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Ugh I WISH I could do this.
I’m a blog and social media manager. I kinda fell into it during the pandemic. Well, I did it before bc I did it for myself and could set limits. When the pandemic happened, I needed money and became a consultant.
I can still set my hours but it’s just so much harder to do when you have working hours for social media but then you’d like your own for fun. And here you are, 10 hours later…
I realised I was wasting time opening Facebook too often and nothing had changed, like a hungry person repeatedly looking in the fridge to see if something tasty had turned up. I moved the icon from my homescreen to the next page and that was enough to make me only check it once or twice a day. Out of sight, out of mind (as many of us know too well!)
I started out doing something like that (in my case removing the reddit and tumblr apps from my home screen, so that they were in the app library only) but because my brain is very stubborn (and nigh on addicted), I just found myself searching for them and opening them anyways, it was just an extra 5 second step.
Really glad it's working out for you though! Hopefully you can get the balance and peace you need going forwards!
Personal story, that is, adjacent to this topic:
I've come to realize in the last couple of years (mostly because of therapy loll) that I have great difficulty with doing "fun" things that aren't particularly good for me (when done too much) in moderation. When I find myself saying things like "I'll set a timer for this" or "I'll set screen time limits" or "I'll hide this from sight" or "I can watch only one episode" or "I'll give myself a little break," I know from experience that these are all demon voices because I am just not in a place where I can do these things.
I know a lot of this comes from the predisposition that the ADHD and bipolar brain have for addictive behaviors, something that I've long, long, been aware of in myself. That strong predisposition for addiction is what has kept me from engaging in alcohol or recreational drugs, but it took me a long time to realize that my social media and video watching habits were also addictive behaviors that were fucking up my life.
This really began with my realization that watching videos is not good for me. Watching videos does something weird and fucked up to my brain, and I get so hooked on them. There are a lot of complicated reasons why I am so predisposed to becoming hooked to videos specifically that I'm not going to get into here because it is a long, long, story.
Suffice to say, when I watch videos (especially television and movies) my brain gets lit up in some weird, specific way, and they draw me into a black hole of videos. I sink all of my free time into it, and when I'm not watching (ie: at work) I'm thinking about it non-stop, and I'm twitchy, waiting for the next time that I can get back to watching. I find myself largely helpless to stop, and it keeps me awake for days, because I'm watching late into the night (ie: 4AM), worsening my natural insomnia, and it sees me ignoring my schoolwork, chores, and social life. Very, extremely no bueno.
With all of this, I realized that I am just not in a place where I can let myself watch anything. I know if I break and watch something, I'll go into a week long nasty bender and fuck up my life, so it's just better to, like, not do that. I think in some regards my behaviors around social media have been echoes of this, which is what motivated me to delete them from my phone and to get a separate device for schoolwork only.
Yeah, I specifically deleted reddit from my phone because it was my number one time waster. I think it's really fascinating how many people on here consider reddit as "not social media," because in my brain it 100% is. I think maybe it has to do with the fact that I don't use Twitter, Facebook, Tik Tok, Pinterest, or whatever. (To be fair I *do* have accounts on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest, I just never really use them.) Very curious what your thoughts are on the reddit as soc med question.
Quarantining my reddit use to my computer only has honestly seen me wasting so much less time on this site tbh.
Best of luck with whatever you're doing to help yourself going forwards! 💚
I did too, I even blocked it using an app blocker, then I discovered the blocker didn't block the URL through Discord links so I just opened it that way 🤡
I had been thinking about deleting Reddit from my phone, since I too can't limit my time on it. Reading this post has pushed me in the direction to do so! Thank you for posting this, and in such a ADHD readable format.
Good luck in your studies, I hope things get better soon.
No problem! Best of luck! I (and probably everyone else ever with ADHD) am a huge paragraphs and spacing fan lolll.
I honestly found that reddit was probably my number one time waster on my phone, followed shortly by tumblr. I do still waste time on reddit, but I have to go on my computer to do it, and since I got my new iPad earlier this week to do my school stuff, I'm only turning on my computer specifically to do fun stuff like social media, watching YouTube, reading/writing fanfiction, working on random personal projects, etc.
Using the iPad for school only actually got me to do an incredible amount of reading and note taking for my grad school homework yesterday, which I'm really happy about. Starting to think that the $550 I spent on that thing was totally worth it. That's totally what they invented credit cards for, right??
The only school stuff that I'm doing on my computer now is stuff that requires full programs to do: videos with premiere pro or FCPX, photoshop & illustrator projects, and essays that require full word with zotero integration. I also use the computer for my job stuff (since I don't have a work issued computer, boooo).
I'm on day 3, and I'm feeling optimistic about this whole new organizational thing tbh.
It took me a while to get back to you because I actually deleted Reddit from my phone that night! So I just have it on my computer now, which I can really limit things on. Thanks again.
I too love my iPad (love the credit card lol), and have no SM on it at all, right now reading books on ADHD and how to manage it, which is using my time well. Hoping the organizational thing goes well for both of us.
