me with feelings of isolation, inadequacy, dissatisfaction, loneliness (and anything else that makes you uncomfortable)?
  • Would I describe my social media habits as unhealthy? e.g. is it the first thing I think about when I wake up or do I scroll just before or in bed and end up not being able to sleep?

Make a plan to take control of the information you choose to consume before it takes control of you!

Turn off your notifications and alerts

One of the easiest and most effective ways to reduce the volume of information that comes your way is by turning off notifications and alerts from the various social media platforms and apps you use. Again, you should think about whether the notifications and alerts are a distraction or are useful for you. So, for example, I have a star gazing app and I quite like the messages I’m sent a few times a week which tell me about particular celestial bodies that can be viewed that night and opening the app shows us where to find them in the sky. I also get an alert which reminds me to fill in by Bipolar mood tracker each evening as it’s important for me to see what affect different events or activities have on my mood and wellbeing. Of my two email accounts, one is for professional and important stuff like work related opportunities, Etsy shop sales or messages from customers etc., whilst the other is for all the random marketing emails from various shops and companies which I don’t want to be notified of throughout the day. For online orders that I’ve placed, I’ve found there is the option on Yahoo Mail to received notifications of dispatch and delivery information. I’m not quite sure how it works but I presume it searches for key words within the emails.

The second thing you can do is go into your phone settings and set up a ‘do not disturb’ when you are busy (which you turn off at a time of your choosing) and a sleeping schedule which means that after a selected time in the evening and before a chosen time in the morning, your phone does not send notifications of any kind. You can alter this so that alarms can still go off if you need any reminders. For example, I have an alarm set to remind me to take my evening medications and another one to remind me to book my exercise class for the next week when it gets to 10.15pm (annoyingly, if I don’t book straightaway the class fills up with 1 minute of going live!).

Take a break (away from social media)

I’ve discussed before how I use the Pomodoro technique to be productive during the day but one of the most important aspects of the method is taking regular breaks. It’s tempting to check in with social media at these times but I make a point of doing something different so I’m not still looking at a screen and I don’t end up losing track of time. Some ideas for activities to do in your break include:

  • get outside or open a window and inhale some fresh air
  • do a mini meditation
  • listen to some music with your eyes closed or have a little boogie
  • make a hot or cold drink
  • enjoy a healthy snack
  • read a book or magazine
  • do some doodling / colouring in
  • do some stretches
  • declutter your workspace

Do a brain dump

If you feel like you’re drowning in thoughts, feelings, ideas and to-dos, it’s a good idea to get it all out on paper. This is the idea behind a ‘brain dump’, where you free write everything that is currently on your mind onto a blank sheet in a format of your choosing – in long hand, note form, spider diagram style etc. and it can be a powerful way to relieve stress. When you’ve finished, you can decide what to do with all the information – do you need to add something to your calendar or schedule in a time to explore further? might you need to add a few things to your to do list for the next week? would you benefit from talking to someone about how you’re feeling? maybe you need to seek out some positive news stories or make plans for a self care day or a weekend away?

Final words…

I hope you have found today’s tips helpful and feel inspired to try some of them as a way to improve your health and wellbeing. If you do give any of the suggestions a go, I would love to hear how you get on. I know that it can be tempting to consume as much information as you can through the fear of missing out (FOMO) but remember that a lot of what’s out there is neither useful, helpful, relevant or worthy of your time so try and adopt the joy of missing out (JOMO) approach instead!

Posted in lifestyle, mental health, wellbeing, wellness

Monday Matters: 6 Ways to Ensure a Positive Social Media Experience

Posted on by Laura
Photo credit: Georgia de Lotz for Unsplash

The negative effects of social media are well documented and there’s a lot of evidence from a variety of studies about it being detrimental to our wellbeing causing issues such as anxiety, depression, loneliness and low self esteem. However, I believe it is perfectly possible to have a positive and rewarding experience online if you moderate the time you spend and are mindful of how you engage. Today’s Monday Matters post focuses on things to consider and strategies to adopt to help you get benefit from social media whilst sheltering yourself from the more negative aspects of exposure.

Limit your time

I think most of us will agree that we spend far too long on social media each day and that a lot of that time is taken over by mindless scrolling. A study I found online suggested that 30 minutes a day is ample time to spend catching up on various platforms yet a different study found that the average is nearly two hours! If you think social media is taking up too much of your precious time then it probably is and it might be a good idea to schedule a specific time to check in. So, for example, you could decide 6.30pm until 7pm is a good time but make sure you check in again and decide if this amount and time is working for you.

