“Hi everybody! My name is Tanja and I’m addicted to my iPhone.”

Sounds a bit silly, right? It took me a long to admit to myself that I had a VERY hard time being without my phone. Every morning when I woke up, the first thing I did was checking my phone in bed. I’m definitely not the only person who does that, how about you? 😉 Minutes quickly disappeared and before I knew it, I spent half an hour wasting my time reading up on what other people were doing. Instead of starting my day with a clear vision of what I wanted to accomplish, I started it with digging myself in into an online world.

And of course it didn’t stop there. During the day as soon as I had to wait somewhere (in a store, in the car, pretty much anywhere), even for a few seconds, I’d dig my phone out of my purse to find out if something ‘important’ happened. As if something was ever so important that I had to see it right away. And while working I’d get notifications on both my phone and computer as soon as something new got posted, which meant time for a quick check-in. Bye bye concentration and of course more wasted time. Even at night when Jelger and I were watching Netflix I’d keep an eye on my phone, or worse: reading up on messages instead of watching the movie.

At one point I started to notice that I put less energy into being creative, and felt drained altogether. Could my social media madness really cause that big of an impact? I went online for some research and filled out one of those tests. Turned out that, uhm, yeah, I might have a problem…

Time for an intervention. Yes, social media are important for me: f.e. for our photography business and for staying in touch with family and friends. But what’s even more important is being 100% devoted to what I’m doing right here, right now.

Jelger and I made a rule: no more social media in bed. My mornings are now: getting up, have coffee and focus on myself. And believe me, it’s harder than I thought! I still occasionally take a peek, but I’m improving. I’ve become more conscious of my phone use, and I try to take note of the when and why I am grabbing it unconsciously. Going on hikes to locations without phone service (nor internet connection) is always a good reminder of how quite and calm life can be without constant interruptions. The bottom line is that a smartphone can make your life a lot more stressful than it already is.

It’s a learning curve of using it wisely (like drinking: you can have some, but not too many! 😛 ) and sticking to the plan. I still have a good way to go, but I’m committed to make it work. Life is too short to waste it online!