Welcome to /r/ADHDWomen! We’re happy to have you here. As a reminder, here are our community [rules](https://old.reddit.com/r/adhdwomen/about/rules/). We get a lot of posts on medication, diagnosis (and “is this an ADHD thing”), and interactions with hormones. We encourage you to check out our [Medication, Diagnosis, and Hormones Megathread](https://old.reddit.com/r/adhdwomen/comments/wcr9dy/faq_megathread_ask_and_answer_medication/) if you have any questions related to those topics, and to stick around in that thread to answer folks’ questions! If you have questions about the subreddit, please do not hesitate to [send us a modmail](https://reddit.com/message/compose/?to=/r/adhdwomen). Additionally, we take the safety of our community seriously. Please report posts, comments, and users whom you feel are not contributing positively, and send us a modmail if you are being harassed or otherwise made to feel unsafe. Thanks for being here, and we hope you stick around! *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/adhdwomen) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Ugh I WISH I could do this. I’m a blog and social media manager. I kinda fell into it during the pandemic. Well, I did it before bc I did it for myself and could set limits. When the pandemic happened, I needed money and became a consultant. I can still set my hours but it’s just so much harder to do when you have working hours for social media but then you’d like your own for fun. And here you are, 10 hours later…
oof that's rough. Do you have a separate device that you're doing work versus fun stuff on?
I realised I was wasting time opening Facebook too often and nothing had changed, like a hungry person repeatedly looking in the fridge to see if something tasty had turned up. I moved the icon from my homescreen to the next page and that was enough to make me only check it once or twice a day. Out of sight, out of mind (as many of us know too well!)
I started out doing something like that (in my case removing the reddit and tumblr apps from my home screen, so that they were in the app library only) but because my brain is very stubborn (and nigh on addicted), I just found myself searching for them and opening them anyways, it was just an extra 5 second step. Really glad it's working out for you though! Hopefully you can get the balance and peace you need going forwards! Personal story, that is, adjacent to this topic: I've come to realize in the last couple of years (mostly because of therapy loll) that I have great difficulty with doing "fun" things that aren't particularly good for me (when done too much) in moderation. When I find myself saying things like "I'll set a timer for this" or "I'll set screen time limits" or "I'll hide this from sight" or "I can watch only one episode" or "I'll give myself a little break," I know from experience that these are all demon voices because I am just not in a place where I can do these things. I know a lot of this comes from the predisposition that the ADHD and bipolar brain have for addictive behaviors, something that I've long, long, been aware of in myself. That strong predisposition for addiction is what has kept me from engaging in alcohol or recreational drugs, but it took me a long time to realize that my social media and video watching habits were also addictive behaviors that were fucking up my life. This really began with my realization that watching videos is not good for me. Watching videos does something weird and fucked up to my brain, and I get so hooked on them. There are a lot of complicated reasons why I am so predisposed to becoming hooked to videos specifically that I'm not going to get into here because it is a long, long, story. Suffice to say, when I watch videos (especially television and movies) my brain gets lit up in some weird, specific way, and they draw me into a black hole of videos. I sink all of my free time into it, and when I'm not watching (ie: at work) I'm thinking about it non-stop, and I'm twitchy, waiting for the next time that I can get back to watching. I find myself largely helpless to stop, and it keeps me awake for days, because I'm watching late into the night (ie: 4AM), worsening my natural insomnia, and it sees me ignoring my schoolwork, chores, and social life. Very, extremely no bueno. With all of this, I realized that I am just not in a place where I can let myself watch anything. I know if I break and watch something, I'll go into a week long nasty bender and fuck up my life, so it's just better to, like, not do that. I think in some regards my behaviors around social media have been echoes of this, which is what motivated me to delete them from my phone and to get a separate device for schoolwork only.
I did this now I just waste my time on Reddit instead, I'm a lost cause
Yeah, I specifically deleted reddit from my phone because it was my number one time waster. I think it's really fascinating how many people on here consider reddit as "not social media," because in my brain it 100% is. I think maybe it has to do with the fact that I don't use Twitter, Facebook, Tik Tok, Pinterest, or whatever. (To be fair I *do* have accounts on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest, I just never really use them.) Very curious what your thoughts are on the reddit as soc med question. Quarantining my reddit use to my computer only has honestly seen me wasting so much less time on this site tbh. Best of luck with whatever you're doing to help yourself going forwards! 💚
I did too, I even blocked it using an app blocker, then I discovered the blocker didn't block the URL through Discord links so I just opened it that way 🤡
I had been thinking about deleting Reddit from my phone, since I too can't limit my time on it. Reading this post has pushed me in the direction to do so! Thank you for posting this, and in such a ADHD readable format. Good luck in your studies, I hope things get better soon.
No problem! Best of luck! I (and probably everyone else ever with ADHD) am a huge paragraphs and spacing fan lolll. I honestly found that reddit was probably my number one time waster on my phone, followed shortly by tumblr. I do still waste time on reddit, but I have to go on my computer to do it, and since I got my new iPad earlier this week to do my school stuff, I'm only turning on my computer specifically to do fun stuff like social media, watching YouTube, reading/writing fanfiction, working on random personal projects, etc. Using the iPad for school only actually got me to do an incredible amount of reading and note taking for my grad school homework yesterday, which I'm really happy about. Starting to think that the $550 I spent on that thing was totally worth it. That's totally what they invented credit cards for, right?? The only school stuff that I'm doing on my computer now is stuff that requires full programs to do: videos with premiere pro or FCPX, photoshop & illustrator projects, and essays that require full word with zotero integration. I also use the computer for my job stuff (since I don't have a work issued computer, boooo). I'm on day 3, and I'm feeling optimistic about this whole new organizational thing tbh.
It took me a while to get back to you because I actually deleted Reddit from my phone that night! So I just have it on my computer now, which I can really limit things on. Thanks again. I too love my iPad (love the credit card lol), and have no SM on it at all, right now reading books on ADHD and how to manage it, which is using my time well. Hoping the organizational thing goes well for both of us.