How To Get Your Time Back

Growing up, time felt nonexistent. I remember playing for HOURS outside, making up gymnastics routines, playing basketball on my parent’s old cement slab from their trailer they lived in at the time, before they built their home. Hours would pass without me noticing.

Many of us aren’t kids anymore, but we still lose track of time. Maybe it’s while reading a book. Talking with a friend. Watching a show. But I dare bet that most of us can lose track of time while using social media. Remember what social media platforms were like without stories? Now you have the option of not only scrolling through updated profiles and posts, but also stories. On both Instagram AND Facebook. And now threads? AH! How are we ever going to keep up? Not to mention Pinterest and Amazon, and what those have done to our time.

Maybe you’re not spending hours of time on these platforms, but even just 15 minutes of mindless scrolling is still, well, mindless. Not saying that you shouldn’t do it all because thanks to social media, I am able to keep in touch with people that I wouldn’t be able to otherwise. But I know life can feel so busy! Rest is for the weak, right? Our success in this world can feel measured by how full our calendars are and how much we can tell others about what we’ve done and are going to do. Guilty as charged. So how can we take back our time and make every moment worth something? How can we be intentional about how we spend our time? So how do we do that?

Choose something that redirects your focus.

Feel free to laugh, but honestly, the simplest way to not let your phone steal your time is to just put it down. Simple as that. Find something else to do.

Don’t procrastinate.

Often when we procrastinate, we fill that time with unnecessary things like scrolling on our phones. This sounds too simple, but one of the best ways to combat procrastination is to do what you need to do, now. Don’t delay. If you have a list of things to do, just do it! If you don’t do it, you keep thinking about what you need to do, taking up priceless space in your mind and your time. If you just do it, you don’t have the feeling of guilt because you didn’t do it. You see what you prevent if you DON’T procrastinate?

Set time limits on your phone.

When it comes to social media, I have time limits set on my phone for my social media apps. If you go into your Settings, scroll down to Screen Time. Click on that and then choose App Limits. Click Add Limit and then choose Social. From there, you can choose which social media platforms you want to limit your time on. Click the platform (it’ll put a check mark by it) and then click Next, in the top right corner. Then choose the preferred time limit and click Set. For example, I have my Instagram set to 5 minutes and Facebook to 10 minutes. When the time is up, your screen will tell you and you can choose to bypass it by clicking Ignore Limit or by clicking OK. If you click OK, the app on your phone will be dimmed as a reminder that your time limit is up. Again, you can still access it, but it’s a good reminder how fast that time can go and makes you think twice about continuing to scroll. Or you can simply set a timer on your phone, but I personally think the app limit is the way to go!

The choice is up to you! At the end of the day, each of us is responsible for how we spend our time. No one else is! In a way, that is very freeing to read, isn’t it? But I think we quickly take God out of the equation. Yes, things beckon our time, but what does God want us to be doing? How can we best honor him with our time? Let what’s important to you, speak louder than those things that steal, kill, and destroy your time. The devil wants nothing more than to waste your time, to keep you from doing the will of God. He wants us to live in a constant state of mindlessness so that we get nothing done for the Kingdom. It’s time to show him who’s boss!