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Megan Porta: Hey, food bloggers.
Thank you so much for joining me

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in this mindset and self care
focused episode here on a blog

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talk. One of the reasons I
started a blog talk was to hold

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a space to talk about the
importance of mindset and self

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care. Being an entrepreneur can
be a lot. If we are not taking

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care of ourselves, then getting
actionable information about

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SEO, Pinterest or whatever else
is all moot. I will meet you

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back here every Wednesday to
discuss various mindset and self

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care topics. So you have the
energy and space to tackle the

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rest.

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Unknown: We all know what it's
like to be completely swamped in

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our business from juggling a
dozen or so hats. And sometimes

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you just need a little help. If
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blog with stunning imagery, but
lack the time I got you covered.

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I'm Ikram Ali, the photographer
behind Ikram Ali Photography. I

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use my background in Pastry Arts
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culinary expertise and my
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premium still images and
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food bloggers and brands alike.
If you're ready to start

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updating old content, or just
needing to get food photography

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checked off your list, I'm here
to help you can go to the

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services page on
IkramAliPhotography.com That's

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spelt, Ikram, I-K-R-A-M, Ali,
A-L-I photography.com. I'm

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excited about the prospect of
working together. Bye friends.

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Megan Porta: Hello again, food
bloggers. Welcome to this self

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care and mindset focused episode
of Eat Blog Talk. Thanks for

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joining me again today. In this
episode, we are going to talk

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about five ways to limit tech.
Technology is so great in so

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many ways, but so detrimental in
other ways. I think most of us

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can relate to that. It really
has brought so many good things

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into our lives in recent years,
especially in our businesses.

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Having that ability to connect
with people literally across the

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world from us in the blink of an
eye is super valuable. I can get

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on Zoom with someone from
Australia or Japan and make an

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in person connection just like
that. It's pretty amazing.

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Outside of the business realm,
you can keep up with loved ones

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by logging into Facebook or
Instagram or wherever. There's

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email communication,
smartphones, they're all

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honestly pretty miraculous. If
you think about it. It's

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literally a miracle. How in the
world does it work? Like when

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you think about it? How does
tapping a phone, a device

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connects you with people from
across the world. It's crazy.

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But then there are those
downsides that we all know about

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too. There's phone addiction,
tech addiction, overuse the

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intrusion on life and on being
present for ourselves and for

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our loved ones. There is
cyberbullying. Not to mention

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the effects of too much screen
time. If you try to go to bed

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after you've been on a device
for two hours, it definitely

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affects your sleep. So there's
that to the whole topic of kids

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and tech is something that gets
me all riled up. You guys have

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probably heard me talk about
this before on the podcast, but

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I just hate that technology is
in the hands of every kid every

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day, multiple hours a day. It
just doesn't sit well with me.

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Personally, I've had to work my
butt off to get tech time under

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control for me. And I consider
myself to be a highly

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disciplined individual. So how
can I expect my children, one of

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whom definitely has more
discipline issues than most

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people to rein it in with their
tech. My husband and I have

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continued to stay strong with
not giving our boys phones.

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We're on a hold out. And we're
going to do this as long as we

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can. We don't want them to have
phones. For all the reasons I

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mentioned above. It just hasn't
felt right. And yes, there's

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that whole piece of the puzzle
that makes us question if we are

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making them stand out too much
by not having a phone when

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everyone else around them does.
That's one thing that we do

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struggle with. And this isn't to
say that we won't get them

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phones. We've actually
considered it and just providing

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them with something standard
that doesn't have social media

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apps on it or something like
that. But this topic still

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really gets to me.

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I have found myself in really
dark places with phone addiction

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and allowing myself too much
computer time and email

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obsession and I could go on and
on and being a pretty

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disciplined human being. I know
that others have to find

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themselves in this situation as
well. Too much tech is just not

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healthy, you can feel it in your
bones, which is why I would love

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to bring this topic to the table
in this episode. So let's talk

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through five ways to limit Tech
because I believe that your soul

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needs it. And will thank you
immensely.

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Number one set times for email
dipping. Email is a really big

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issue for me, I have four email
accounts like I know most of you

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have multiple accounts as well.
And this in itself is

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overwhelming, because that's a
lot of email to sort through on

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a daily basis. One of those
accounts, I outsource and that

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feels good. But as someone who
values sincere connection with

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people, it is really important
to me that I personally email

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people back in a timely manner,
who reached out to me expecting

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reciprocation. In my Eat
BlogTalk email, if you email me,

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I will always be the person
emailing you back, I think it's

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really important to show up in
that way for this business, so I

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can easily obsess over this, I
obsess about getting back to

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people in a timely manner being
sincere, and just being there.

