Do you ever notice yourself feeling pressure or anxious about responding to someone or forgetting to respond to someone? I do. I have felt that just because someone texts me or sends an email that I have to respond immediately….. Or, are you someone who has your social media notifications on and feels the need to respond to DM or comment immediately? Over this past year, I have spent a lot of time navigating what makes me happy and what causes me stress or anxiety. In this timeframe, I have really became aware of how much we live in an “On Demand” culture. If you haven’t heard this term before, let me explain it from my perspective. The “On Demand” culture that we live in puts everyone “accessible” at all times. Think about our phones and watches that we ALWAYS have… we are one text, call, or FaceTime away from anyone anywhere in the world. How awesome right?! As awesome as this is, it also puts “on demand” for anyone, anything, at any time. This could mean emails at midnight (I email a lot at midnight LOL), constant social media interaction, no working boundaries, and constantly being in contact with others.

I have found that in order to not become subject to the negativity the “On Demand” culture can cause, that there need to be some personal boundaries you set for yourself.

1. Do not look at your phone when you get up. Seriously, don’t wake up and just look at your phone. Sure, I use my phone as an alarm clock, but my phone is on ‘do not disturb’ typically until 9am depending on the day of the week. It’s likely that whatever happened on your phone overnight will be just fine until 9am or whenever your work day starts. If you’re getting up and scrolling through Instagram, what good is that doing you? Are you comparing yourself to others right when you get out of bed, or are you feeling the need to respond to everyone that has messaged you? Try taking the first 30 minutes to an hour of your day to go without your phone, and focus on setting yourself up for the day and being your best self.

2. Turn off notifications. I have my notifications off on all of my social media. Yep, I am trying to grow a blog and brand, but the most important thing to me is my sanity and lifestyle. I don’t want to feel the need to respond to everyone instantly because that isn’t a realistic expectation nor am I setting myself up for success. Plus, it isn’t productive to spend 5 hours a day on social media when everything could be done in 30 minutes to an hour.

3. Turn on ‘Do Not Disturb’. It’s no secret that I run a business remotely, but I do speak to a significant amount of people on the phone daily for work. My trick to staying on task and not being reactive throughout the day is putting my phone on ‘Do Not Disturb’. I try to focus on just one task at a time, then do all of my callbacks or follow ups in a specific amount of time.

4. You don’t always have to respond. Sometimes I won’t respond to a text for 5-7 days. I used to feel really guilty about this because I felt like I could probably have responded to whoever, but I didn’t have the mental capacity to respond. The moment I decided it was okay to not respond if it wasn’t necessary at the time is when I started to feel more present. When I do end up responding, I have found I have had better conversations because I am taking the time to put effort into the conversation and pay attention to the other person.

5. Screen Time. IPhones have so many features. You can set timers for yourself on your apps in settings, which allows you to control how long you spend on specific apps every day. This can really help you from always being accessible to everyone.

If you have experienced any pressure to respond instantly or have found yourself being controlled by your phone, I hope you can try some of these tips and hopefully you will find something that works for you!

As always,

Thank you for reading!

XO,

Madison