#toxicstudying

this all started a few days ago when i happened to look through my screen time on my phone. i saw that i spent an average of 3 hours everyday on tiktok. one of those days i spent 6 HOURS on tiktok. those hours are hours i will never get back. i could have studied, or worked out, or read a book, or spent time with my family. or at least anything other than tiktok. i felt completely disgusted.

so, i decided to make a change. i got my dad to set a screentime passcode on my phone. i set a 20 minute limit to tiktok everyday. i assumed that i would use up that 20 minutes completely. but to my surprise, on my first day, i ended up only using it for 7 seconds. i didn't get an urge to look at it at all. and today, i've completely deleted the app.

i know that social media is a big distraction and i know that we all have goals that we want to achieve and don't get me wrong, social media can be a great thing, but its necessary to focus on what's most important -- studying.

it might be daunting to delete the app at first, so here are some steps that you can take.

set a limit and have someone hold you accountable

this is basically what i did. before that, i set myself a limit but i found myself just pressing the ignore button every time. so, i got my dad to set a code so i couldn't bypass it at all. this way, you can limit yourself to only using it for a certain period of time.

sign out of your accounts

this is actually something i saw in a thomas frank video, but its just signing out of your account. drafts are still saved in tiktok even if you sign out btw. and if you need to use it, you'll think twice since you have to sign in again. its just an extra barrier between you and the app.

replace the app with something else.

whenever you get the urge to use tiktok or whatever other social media app, place it next to another app that actually increases your learning/productivity. for example, duolingo, quizlet, clozemaster, or something else that you consider to be less time wasting.