Megan Porta: Hey, food bloggers. Thank you so much for joining me
in this mindset and self care focused episode here on a blog
talk. One of the reasons I started a blog talk was to hold
a space to talk about the importance of mindset and self
care. Being an entrepreneur can be a lot. If we are not taking
care of ourselves, then getting actionable information about
SEO, Pinterest or whatever else is all moot. I will meet you
back here every Wednesday to discuss various mindset and self
care topics. So you have the energy and space to tackle the
rest.
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Megan Porta: Hello again, food bloggers. Welcome to this self
care and mindset focused episode of Eat Blog Talk. Thanks for
joining me again today. In this episode, we are going to talk
about five ways to limit tech. Technology is so great in so
many ways, but so detrimental in other ways. I think most of us
can relate to that. It really has brought so many good things
into our lives in recent years, especially in our businesses.
Having that ability to connect with people literally across the
world from us in the blink of an eye is super valuable. I can get
on Zoom with someone from Australia or Japan and make an
in person connection just like that. It's pretty amazing.
Outside of the business realm, you can keep up with loved ones
by logging into Facebook or Instagram or wherever. There's
email communication, smartphones, they're all
honestly pretty miraculous. If you think about it. It's
literally a miracle. How in the world does it work? Like when
you think about it? How does tapping a phone, a device
connects you with people from across the world. It's crazy.
But then there are those downsides that we all know about
too. There's phone addiction, tech addiction, overuse the
intrusion on life and on being present for ourselves and for
our loved ones. There is cyberbullying. Not to mention
the effects of too much screen time. If you try to go to bed
after you've been on a device for two hours, it definitely
affects your sleep. So there's that to the whole topic of kids
and tech is something that gets me all riled up. You guys have
probably heard me talk about this before on the podcast, but
I just hate that technology is in the hands of every kid every
day, multiple hours a day. It just doesn't sit well with me.
Personally, I've had to work my butt off to get tech time under
control for me. And I consider myself to be a highly
disciplined individual. So how can I expect my children, one of
whom definitely has more discipline issues than most
people to rein it in with their tech. My husband and I have
continued to stay strong with not giving our boys phones.
We're on a hold out. And we're going to do this as long as we
can. We don't want them to have phones. For all the reasons I
mentioned above. It just hasn't felt right. And yes, there's
that whole piece of the puzzle that makes us question if we are
making them stand out too much by not having a phone when
everyone else around them does. That's one thing that we do
struggle with. And this isn't to say that we won't get them
phones. We've actually considered it and just providing
them with something standard that doesn't have social media
apps on it or something like that. But this topic still
really gets to me.
I have found myself in really dark places with phone addiction
and allowing myself too much computer time and email
obsession and I could go on and on and being a pretty
disciplined human being. I know that others have to find
themselves in this situation as well. Too much tech is just not
healthy, you can feel it in your bones, which is why I would love
to bring this topic to the table in this episode. So let's talk
through five ways to limit Tech because I believe that your soul
needs it. And will thank you immensely.
Number one set times for email dipping. Email is a really big
issue for me, I have four email accounts like I know most of you
have multiple accounts as well. And this in itself is
overwhelming, because that's a lot of email to sort through on
a daily basis. One of those accounts, I outsource and that
feels good. But as someone who values sincere connection with
people, it is really important to me that I personally email
people back in a timely manner, who reached out to me expecting
reciprocation. In my Eat BlogTalk email, if you email me,
I will always be the person emailing you back, I think it's
really important to show up in that way for this business, so I
can easily obsess over this, I obsess about getting back to
people in a timely manner being sincere, and just being there.
And I will put a disclaimer here that this is something that I
still do not have control over I am a work in progress. It is a
constant, slippery slope for me, if I get one little pinky toe on
that slope, I am suddenly flying down the hill, and I have to
trudge back up and start all over. So just know that this
topic is very important to me. It's something that I'm
constantly trying to figure out. So let's do it together. The one
thing that works for me when I noticed I'm flying down that
slippery slope and I need to reach out and take hold and get
myself back up before it gets too far down the hill is
establishing times of the day, when email dipping is allowed. I
have to massively exercise my discipline by not dipping into
email right away in the morning. Otherwise, I feel like I just
allow myself to do it all day long. So what I do when I'm on
my A game, is I go into my email around lunchtime, for maybe 20
minutes. If I need a little bit more, I'll do 30 minutes. Then I
close my email when I feel like I've replied to enough things
and I do another email dip right before signing off of my
computer for the day. I am super productive in the mornings,
which is why I don't allow myself to go into email because
it can just send me down a spiral of tracking things down
and replying to people and oh, yeah, that reminded me of that
thing. And I have to go do that. It's not worth it. For me, just
getting into my work right away in the morning makes me highly
productive, I get a bunch done. And then I feel much more
equipped to go into my email once it's around lunchtime.
