Helpful Ways to Unplug from Social Media & Focus on Work

How many of you are distracted by the constant notification or even a wake-up screen on your phones? Even if the message does not seem to be important enough, we all tend to procrastinate at work by checking our phones or the meme our friend has tagged us into.

Suddenly, social media channels such as a photo on Facebook or a tweet become ten times more interesting when we are trying to work. Almost 54% of the world population actively use social media, and a normal person spends 2 hours each day on social media effortlessly scrolling and checking out stories. 

This social media’s hold on to our lives results in time wasted and subsequently causing stress about remaining work.  And funny enough, we all have thought about disconnecting from social media and searched ‘How to disconnect from social media’ at least once in life, especially when social media is disrupting our work balance, and unplugging from social media seems like the only way out.

Research states that 8 out of 10 workers use social media in the workplace. And 98% of employees use social media at work for personal purposes while they procrastinate work; no wonder why those reports get delayed so often.

How Social Media Affects Our Work?

Spending hours on social media during work results in a loss of productivity and gives another reason to postpone important tasks. A peep or two after a few hours does no harm but constant time spent scrolling makes an employee unproductive and affects the organization's goals.

• Employees who use social media at work tend to be slower and more likely to make mistakes. While a little deviation from work is fine to get fresh again, too much usage of social media causes sloppiness in the reports and many mistakes.
• No wonder why the new generation is so depressed. The studies on social media and its negative impacts prove that social media brings a lot of stress. Watching people having fun on vacation while you are stuck behind an office standing desk does no good.
• A loss in productivity is one of the known consequences of using social media at the workplace. It is discovered that people who spend an average of 2 hours on social media during work tend to become 13% less productive at their job.

Using social media at a workplace is not a newly discovered issue, but it is known to everyone. However, it’s really hard to unplug from social media. Everyone loves to scroll their Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook during working hours while eyeing their boss so they could put the phone down immediately. A significant portion of people find social media at work even more addicting; hence, this issue needs to be addressed.

Now that people are working from home, it is important to have better work from home habits as the fear of a boss or getting caught laughing on memes isn’t there. To stay focused when remote working, it is important to detoxify your life and unplug from social devices all at once.

Why Should You Unplug From Social Media?

• If you are always on your phone, you tend to ignore the people right beside you. This is extremely harmful to your relationships, especially when you ignore your family to watch a video online. So, you should unplug from social media.
• If you keep all your focus on social media, then your focus on important things in life will deviate. Imagine spending all your time scrolling through Facebook when you could have learned a skill, practiced a hobby, or did something productive.
• Social media is highly addictive and there are many negative effects of social media observed, and most of us don't even realize it. Taking a break from social media is important because there are other things in life far better and important to you. 
• Not everyone deserves to know what you are up to! Having social media addiction results in you posting too much about your life. Revealing a lot about you makes you prone to cyberbullies or internet scams.
• Social media leads to an approximately 9% increase in depression. The risk of watching other people having a perfect life instills comparison in all of us. This is harmful at many levels and hence another reason why you should unplug social media.

Ways to Unplug from Social Media

Using social media at the workplace is not all bad, especially if used in controlled amounts. The truth is sometimes it can do more good than harm as people who are tired of work may enjoy a laugh or two or chat with a friend for a few minutes before they get back to work. But an uncontrolled usage is where the problem arises. To control the use of social media at work and unplug from social media, here are some tips.

• Making a habit of unplugging gadgets is a good thing, and you will start to feel the change. Before and after bedtime, try unplugging your gadgets for one hour, and as you spend the first hour of your day with positive thoughts rather than getting influenced by people on social media, there will be a clear difference.
• Provide comfort to the employees, so they don't get tired easily. Often workload is not the only reason we feel strained at work. Our seating or improper posture could be a cause of tiredness too. Having ergonomic chairs retains the posture and increases productivity too.
• Notifications lure us into checking social media. When you are at work, turn your phone to the silent or shut off the notifications from specific applications to unplug from social media. If you don't find your phone buzzing constantly, you won't be intrigued to check it repeatedly.
• If you have social media addiction, especially during work, keeping your phone away from your sight is the ultimate solution. Try keeping your phone in a drawer or leaving it in your bag while you focus on your work.

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Allocating time at work is the best way to get productive and unplug from social media; even if you need a social media break several times a day, try allocating a few minutes to each scrolling session, so you don't get carried away.