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And I will put a disclaimer here
that this is something that I

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still do not have control over I
am a work in progress. It is a

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constant, slippery slope for me,
if I get one little pinky toe on

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that slope, I am suddenly flying
down the hill, and I have to

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trudge back up and start all
over. So just know that this

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topic is very important to me.
It's something that I'm

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constantly trying to figure out.
So let's do it together. The one

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thing that works for me when I
noticed I'm flying down that

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slippery slope and I need to
reach out and take hold and get

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myself back up before it gets
too far down the hill is

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establishing times of the day,
when email dipping is allowed. I

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have to massively exercise my
discipline by not dipping into

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email right away in the morning.
Otherwise, I feel like I just

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allow myself to do it all day
long. So what I do when I'm on

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my A game, is I go into my email
around lunchtime, for maybe 20

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minutes. If I need a little bit
more, I'll do 30 minutes. Then I

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close my email when I feel like
I've replied to enough things

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and I do another email dip right
before signing off of my

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computer for the day. I am super
productive in the mornings,

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which is why I don't allow
myself to go into email because

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it can just send me down a
spiral of tracking things down

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and replying to people and oh,
yeah, that reminded me of that

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thing. And I have to go do that.
It's not worth it. For me, just

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getting into my work right away
in the morning makes me highly

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productive, I get a bunch done.
And then I feel much more

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equipped to go into my email
once it's around lunchtime.

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Something else that really
fosters success with this is

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doing time tracking. I've talked
about this before on the

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podcast, I love time tracking,
it's so powerful. I use Toggl,

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it's T-O-G-G-L. It is an app and
a web browser tool that you can

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log into in both places. So your
phone and your laptop. It's

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free, you can just track
everything that you do. I used

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to use it on a quarterly basis
or so when I was just trying to

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refine my systems. But now I use
it all the time, I turn on my

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computer in the morning and
immediately plug in what I'm

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working on. When I'm done, I
press stop. When I've started

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something else, I press play. I
love this tool, it keeps me on

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track. And it keeps me out of my
email because if I want to go

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back and forth between email in
working, I have to go to Toggl,

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press stop. Type in what I'm
doing press start and that's way

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too much of a pain. So for me,
it's just easier to keep the

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timer going with what I'm doing
and report the email later. You

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can also run reports and toggle
so you can see if you're

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spending too much time on email.
At the end of the week, you can

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pull up the email project and
see how much time you spent on

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it that week and make changes
accordingly. If you struggle

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with your inbox like I do, try
setting times for yourself this

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might be another good way to get
a handle on that email dipping,

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you can simply set a timer and
just not go over a certain

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timeframe. Doing this really
makes me focus and get as many

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emails kicked out as I possibly
can. It makes me highly

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productive. You might find that
a world of time suddenly opens

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up for you to work on other
projects or do other important

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things. Once you can set a
structure around your email

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dipping and get a handle on it.

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Number two establish downtime
before the week begins. I have

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been using this strategy for
years. And it changed the game

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for me, taking that time to sit
down before a week starts. And

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it literally does not take you
more than 15 minutes to do this

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not only helps to limit tack
time, but it also just makes you

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a boss when it comes to time
management and productivity.

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Before Monday morning even
happens, so Friday afternoon or

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Saturday or Sunday sometime, sit
down with your calendar,

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establish when you will be
starting your work and ending

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your work each day. And put it
on your calendar if you need to.

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For me, my calendar is my boss.
So whatever's on there is what I

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do. You could even go so far as
to write in morning routine if

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you have a morning routine and
set those times aside in your

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calendar. And even evening time
if you want to block out time

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for your family and just know
that you are going to put your

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tech down when evening time
starts. By doing this, you are

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creating a really healthy
boundary for yourself. Not just

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with your time but with
technology too. For me, tech

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time isn't allowed in my morning
routine at all. It's not allowed

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in my evening downtime. So by
establishing that downtime, I'm

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also eliminating tech time.
Something I've been doing lately

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is keeping my computer
downstairs which is where my

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office is at all times. Unless I
absolutely need it upstairs

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there are those times when I do
need it. But most of the time I

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don't. That way it's in the
basement to go get it would be a

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huge pain and there's no
temptation upstairs to open it.

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And just do that last minute
little thing on the computer. I

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just figure I can get to it
tomorrow, I don't need to go

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down another rabbit hole in my
day.

