How to End your Phone Addiction (Social Media Detox Protocol)

wake up hit snooze four times grab your phone open Snapchat then Instagram scroll to the bottom of the feed go on Tik Tok where you can't get to the bottom then after 2 hours of mindless consumption you finally roll out of bed you get nothing productive done for the rest of the day because you fried your brain first thing in the morning and your focus is scattered later that day you stay up until midnight and start the cycle again only now you have school tomorrow this should scare you this is what my days used to

look like when I had social media on my phone and if you're watching this I'm sure it might be similar to your experience if you want to stop Doom scrolling be able to think more clearly and be more productive than keep watching I'm making this as a follow-up to one of my previous videos about life without social media because there were a lot of really good questions and I just felt like it needed another video to kind of explain how to do this so I'm just going to kind of give you the protocol that I

took that helped me I didn't even really know what this whole dopamine detox thing was when I first did it back in uh January I just got inspiration from another YouTuber Jack denmo he just kind of said to delete social media so then I did and then from there I kind of just I was kind of in like a full-on dopamine detox so this video is kind of just what I've done over the last 10 months that has kind of helped me get more good dopamine and less cheap dopamine achieve more mental Clarity have more

time to do the things that I love and rewire my brain to delay gratification to start this off we have to talk about the intention now after spending years on these platforms our brains are wired to seek instant gratification so this is not going to be easy and you're not going to see results right away you can't reset your brain in 24 hours like the clickbait videos tell you you can this damage is chronic you can't quit for a week then go back onto it and then expect something to to be different in fact I

don't think you should quit social media at all it's the wrong mindset so I guess this is not really a regular detox because we're trying to take back control of our lives so quitting forever isn't the answer unless you really want to but I'll explain what I mean by this later it took me literal months to actually reset my brain and start making actual progress in the things that I wanted to and it took me even longer to be able to get significantly better at reading things paying attention to people and just being more mindful

this is the lifestyle change so if you intend on fixing your life in 24 hours then this is not going to help you you need to be in this for the long game if you want to develop a healthy relationship with social media or you want to just quit it all together then this is going to help you so how do you set up your phone for a detox because it's not just abstaining from it there are certain actions that you actually have to take in order to do it because just deleting social media isn't

going to be enough you're still going to have the urges to go back on to it so there's other measures that we can take to prevent you from just being addicted to your phone so you need to silence all of your notifications especially since I know some of you probably are going to keep maybe one or two on your phone for whatever reason you may have even though I recommend that you don't you need to at least have the notifications off and you need to go into it with the mindset that you're going to go

on those apps when you actually need to check them and this will prevent you from getting distracted by your work and getting sucked into something that's just unimportant so turn off email random promotions and notifications that don't serve you in fact you can keep your phone on do not disturb all the time but if you don't really have notifications then it doesn't really matter if you're an iPhone user then there are settings that allow you to choose if contacts can um can bypass your Do Not Disturb mode and send you notifications anyways so that is

an option so if you need to talk to your mom or your dad and you need them to reach you then they can reach you you just need to set it up in the settings so I don't want to hear any excuses next set up a schedule on your phone that automatically locks you out of all your apps by a certain time this won't keep you from using the apps completely but it'll at least act as one barrier between you and scrolling for me it's a really good reminder that it's time to wind down at

night and get ready for bed I have mine set for 700 p.m. because I go to sleep at 8:00 so from 7: to 8: I don't use any screens and all my apps are timed out on my computer my iPad and my phone all of at the same time if you're an Android User there are apps that can do this one app that I do recommend that is on iPhone and I believe Android also is called stoic not sponsored or anything but I do have this app on my phone and it does lock out all

the apps when I want it to and it'll let me back in them after a certain point in the morning and I'll talk a little bit more about what that app can do later okay so now we are going to put our phones in black and white grayscale hold up watch this watch this yeah you don't like that do you yeah it's ugly disgusting so all black and white two colors it's boring you don't want to watch this do you imagine if all my videos were like this would you want to watch them no because