It’s also a good idea to avoid social media later in the evening as it can affect the quality of your sleep. The light on your phone or tablet has been shown to reduce melatonin, the hormone that controls your sleep cycle. Also, some online content can cause something called ‘cognitive arousal’ which basically means you get wound up when you should be winding down!

Try turning off your notifications

A good idea for controlling the time spent is to turn off your notifications for the different platforms, as I find, when they pop up on your phone or tablet, particularly if the notification is accompanied by a sound, that’s often all that’s needed to send you down the social media rabbit hole! For example, I recently changed my notifications for YouTube as I was getting so many messages about new videos on channels I subscribe to and suggested videos I should watch that I was totally developing FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) syndrome. Now, the only time I’m notified is if someone likes or loves a comment I left or replies to it. I may even turn the likes and loves off at some point too!

A screen shot of my current YouTube settings

Be wary of emotive language

Since starting my own business, I’ve become super aware of the use of emotive language to get you to click. You may be familiar with ‘click bait’ which can be defined as ‘content whose main purpose is to attract attention and encourage visitors to click on a link to a particular web page’ but there are more subtle ways of getting you to click too. Just two minutes on Pinterest and you will see pins containing phrases such as ‘Must have…’ ‘…you’ll definitely want to bookmark’, ‘…beyond brilliant’, ‘How I tripled my blog traffic…’, ’31 lazy ways…’ etc etc. Again, this plays on your FOMO to make you want to click and save the pins for later. I wrote a blog post about avoiding Pinterest some while ago and my time away was due to the fact that I felt it was having a detrimental effect on my wellbeing and making me feel really overwhelmed.

I’ve recently become really aware of how my local newspaper use language on Twitter to get you to check out their webpage. A lot of their tweets start with ‘Shocking’, ‘Exclusive’, ‘Disgusting’ and other similar emotive words and when you click to find out more, it’s just the same old stuff that you really didn’t need to know about. I know they have to sell their stories, but again, it’s another way of getting you to spend time interacting with content that has the potential to wind you up or makes you feel overly anxious or get you feeling down about the state of the world or your locality.

We can all do without too much negative press right now and in my opinion, reducing your exposure or at least being wary of its affect should be a top priority, particularly if you are prone to anxiety or depression or are currently struggling with your mental health. There are a lot of articles online and in magazines about the affect of watching too much Coronavirus news and The WHO (World Health Organisation) have some great advice related to social media and news in relation to mental health.

Be mindful of your personal experiences

To have a happy social media experience, I think it’s really important that you are mindful of how much time you are spending and the effect that it has on your mood and your general productivity levels. If you often find yourself feeling a little bit rubbish, lacking in motivation, tired or completely down, then you may need to evaluate what you’re looking at and why it’s making you feel like this. For example, if looking at beautiful bullet journal spreads on Instagram leaves you feeling like your own BuJo is completely inadequate and that you are rubbish at drawing, lacking in creativity or doing it all wrong, then maybe it’s time to take a break or stop the mindless scrolling – remember the most popular content will be at the top of your feed and as the platform is mainly about aesthetic beauty you’re going to see flawless images which are likely to be highly edited. On the other hand, if you are left feeling highly motivated, creative or on a high, then you might consider social media to be a good mood booster and a wonderful way of helping you to be productive.

Stop the comparison

We all have issues with comparing ourselves to others at times, often in an unfavourable way, but social media often makes things worse, particularly for young people. Not only are you exposed to a huge volume of information from different posters but what you’re seeing is often only half of the picture (or maybe even less) and often heavily edited to show things in the best light. The ability to follow, like and love may also contribute to feelings of self doubt or worthlessness as you reflect on why others have more followers than you or why some friends are getting more likes and loves.

In order to break the comparison habit I think the first step is to recognise that you are doing it and then to realise that it isn’t helpful and is likely to be having a really big effect on you mentally and not in a good way either. When you begin to realise this, you can start to make changes to what you choose to view and your perception of the content that you consume.

A lot of what is presented on social media is advertising and presents an amazing lifestyle, glossy hair and flawless make up coupled with a perfect body, bang on trend outfits and stylish accessories to match. The danger with this is that we start to beat ourselves up as we don’t meet the same standards. What I try to do is reflect on how ads work and remember that they are very good at persuading you to want what is presented and feel that you are incomplete until you have it. I like to assess how clever they are and how far from reality they are. I’m not saying that I don’t get swayed by adverts, we all do but I think being more mindful helps.

