Doomscrolling and Your Productivity

Do you ever find yourself going to your phone or app to look for a piece of particular information and then you find yourself scrolling through other irrelevant information that is not the reason you went into social media in the first place? Information of interest most times are bad, negative, or sad or would generate these negative emotions. Then you are doomscrolling. Many social platforms are leveraging our attention. These attention snatchers end up hurting our lives and productivity. Think of how you feel when you get off the internet. Is exhausted or tired one of the words hanging around there?

Doomscrolling is the practice of obsessively checking online news for updates, especially on social media feeds, with the expectation that the news will be bad, such that the feeling of dread from this negative expectation fuels a compulsion to continue looking for updates in a self-perpetuating cycle.

Doomscrolling interferes with your sleep. Many people tend to scroll through their feeds before bed, which increases anxiety just when you're trying to relax enough to fall asleep. Poor sleep, in turn, increases stress and other mental health issues, adding to the negative cycle. With each swipe, we sink further and further into emotional quicksand that eats away at both our mental health and productivity. Even when you put the phone down, the impact remains. Our cognitive resources have been depleted, we struggle to focus, and we feel exhausted.

#Tips

Go into your phone settings and turn off all incoming notifications for social media apps. Right now you’re probably thinking “That’s crazy! How will I know if something interesting is happening?” And that is a crystal clear sign of social media addiction. By turning off the notification, you reduce the “pull” effect the incoming alerts have on you. When you’re focused and productive, the last thing you need is for Facebook to remind you of the pictures you posted 3 years ago
Re-organize the apps on your phone. The less visible the app is for you, the less likely you’ll click on it out of boredom.
Set time limits for yourself. Use a timer to determine how much time you want to spend on the Internet or apps per time
Learn to Walk away. Put the phone down and walk away. Fill your free time with activities that do not involve technology at all. Read new books, go for a walk, go for a drive, take up a new hobby. Do anything that makes you inaccessible to the lure of social media. Taking walks (short/ long) can be as little as walking around to have a stretch walk with a colleague. Do offline activities. Take a fresh air
Put your head back on your task. Have a task planner, and a to-do list with a timer so that you are prompted back to #reality.