it's ugly and it and it like bright colors they look like candy to us so on the YouTube page videos are going to have really bright colored thumbnails because they want you to click on it but if you have your phone in black and white you're going to be less likely to cck on all those colorful apps this is really good for what we're trying to do it's not going to completely stop you from from using the apps if you really wanted to it's it's going to make it less enjoyable it's also going to serve

as a reminder for what you're trying to do if I go onto my phone and it's black and white then I know that there's a reason why it's black and white and it's because I'm not supposed to be scrolling on it and doing unnecessary tasks so next up you have to delete all your social media kind of so delete any socializing app that you use on a daily basis from your phone some autobo mentions Tik Tok is the first one that has to go Instagram Snapchat Twitter Reddit and Facebook if you're a gezer these ones

in my opinion are non-negotiable simply because of their short form content structure that is more likely to lead to you doom scrolling now before I hear any objections remember your brain is what got you into the situation in the first place so don't sit here and act like you have the willpower to keep certain apps on your phone when your brain is conditioned to indulge in instant gratification all day you need to be realistic with yourself on if you can actually keep something on your phone some people say that they really need to talk to

friends or c people on these apps and okay I understand but if that's getting in the way of things that you need to do then you need to make a serious choice but I'll talk more about that in a moment so the easiest way I would say is just to delete the the apps from your phone you don't need to deactivate your accounts or anything like that I didn't but just at least have them off of your phone for now now this isn't just about intention we're all addicted to our phones now I know I

said that intention was important but it's not just about intention think about it when was the last time you went on Tik Tok because you wanted to see a specific video or did you do it out of habit because you were bored think for a second do you remember the last tweet Instagram post or Tik Tok you saw probably not you're habitually using these apps even though it's not what you really want the reason why these apps are so addicting is because of the anticipation in your brain when you anticipate something your dopamine Rises which

gives you motivation to act drug addicts get a dopamine hit when they see anticipate a substance not after they take it now I'm not calling you drug addicts but what I'm saying is that you get a dopamine hit when you anticipate that the next Tik Tok is going to Peak your interest but you don't know if it's going to Peak your interest because you can just scroll right past it to the next one so you're anticipating it even more it's almost like gambling at a slot machine so for this detox you're getting rid of the

bad habits mindless consumption and replacing them with good ones mindfulness and delayed gratification figured I would dedicate dedicate a small section to this topic since people like to argue different sides about this so YouTube is a social media and I'm on YouTube right now you're on YouTube right now YouTube is just a special case where you need to be honest with yourself some people that I've talked to have mentioned that they kept YouTube on their phones and they were fine they still saw benefits from doing the detox others said that they just replace all that

time they were using on other social media apps with YouTube if you spend a lot of time watching YouTube shorts then you need to delete this app too if you binge watch videos nonstop then you should probably delete it also the way that I went about it was I switched up the way that I use the app I transitioned from watching short quick tip videos and even just shorter videos to long form videos and fulllength podcasts and lectures in fact 99% of the time that I'm watching YouTube I'm actually not watching the video I'm just

listening to it what I found is that you don't actually need to watch most content on YouTube because you can just listen to it and this helps you to not want to look at the next video and just kind of focus on what you're listening to so I'll put on like a long Andrew hubman podcast or something and then I'll just put it on and have it in the background and then I'm listening to it and I'm taking notes on my my little notepad I do this while I'm at work I won't be tempted to

you know scroll to the next video or anything like that because my phone is on black and white so it's nothing's grabbing my attention and then I don't actually see the next video or go to the comments because my phone is off but like I said you have to be realistic with yourself I think that for some people YouTube can be really good because you can learn so much and if you plan to replace social media with something productive you might want to use YouTube to fuel that thing for me it was building a YouTube

