A simple idea, stollen from YouTuber Struthless to replace what is ultimately bad for me, with something that is better. He replaced Social media with ‘micro-journalling’ to improve his mental health and found some exceptional benefits, so for the last couple of days I have replaced my doom scrolling with writing.

To succeed, let's face it a task like this isn’t as easy as it seems, I needed to make some modifications to the way my phone works. I am not actively avoiding Social Media (AKA Quitting) I am just limiting it. So, I had to make sure I wouldn’t open up Twitter without realising it, and pack my home screen full of the types of apps I wanted to use instead.

Reading and writing in all its forms went right on my home screen to make sure they are in my face as much as possible. I am trying to make as much use of Apple Notes as possible to capture anything and everything that comes to mind. Having already started to lean heavily on it as part of improving my overall systems, the quick note function coming to iPhone with iOS16 is a particular favourite new feature.

This didn’t work straight away, I had to delete all the social apps from my phone too, and also make sure I was signed out in Safari too. Now whenever I get the itch or find myself a bit bored instead of drifting away and scrolling social media, I write or read something instead. One often leads to the other and a few minutes down the line the feelings have, thankfully, gone.

There’s a habit of these types of posts to be preachy, but there is none of that here. This is simply what I am doing to better my day-to-day life. Again, this isn’t about avoiding social media, it is just me trying to be happier and at the same time write more – win-win.