Something else that really fosters success with this is
doing time tracking. I've talked about this before on the
podcast, I love time tracking, it's so powerful. I use Toggl,
it's T-O-G-G-L. It is an app and a web browser tool that you can
log into in both places. So your phone and your laptop. It's
free, you can just track everything that you do. I used
to use it on a quarterly basis or so when I was just trying to
refine my systems. But now I use it all the time, I turn on my
computer in the morning and immediately plug in what I'm
working on. When I'm done, I press stop. When I've started
something else, I press play. I love this tool, it keeps me on
track. And it keeps me out of my email because if I want to go
back and forth between email in working, I have to go to Toggl,
press stop. Type in what I'm doing press start and that's way
too much of a pain. So for me, it's just easier to keep the
timer going with what I'm doing and report the email later. You
can also run reports and toggle so you can see if you're
spending too much time on email. At the end of the week, you can
pull up the email project and see how much time you spent on
it that week and make changes accordingly. If you struggle
with your inbox like I do, try setting times for yourself this
might be another good way to get a handle on that email dipping,
you can simply set a timer and just not go over a certain
timeframe. Doing this really makes me focus and get as many
emails kicked out as I possibly can. It makes me highly
productive. You might find that a world of time suddenly opens
up for you to work on other projects or do other important
things. Once you can set a structure around your email
dipping and get a handle on it.
Number two establish downtime before the week begins. I have
been using this strategy for years. And it changed the game
for me, taking that time to sit down before a week starts. And
it literally does not take you more than 15 minutes to do this
not only helps to limit tack time, but it also just makes you
a boss when it comes to time management and productivity.
Before Monday morning even happens, so Friday afternoon or
Saturday or Sunday sometime, sit down with your calendar,
establish when you will be starting your work and ending
your work each day. And put it on your calendar if you need to.
For me, my calendar is my boss. So whatever's on there is what I
do. You could even go so far as to write in morning routine if
you have a morning routine and set those times aside in your
calendar. And even evening time if you want to block out time
for your family and just know that you are going to put your
tech down when evening time starts. By doing this, you are
creating a really healthy boundary for yourself. Not just
with your time but with technology too. For me, tech
time isn't allowed in my morning routine at all. It's not allowed
in my evening downtime. So by establishing that downtime, I'm
also eliminating tech time. Something I've been doing lately
is keeping my computer downstairs which is where my
office is at all times. Unless I absolutely need it upstairs
there are those times when I do need it. But most of the time I
don't. That way it's in the basement to go get it would be a
huge pain and there's no temptation upstairs to open it.
And just do that last minute little thing on the computer. I
just figure I can get to it tomorrow, I don't need to go
down another rabbit hole in my day.
I've also been trying to keep my phone in a separate room in the
evenings. Again, just so there's no temptation. It just feels
good to not have tech nearby too. And I've noticed lately
that I've even been forgetting about it, which has never
happened to me before. I've always known exactly where my
phone is in relation to me. There was a morning just a few
days ago when I woke up and I was like, where's my phone, I
had no idea where my phone was. And I think this is the first
time that had happened in many years, probably since I first
got a smartphone. And when I realized that I didn't know
where it was I searched around the house, I found it. And I
actually felt really good about that I gave myself a huge high
five, I would just recommend experimenting with some version
of this. Establishing your downtime before your week begins
and just being really strict with yourself. As far as when
you put your tech down when you start tech, when you open tech
to start the day, set some boundaries. And this will really
change the game for you if tech does creep into your downtime.
Number three set timers for social media. It took me years,
I'm not kidding, literally years, but I am now at a point
where I can say that I have completely weaned myself off of
social media. I am so proud of that. There was a point in my
life where I was a Facebook fanatic. I was on the app all
the time, scrolling and reading, absorbing all that screen time
posting blah, blah, blah, you know that drill. Then it turned
into Instagram scrolling, forever scrolling reading. And
then there was a point where I realized it was completely
sucking the energy from my life, from my body and mind and
interfering with everything in my life. Honestly, this is
something that did not happen overnight, but I made the
decision to cut back and just stop the madness. Now I can say
that I go onto Facebook seldom to never only if absolutely
necessary. If someone has a group that I need to sign up for
or whatever, I will do it. Instagram, I only go on for work
purposes and no more than 10 minutes a day ever. I can say
that the time and energy that these changes have opened up for
me is so incredible. It feels so freeing to be separated from
this it's like a heavy chain with a weight attached to it was
just broken for me. If this is an issue for you, start by
setting timers for yourself. That's a really simple thing
that you can start with. And if you enjoy social media for
pleasure, I think that's fine. Just maybe limit yourself. I
personally don't enjoy it for pleasure anymore. But there was
a time when I definitely did. But I just did way too much of
it. If you sit down to enjoy it or even if you're just doing
work, just start your timer know the amount of time you want to
spend and when the timer goes off, shut it down. Done. That's
it. Something else I experimented with a few years
ago was setting parental limits on my phone. This really helped
me just jolt me out of my social media experiences and scrolling
and make me realize that I wanted to put it down.
