TL;DR--I'm joining the trend towards *analog summer* by sharing some tools + notes on how I am making the process of decreasing my screen time less painful + more fun! Next week, we'll be back to the ✨Sticky Offer Design✨ series!

Hi friend,

In January, I spent multiple nights staying up until 5am watching videos analyzing the killing of Renée Nicole Good (may she rest in peace). This was a predictable (if ineffective) response to my grief, rage, and helplessness. I'm a rabbit holer, which in this context means collecting All The Information about things that are out of my control in order to experience the fleeting illusion of being in control.

Spending many contiguous hours on my phone on algorithm driven apps unsurprisingly sent me into a bit of a mental health tailspin. My screen time metrics gave me a literal jump scare at the end of January.

Since then, I've gotten pretty serious about getting off the algorithms across the board, and here's how I'm doing that, in case this is also a quest of yours and my experience can help:

Physically limiting Instagram

I know this is a metaphorical dead horse, so I'm not going to talk about all the ways you can do this and why you might want to. I'm just going to share what I'm doing right now, because it's *actually* working this time. I have the app ScreenZen (free), and these are the settings I have found that work for me:

1. 4 minutes of Instagram each time I unlock. This is enough time to catch up on people I actually know and care about without getting sucked in.
2. 30 minute wait time between each 4 minute check. This is enough time that I can't just go somewhere else on my phone and come back. I actually engage with reality and end up breaking from scrolling for much longer than 30 minutes.
3. Blocked instagram.com in addition to the Instagram app. The real ones know that going to IG in the browser gives your little addict brain almost just as much to gnaw on as the app does. Do not give yourself this option if you are serious about the Instagram harm reduction quest, I'm just saying.
4. [Crucial] My settings are in super hard mode--I have to wait 10 minutes to unlock the settings screen, and if I click away during that 10 minute countdown, it resets. I can only emergency unlock by paying the app developers $4.99. I felt comfortable initiating these settings knowing that there IS a failsafe, but I'm never going to want to pay actual dollars just to remove my own guardrails to get to Instagram. This has worked, when all previous (many) attempts failed.

It took me a lot of tries to find the right configuration of settings for this, btw. I'm so glad I persisted. My average daily Instagram time now clocks in somewhere between 15-30 minutes (!!), and I don't feel deprived but I also don't feel like a zombie. I'm still there, but I'm highly present when I am there, and I'm highly present IRL when I'm not there.

Why this works: I've never been able to quit anything cold turkey, but this setup has created just enough friction that I won't fight against past Heather who had the wherewithal to set it up when current Heather really wants a doom scroll binge.

Journaling

The biggest thing that I miss about social media is how it's more or less a digital scrapbook. I needed something to replace that, so I have gotten into my own hybrid journal/scrapbooking memory keeping process, which also led me down some paper, pens, and washi tapes side quests. I really like memory keeping in this way, and when I get into a flow with picking photos and laying out a new page, I can spend several analog hours not missing my phone at all.

Why this works: It's a more fun and creative option than social media for memory keeping, and I have always been a paper person (I used to be a bullet journaler back in the day), so it feels a bit like coming home to re-engage with journaling in this way. It helps me maintain the one part of social media I didn't want to live without, which has loosened my grip on needing to maintain an Instagram presence.

Walking

When I was doing some inspirational research for my memory keeping journal, I found a whole planner community that uses a specific Japanese planner and/or some knockoffs of that design (I got the Wonderland222 if you're wondering). One of the cool parts of these layouts is the initial calindex pages, which different folks use for all sorts of things, and I am using for tracking my step count.

Now, I wish I could say that I was fully inspired to start tracking my steps solely because I care about my mental and physical health. I was not. I wanted to have a cute color coded index of my steps, and now I am gunning for more of the high step count colors on this analog page. It's FUN to highlight things in different colors! Way more fun than scrolling Instagram!

Here's the crazy part of my new walking habit: except for the guided walk I shared last week, I have mostly not been listening to anything in my ears while I walk. I got a cheapo old school clip on pedometer so I don't even need to bring my phone on my walks. We are lucky enough to live on 4 acres, so I literally just walk laps around our property, in silence, taking in nature. This is extra delightful when I don't get around to my walk until sunset!