It’s also good to remember that what you see online is in digital format and is often altered using filters, photo editors and Photoshop. In fact, the photograph may have been taken literally hundreds of times until the right angle and best lighting conditions are achieved too. So basically, what you are seeing is not really as it seems. The people in these images may seem full of confidence and joy but underneath they might be struggling with lack of self esteem and loneliness or finding aspects of their life really difficult right now.

Evaluate what you get out of being present on social media

There are lots of benefits of using social media such as keeping in touch with friends, being part of an online community, learning new things, hearing a range of perspectives on a topic, keeping you informed, getting help and advice, and fun or entertainment. In fact, being present on social media has been shown to help people feel more connected and useful as they feel they are positively impacted on the lives of others. It’s a good idea to sit down and think about what you personally get out of your experience and the impact it has on your life.

If there are particular apps that you feel aren’t doing you any favours, don’t be frightened to delete them or take a break until you are in a better headspace or in a different mood. I know that my social media experience depends a lot on how I’m coping day-to-day and if I’m struggling with anxiety and depression, I tend to keep my distance from Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest as they only make me feel worse. When I’m feeling happy and in a good place mentally, I enjoy looking at a range of content and it makes me feel motivated to make changes and improve my life. However, I still need to be mindful as I can start to feel overwhelmed and try to change too much all at once in a bid to get a perfect life (which by the way is completely unobtainable)!

Final thoughts

Social media plays a big part in our modern lives and there’s no changing that. Having a happy experience is all about developing your awareness of the positive and negative aspects and being mindful of how your time online is affecting your wellbeing. I hope today’s post has given you some things to think about and will bring about some changes for the good if you feel that is what is required.

Happy surfing!

Posted in mental health, Mindfulness, Planning and journaling, wellbeing, wellness

Why I’m avoiding Pinterest this month and what I’m doing instead

Posted on by Laura
Pinterest – banned for September!

I love Pinterest and find it a great source of inspiration and advice for my professional and personal life. I spend huge amounts of time pinning ideas to boards, organising my collections of pins and generally poring over infographics and beautiful images. However, with attractive images and information, for me, comes a huge desire for continual self improvement and feeling like I need to have it all. And this is the bit that I struggle with and ultimately why I’m taking time out from pinning and Pinterest this month.

Self improvement, in a nutshell, is the process of making yourself a better and more knowledgeable person. It’s something I spend a lot of time thinking about and planning for. But, one of the big problems for me is, that I end up with information overload from social media and find so many ways to ‘grow’ myself that I lose sight of what I actually want right now and become unhealthily obsessed with making massive changes and improvements.

What I really need to do, is simplify and think about my current goals and the small steps I might take in order to go about achieving them. But with Pinterest, and other social media platforms if I’m honest, I see stunning images and tempting ideas and basically, I want it all. A minimalist and clutter free home which is welcoming to anyone and always tidy. A stunning garden without a single weed or patch of unraked soil. Beautiful brush lettering that just flows naturally from my hand. A neat and ordered bullet journal with no mistakes or Tippex on the pages. A blog and a handmade business that everyone’s reading and talking about. Perfect, glossy hair that has that ‘just been to the hairdressers’ bounce. Skilfully applied ‘flawless’ make up. The list goes on, and on, and on.

So, for this month, I’m taking a step back. I’m reassessing my goals and thinking carefully about how I’m going to work towards achieving them. And for this, the only resources I need, are my vision board that I created back in January (which you can see here if you haven’t seen it already), my inspirational brand image board for my business (click here if you want to see) and a couple of goal related collections I made in my BuJo. By looking daily at my vision for this year and analysing what I actually want right now from my life, I hopefully won’t be distracted by all of the other stuff. This should help increase my productivity and in turn my achievements instead of creating total overwhelm and the feeling of personal dissatisfaction that often comes with creating an unachievable ideal.

I’m not going to totally avoid social media this month as I do like to know what’s going on in the world but I’m hoping my efforts to curb my tech time will help in some way. By writing my intention here to you all, I’m also hoping that my plan sticks and that I benefit from it, even if it’s just in some small way.

Have you ever given yourself some much needed time away from social media? How did it work for you. Let me know in the comments and wish me luck!

Bye for now, Laura xx