Number four, remove apps and email from your phone entirely.
I think each of us probably has our own unique poison. When it
comes to tech. Some of us love Facebook for others TikTok or
Instagram, Snapchat, I mean, there's a whole slew of options.
If there's a specific app that you just feel you're using too
much, you know what that app is. So whatever that app is,
experiment with removing it, or them from your phone entirely
and just see what happens. It doesn't have to be permanent.
This can be a temporary solution, and experiment. Look
at it as an experiment. Try it for a week or so and just see
what transpires, why not what do you have to lose? During COVID,
the height of my email addiction, I would say, I
started hiding Gmail on my phone. And I've never looked
back. So I haven't set up so that Gmail is technically on my
phone, but I can't see it anywhere. If there is a need for
me to go into my email, when I'm on my phone, that sometimes
happens. Last summer, when we were at the zoo, I forgot that I
had my tickets to get into the zoo in my email. So I had to
scramble to get in there and grab the ticket. When that sort
of thing happens, I have to go through the app store, I have to
type in Gmail, I have to open the app. So it's a tedious
process. By design, I want it to be like that. So it's not easy
for me to get into email on my phone. So you could do something
like that if there's a particular app that you really
struggle with, and you know, you spend too much time in, it took
a really long time for me to break the habit of even looking
for the email app on my phone, you know that instinct or
impulse, we have to just like pick up the phone, you tap in,
and then your finger automatically goes to the exact
part of your screen, where the app is that habit that took me a
long time to break. But I did eventually break that I also
broke the habit of just reaching for my phone and looking at it
whenever I was bored. It's so easy to do that if we're waiting
somewhere or maybe sitting in a school pickup line or something
like that. That's another habit that I really wanted to break. I
think I've finally gotten there after many years.
So yeah, removing apps and or email from your phone will help
you to start breaking those bad habits if you have them like I
did, experiment with that and see how it goes.
And number five, create a boring phone. This is basically what
I've done over the years by removing email and apps that I
tend to get obsessed with, I've started to create this really
unappealing boring phone. It's so funny, because if I'm ever in
a precarious situation, like maybe we're on a bridge, or I
remember one time, we were at an amusement park on the top of a
building. And I was trying to take a picture of me and my
family. And like my hand was kind of out over the edge just a
little bit. And my boys immediately start yelling at me,
like Mom Stop, you're gonna drop your phone. And every time I'm
like, honestly, if my phone fell to the ground right now and
smashed into a million pieces, I would not care that much. It
would be annoying a little bit because I would probably need to
get another one for work purposes. And I like having a
camera, but it wouldn't crush me. I might take a few days off
of phone usage completely. And that might be actually a relief
for me. But it's just funny to see their reaction versus mine.
And then when I say, Oh, well, if it drops to the ground, not a
big deal, and they're like, why? How could you say that?
I heard a suggestion recently from someone I think it was an
article I was reading. It's a capability that my phone doesn't
have. It was about a new feature where you can turn your phone
into black and white mode to make it even less appealing. I
love this. If you have that capability, definitely
experiment with it and see if it makes everything a little bit
less appealing enough to set the phone down more often. With as
much as we look at food photography. I think this might
actually work for us because black and white food is
definitely not as appealing as full color food. You could even
make your wallpaper on your phone, a solid gray color or
black or something that's just lacking in color and vibrance. I
would say evaluate your phone and do just a couple of things
to make it less appealing. Whatever that is for you. I have
actually been avoiding upgrading my phone for this reason. I
don't want to have a shiny new smartphone because then I could
potentially get obsessed with something new, it could pull me
in a new feature or a new app or something shiny and new might
allure me enough to get pulled back into that tech time. When
it comes to phones. I like boring. Boring is good.
Let's do a real quick recap for this episode, five ways to limit
your tech number one set times for email dipping to establish
downtime before your week begins. Three set timers for
social media, four, remove apps and email from your phone. And
five create a boring phone. Even if you don't feel like you have
a tech addiction, I would still challenge you to do one or two
of these things or more. Just to see if it affects your life in a
positive way. You never know it really might. We lose so much
joy in our lives because of tech I believe. And it feels like a
lot of people are wandering around not even really knowing
this because we're so consumed with it. This is definitely a
near and dear topic to me. I hate it when I'm at a family
gathering or a gathering of some kind or even just in a waiting
room and I look around and see everybody looking down at their
phones. It just feels wrong. It feels unhealthy. I don't think
this is what we should be doing as humans all the time. Limiting
tech is a huge priority for me, the world will be a better place
if we use tech less. I so strongly believe that. Getting
off my tech time soapbox now. Thank you so much for listening
food bloggers. You all are amazing. I will see you back
here next week for another Mindset episode.
Thank you so much for listening to this mindset and self care
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