01/05/2020

♡ The Backstory ♡

I spend a lot of time scrolling through social media especially Instagram and at the start of the year I decided that all of this aimless scrolling was a habit I needed to break. I figured an effective way to decrease my time spent scrolling (and increase my time being productive) would be to have a major digital declutter which is something I've never actually done before. Productivity wasn't my only motivation to break this habit however because let's be real social media can have a negative impact on your mental health too. It's so easy to start comparing yourself and your life to other peoples but it achieves literally nothing so I decided I needed to be way more selective with who I allow real estate in my feed.

♡ The Process ♡

I started the decluttering process on Instagram and I just sat and went through the list of people I was following (which was 480 - I don't need to know what 480 people are doing with their lives!) and I just started deleting people. I deleted people whose posts never showed in my feed (because what's the point in following them if you never see their posts), I got rid of people whose posts I didn't care about, people whose posts made me feel bad about myself, people who I didn't even know I followed etc. So basically I just deleted loads of people. I also wasn't afraid to delete people who I actually knew because at the end of the day if someone wants to be salty with me because I unfollowed them on Instagram then that's their issue, not mine. I managed to cut my Instagram following in half to just 200 people and now using Instagram is a waay nicer experience than it was before. My feed is full of posts I actually want to see and posts that actually make me feel good and actually add value to my life. It's also such a good feeling to actually be able to see the "You're all caught up" message after just a few scrolls.

I also went through my email subscriptions and YouTube subscriptions. For emails, I unsubscribed from all the newsletters I never read, all marketing newsletters and any other email lists I no longer wanted to be part of. So now I only receive a select few newsletters that I actually read and no annoying marketing emails. It feels so good to see a 0 next to my inbox.

For YouTube it was the same process I unsubscribed from everyone that I never actually watch and also all the people who don't upload any more. (Sidenote: speaking of YouTube I have actually recently started posting on my channel it's

The Alice May Edit

if you want to check it out.)

♡ The Benefits ♡

1. Less posts in your feed means less time scrolling and more time to get shit done!

2. Unfollowing people you find yourself comparing yourself to will make sure your feed is all positive vibes only.

3. Carefully selecting who you follow means that everyone on your feed is providing you with value and you can actually learn something from them.

4. You'll enjoy social media 10,000x more, trust me.

So if you find yourself feeling a bit crappy after spending too much time on Instagram (Or Twitter, or TikTok, wherever you spend your time) then I highly recommend giving this a go.

Let me know in the comments who your favourite person to follow is and why. Because I'd love to know.