channel and I was getting into real estate and I was you know just learning how to start online businesses and learning just all my new hobbies you know if you know that you're going to replace social media consumption with just straight up YouTube then you should probably delete it too at least for a while because what works for me might not work for you but keep in mind that I'm not in charge here and I'm not here to argue about you know if you should delete YouTube or not or any other social media I'm just

giving you my recommendations so don't comment about how YouTube is social media don't waste your time I don't want to hear it so can you keep social media if you have a business yes but not on your phone so let me explain so I have a business and YouTube is part of it I also do onetoone coaching calls where I help people with self-improvement so I need to use social media so like I said YouTube is social media it is what it is I'm not denying it the solution I have for you content creators is

to try not to have the apps on your phone I have Twitter Instagram and a Tik Tok account but I don't have them on my phone I strictly use those on my computer and sometimes my iPad if you have a computer or some kind of device that you can use those on then strictly use social media on that device when you're working what I do also is that even when I'm on my computer I actually have to look up the apps in Safari to get to them I've honestly been kind of slacking in the in

the short form department but it's just because I don't really enjoy using those apps as much as I did before I like making these longer videos unfollow accounts and people that don't serve you unfollow meme pages and subscribe to like-minded people that are in your Niche that you want to emulate and this is how you go from consumer to Creator I have brand new accounts that promote my business and my channel that and I haven't even bothered to check on the old ones so don't use your business as an excuse to mindlessly Scroll online cuz

you don't have to you can scroll your life away or you can use social media to build your future so which one are you going to choose so what if I get lonely unfortunately for this one I'm just going to have to hit you guys with some harsh truth there is a unique loneliness that comes from being disconnected from people in the world when you're not on social media and I went the far extreme by doing it for essentially like seven months and then I kind of still am disconnected because like I said I don't

really use the other apps as much I'm just usually on YouTube when people ask me how I deal with it I usually say the same thing you learn not to care if your relationships cannot last outside of social media then they weren't solid to begin with so if your friends are really your friends then they wouldn't stop talking to you if you didn't have social media and you would do the same thing to them if you can keep in touch which I'm pretty sure isn't hard because most of you guys probably have cell service then

do so and if it's not working out let them go if you're on a trajectory for greatness you cannot let other people slow you down I feel lonely sometimes I cannot lie but at the same time I also have the most mental Clarity I've ever had in my life and I'm making more progress in everything that I want to it's give and take I'm not saying this because I don't have a solution this is something that I'm still dealing with right now I don't have the same people in my life that I did this time

last last year but I'm okay with it because things change if you have meaningful relationships with people that you can keep outside of social media then that should be sufficient and if you really need to you can tell these people have a hard conversation with your friends and tell them that you're going to be going off social media for a while like I said if they're really your friends then they'll understand and they won't bother you but loneliness isn't the only thing you're going to be feeling during this detox probably going to feel anxious bored

stressed and uncomfortable without being able to use your phone whenever you want to you start to realize how much you were actually using your phone every day without realizing it you're going to have to use a bathroom without it make conversation with people instead of sitting in silence on your phones eat your food without scrolling you're going to have to sit with your own thoughts sometimes can you imagine doing that in today's age a couple people sitting in a room not on their phones just talking to each other your mind is wired to habitually pick

up your phone during these moments and these moments are the most important for resetting your brain you have to be okay with being bored sometimes cuz that's how I built up my mindfulness now when I'm you know waiting in line for something or waiting at the doctor's office or just pumping gas or you know on the toilet or whatever it is I'm not using my phone because I'm being mindful these are the moments where you're really fighting off your urge to use your phone and you'll start to see progress so what are you going to

replace all this extra time with well I think it's completely up to you to decide what you're going to do with this extra time however I think that replacing instant gratification activities like social media consumption with other instant gratification like TV and listening to music kind of defeats the point that doesn't mean that you have to sit and stare at your wall for hours either use this period of time to have some self-reflection and experiment with trying new things there might even be some hobbies that you had in the past that you want to try

