This quarter I have struggled a lot with procrastination and spending time checking social media rather than doing my school work. As most of my courses are graded on quarter-long papers and projects this quarter, spending too much time on social media during the week really hinders my progress on these assignments. For my final self intervention I will be fasting from social media (Facebook and Instagram) for the coming school week. I expect this will be very difficult, as opening Facebook and Instagram is often so habitual I don’t even realize I’m doing it until the page is loaded. I have two big deadlines at the end of this week so I’m hoping that this social media fast will help me focus and complete more quality work without procrastinating. One problem with my fast will be that some of my friends in other countries only communicate with me through these platforms rather than texting or calling, so I will have to make sure I find a way to keep in touch with them without being on social media.
End of Week Update: This intervention went better than I had expected. I stayed off social media for the first few days completely but found myself going back to my old habits by Thursday. The days that I spent less time on social media were a bit more productive, but I did find that when I couldn’t go on Facebook instead of doing my work I would find other ways to distract myself. This meant more dishes got done and my house stayed cleaner so overall I would say the intervention was a success. I don’t think I’ll be able to keep a total social media fast up long-term, but I would like to make more of an effort to spend less time on social media especially when working on more important things.