I am an avid audiobook listener, so it's been a loooong time since I did ~anything~ in silence. Sometimes it feels like a slog to walk with my thoughts, but also I never regret it.

Why this works: I found an extrinsic motivation (highlighting my daily entries) that is propelling me until it becomes a habit or I develop an intrinsic motivation (unlikely). Walking takes me 0.5 - 1.5 hours per day depending how many steps I'm trying to clock, so I am crowding out "free" time I would have been scrolling with something else that releases endorphins.

DIY Youtube Feed

When my friend Podge Thomas shared that she was building a free DIY Youtube Feed resource I was soooo excited to try it. I love YouTube, I love Notion, and I am actively trying to avoid algorithms atm. This resource is designed to teach you to create your own YouTube feed in Notion, so you watch the things you care about and DON'T get sucked in by YouTube's recommendations.

I followed along with her tutorial this week and I was BLOWN AWAY by how comprehensive it was. She walks you through her exact process for creating the Notion dashboard and saving + categorizing YouTube subscriptions and videos.

I thought it was just going to be a Notion template, but instead, Podge has cleverly designed a whole tutorial in both video and written format, so that you get the opportunity to build alongside her and see the mechanics of connected databases, etc. at work. This means that you learn as you go, and it's not just another download gathering dust on your cobweb-laden Notion sidebar.

This resource is incredible for anyone who is interested in continuing to engage intentionally with YouTube while opting out of the algorithm time-suck, and I think that folks with all different levels of Notion knowledge could follow along with it.

You will likely need to pause and/or rewind at different parts if you have never used a connected database or the Save to Notion extension before, but she really does walk you step by step through the whole thing with helpful little notes along the way. If you want to give it a try, I would carve out 2 hours for following the tutorial and setting up your dashboard.

I customized my own Youtube dashboard to be super simple, and added my own status called "Up Next!" to indicate videos I was really excited to watch when I saved them for later. Then in my dash, I have a view that shows Up Next & In Progress videos, and a view that shows all of my unwatched videos grouped by theme for when I want to intentionally rabbit hole on a particular topic.

I have a lot more to add because I think I have about 100 subscriptions on YouTube, but I'm excited to cull through those and pick the most significant ones to me in this season, load up my dash, and stay off of YouTube for a while. I might eventually investigate a Zap to auto-add new videos from my favorite creators, but we'll see if that's even a possibility.

I would highly recommend this resource for folks who are any of these things:

• Wanting to learn more about Notion through a live project tutorial
• Avid YouTube consumers and Notion users
• Looking for a solution to consume YouTube content without the algorithm

If you play with your own DIY YouTube setup, I want to know how it goes!!

What I've Been Wrangling This Week:

A peek behind the scenes aka nourishment for the curious, nosey, and those with Gemini placements 🙋🏻‍♀️

🌞 Advised on the promo plan for a brick & mortar shop's anniversary weekend

🌞 Talked through detailed website homepage & general positioning changes with a health coach

🌞 Hosted Office Hours for my Rhythms community, where we chatted through how & where to track metrics that support your seasonal focus in Notion and how much context to give subscribers in the pre-launch phase of an online course cohort

🌞 Started writing the welcome sequence for my Tech Stacks Field Guide resource--why is it SO HARD to write an "about me" email?? I think this is a near universal experience

🌞 Lots of networking calls with biz friends this week, which is such a delightful way to feel less alone as a solopreneur

If you have thoughts about screen time, silent walks, journaling, analog hobbies, or learning Notion (or if you just want to say hi!) please press reply and fire them off. I love to hear from you and I read every reply with my own eyeballs 💚

Warmly, Heather (Seaman) Bax Business Strategist & Head Wrangler ​Small Business Rodeo​

Tired of trying to make someone else's plan fit your unique small business? → Book a Strategic Planning Intensive.​

Think you might be ready to wrangle your work but not quite sure? → Let's chat.​

P.S. I leave in my em dashes because I refuse to change my writing style to prove I'm not a robot, but an LLM was nowhere near this email. Real thoughts from my real head, typos and all!