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I've also been trying to keep my
phone in a separate room in the

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evenings. Again, just so there's
no temptation. It just feels

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good to not have tech nearby
too. And I've noticed lately

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that I've even been forgetting
about it, which has never

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happened to me before. I've
always known exactly where my

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phone is in relation to me.
There was a morning just a few

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days ago when I woke up and I
was like, where's my phone, I

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had no idea where my phone was.
And I think this is the first

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time that had happened in many
years, probably since I first

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got a smartphone. And when I
realized that I didn't know

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where it was I searched around
the house, I found it. And I

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actually felt really good about
that I gave myself a huge high

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five, I would just recommend
experimenting with some version

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of this. Establishing your
downtime before your week begins

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and just being really strict
with yourself. As far as when

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you put your tech down when you
start tech, when you open tech

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to start the day, set some
boundaries. And this will really

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change the game for you if tech
does creep into your downtime.

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Number three set timers for
social media. It took me years,

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I'm not kidding, literally
years, but I am now at a point

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where I can say that I have
completely weaned myself off of

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social media. I am so proud of
that. There was a point in my

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life where I was a Facebook
fanatic. I was on the app all

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the time, scrolling and reading,
absorbing all that screen time

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posting blah, blah, blah, you
know that drill. Then it turned

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into Instagram scrolling,
forever scrolling reading. And

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then there was a point where I
realized it was completely

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sucking the energy from my life,
from my body and mind and

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interfering with everything in
my life. Honestly, this is

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something that did not happen
overnight, but I made the

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decision to cut back and just
stop the madness. Now I can say

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that I go onto Facebook seldom
to never only if absolutely

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necessary. If someone has a
group that I need to sign up for

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or whatever, I will do it.
Instagram, I only go on for work

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purposes and no more than 10
minutes a day ever. I can say

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that the time and energy that
these changes have opened up for

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me is so incredible. It feels so
freeing to be separated from

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this it's like a heavy chain
with a weight attached to it was

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just broken for me. If this is
an issue for you, start by

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setting timers for yourself.
That's a really simple thing

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that you can start with. And if
you enjoy social media for

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pleasure, I think that's fine.
Just maybe limit yourself. I

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personally don't enjoy it for
pleasure anymore. But there was

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a time when I definitely did.
But I just did way too much of

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it. If you sit down to enjoy it
or even if you're just doing

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work, just start your timer know
the amount of time you want to

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spend and when the timer goes
off, shut it down. Done. That's

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it. Something else I
experimented with a few years

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ago was setting parental limits
on my phone. This really helped

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me just jolt me out of my social
media experiences and scrolling

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and make me realize that I
wanted to put it down.

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Number four, remove apps and
email from your phone entirely.

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I think each of us probably has
our own unique poison. When it

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comes to tech. Some of us love
Facebook for others TikTok or

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Instagram, Snapchat, I mean,
there's a whole slew of options.

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If there's a specific app that
you just feel you're using too

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much, you know what that app is.
So whatever that app is,

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experiment with removing it, or
them from your phone entirely

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and just see what happens. It
doesn't have to be permanent.

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This can be a temporary
solution, and experiment. Look

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at it as an experiment. Try it
for a week or so and just see

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what transpires, why not what do
you have to lose? During COVID,

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the height of my email
addiction, I would say, I

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started hiding Gmail on my
phone. And I've never looked

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back. So I haven't set up so
that Gmail is technically on my

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phone, but I can't see it
anywhere. If there is a need for

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me to go into my email, when I'm
on my phone, that sometimes

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happens. Last summer, when we
were at the zoo, I forgot that I

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had my tickets to get into the
zoo in my email. So I had to

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scramble to get in there and
grab the ticket. When that sort

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of thing happens, I have to go
through the app store, I have to

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type in Gmail, I have to open
the app. So it's a tedious

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process. By design, I want it to
be like that. So it's not easy

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for me to get into email on my
phone. So you could do something

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like that if there's a
particular app that you really

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struggle with, and you know, you
spend too much time in, it took

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a really long time for me to
break the habit of even looking

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for the email app on my phone,
you know that instinct or

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impulse, we have to just like
pick up the phone, you tap in,

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and then your finger
automatically goes to the exact

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part of your screen, where the
app is that habit that took me a

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long time to break. But I did
eventually break that I also

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broke the habit of just reaching
for my phone and looking at it

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whenever I was bored. It's so
easy to do that if we're waiting

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somewhere or maybe sitting in a
school pickup line or something

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like that. That's another habit
that I really wanted to break. I

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think I've finally gotten there
after many years.

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So yeah, removing apps and or
email from your phone will help

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you to start breaking those bad
habits if you have them like I

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did, experiment with that and
see how it goes.

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And number five, create a boring
phone. This is basically what

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I've done over the years by
removing email and apps that I

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tend to get obsessed with, I've
started to create this really

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unappealing boring phone. It's
so funny, because if I'm ever in

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a precarious situation, like
maybe we're on a bridge, or I

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remember one time, we were at an
amusement park on the top of a

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building. And I was trying to
take a picture of me and my

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family. And like my hand was
kind of out over the edge just a

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little bit. And my boys
immediately start yelling at me,

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like Mom Stop, you're gonna drop
your phone. And every time I'm

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like, honestly, if my phone fell
to the ground right now and

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smashed into a million pieces, I
would not care that much. It

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would be annoying a little bit
because I would probably need to

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get another one for work
purposes. And I like having a

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camera, but it wouldn't crush
me. I might take a few days off

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of phone usage completely. And
that might be actually a relief

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for me. But it's just funny to
see their reaction versus mine.

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And then when I say, Oh, well,
if it drops to the ground, not a

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big deal, and they're like, why?
How could you say that?

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I heard a suggestion recently
from someone I think it was an

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00:19:04,400 --> 00:19:08,360
article I was reading. It's a
capability that my phone doesn't

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have. It was about a new feature
where you can turn your phone

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into black and white mode to
make it even less appealing. I

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00:19:16,250 --> 00:19:20,180
love this. If you have that
capability, definitely

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experiment with it and see if it
makes everything a little bit

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less appealing enough to set the
phone down more often. With as

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much as we look at food
photography. I think this might

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actually work for us because
black and white food is

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definitely not as appealing as
full color food. You could even

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make your wallpaper on your
phone, a solid gray color or

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00:19:41,240 --> 00:19:46,070
black or something that's just
lacking in color and vibrance. I

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would say evaluate your phone
and do just a couple of things

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to make it less appealing.
Whatever that is for you. I have

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actually been avoiding upgrading
my phone for this reason. I

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don't want to have a shiny new
smartphone because then I could

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potentially get obsessed with
something new, it could pull me

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00:20:03,710 --> 00:20:08,090
in a new feature or a new app or
something shiny and new might

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allure me enough to get pulled
back into that tech time. When

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it comes to phones. I like
boring. Boring is good.

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Let's do a real quick recap for
this episode, five ways to limit

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00:20:20,640 --> 00:20:25,440
your tech number one set times
for email dipping to establish

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00:20:25,440 --> 00:20:28,740
downtime before your week
begins. Three set timers for

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00:20:28,740 --> 00:20:33,090
social media, four, remove apps
and email from your phone. And

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00:20:33,120 --> 00:20:37,500
five create a boring phone. Even
if you don't feel like you have

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a tech addiction, I would still
challenge you to do one or two

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00:20:40,710 --> 00:20:44,250
of these things or more. Just to
see if it affects your life in a

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00:20:44,250 --> 00:20:47,790
positive way. You never know it
really might. We lose so much

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00:20:47,790 --> 00:20:52,200
joy in our lives because of tech
I believe. And it feels like a

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00:20:52,200 --> 00:20:55,020
lot of people are wandering
around not even really knowing

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00:20:55,020 --> 00:20:59,040
this because we're so consumed
with it. This is definitely a

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00:20:59,040 --> 00:21:04,140
near and dear topic to me. I
hate it when I'm at a family

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00:21:04,140 --> 00:21:08,880
gathering or a gathering of some
kind or even just in a waiting

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00:21:08,880 --> 00:21:12,030
room and I look around and see
everybody looking down at their

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00:21:12,030 --> 00:21:17,340
phones. It just feels wrong. It
feels unhealthy. I don't think

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00:21:17,340 --> 00:21:21,420
this is what we should be doing
as humans all the time. Limiting

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00:21:21,450 --> 00:21:26,190
tech is a huge priority for me,
the world will be a better place

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00:21:26,220 --> 00:21:31,080
if we use tech less. I so
strongly believe that. Getting

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00:21:31,080 --> 00:21:35,640
off my tech time soapbox now.
Thank you so much for listening

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00:21:35,640 --> 00:21:39,300
food bloggers. You all are
amazing. I will see you back

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00:21:39,300 --> 00:21:42,180
here next week for another
Mindset episode.

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00:21:43,410 --> 00:21:46,320
Thank you so much for listening
to this mindset and self care

328
00:21:46,320 --> 00:21:49,710
episode here on the blog talk.
If you are a food blogger

329
00:21:49,710 --> 00:21:53,220
providing a service for other
food bloggers, and you want to

330
00:21:53,220 --> 00:21:56,190
spread the word about the value
that you offer. I would love to

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offer you a free way to do just
this. Send me a 62nd audio clip

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to be featured in a mindset and
self care episode. Here on the

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00:22:04,770 --> 00:22:10,290
blog talk in 2024 Go to eat blog
talk.com forward slash audio

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clip to learn more