again for me one thing that I did was I started playing guitar now I stopped playing guitar Swifty after that but recently I've been getting back into it but I also tried going to the skate park again and scootering and skating and just riding my bike around just all different types of things there are some things that I do recommend that you do that will improve your life and actually help you with resetting your brain lots of studies show that physical activity triggers a release of dopamine and serotonin and over time exercise remodels the reward

system in our brains leading to higher circulating levels of dopamine and more available dopamine so this is a perfect example of good dopamine because you're getting something good in the long term you're getting you're getting short-term pleasure and long-term pleasure at the same exact time an exercise can also improve your mood make you physically healthier and rewire your brain to delay gratification all at the same time so try working out or you can go on a run or a long walk and if you want to start going to the gym you should check out my

full guide if you want you can even pair exercise with some fun things like playing sports I actually started rollerblading again I go almost every weekend and it's been one of my favorite things to do and I'm starting to learn a lot of new tricks and things like that and it's it's just so fun I love doing it I met so many new people there and I talk to them I learn how to do tricks from them it's a good way to socialize too when you just get outside and just do something active it'll help

combat some of that loneliness start journaling look how sexy this this journal is anyways journaling can help you with mental Clarity by writing down your thoughts it can also help you build self-awareness relieve stress and draw out creative ability and it can help you solve your problems I used to think it was really weird to keep a journal growing up and I never saw the point of it until I had nothing to do with my life besides drown in my own thoughts after deleting social media when you have a lot of free time and you

tend to overthink things journaling is a great way to get all those thoughts out of your mind and onto paper so you can look at it from a different lens I made this a habit by trying to journal right before I go to sleep every night I don't do it every single night but I try to do it as much as possible especially when there is something that's on my mind you can just talk about your day or just whatever you're thinking about in life literally just anything sometimes I'll write about what I'm reading in

the book you can even Journal about how you're doing on your detox maybe at the end of the day just write down how your day is going and it'll be a good way for you to track your progress now there are plenty of good journaling apps out there but I recommend that you do it on paper just so you don't get distracted but if you do want to use it on your phone then there is an app like I said earlier called stoic and there are Journal prompts in it and things like that there's a

meditation exercises and it also has that screen time feature that I was talking about earlier that'll shut down your phone at a certain time third thing that I highly recommend for anybody to do is to just go outside and get into nature I'm not saying that you have to go on a hike but you could at least go for a walk in the park just go relax a little bit whenever notice that I'm spending too much time in my room on my computer just typing away like a nerd I'll take a physical book and I'll

go to the park and I'll just sit down and read I just keep my phone away from me and I just relax I enjoy the fresh air and I think about life you'll start to see how beautiful all the trees and the animals and the grass and everything else is in your area when you aren't buried in your phone sometimes I'll just go to the park and I'll sit there for an hour and a half and I always feel better after I do if you are able to try it after you're done with this video

you will not regret it so you can honestly do whatever you want with this free time just try to use it to do new things and see what you love I might not have started this channel if I didn't have so much extra free time to do it now most of my free time is dedicated to working on this channel because I'm passionate about it I don't have time to scroll on social media because I'm too aligned with this project to do anything else so my best advice here is to become obsessed with something so

how long do you need to be on this detox so I'm on the more extreme side I still haven't downloaded these apps on my phone in 10 months but I honestly have really no plans to either I don't really have a reason to whenever I do need to use them it's stly it's strictly when I'm working and when I'm on my computer so I've kind of just completely eliminated my want for these apps I actually have to remind myself to go on to them but you might not be able to do that right away I've

been doing this for almost a year now but there's also no prescribed amount of time away from social media that's going to fix your life but a good way to think about it is to take some time away from social media for a couple weeks to a month and then try to reintroduce them into your life if you're ready and if you're willing to before you go back you need to ask yourself does this serve me do I have a good reason to introduce this to my life again will I be able to control my

impulses and stop myself from wasting time if the answer to any of these is no then wait a little longer if you do decide to go back and you notice that you're slipping back into the cycle then start again and you can do this for as many times or for as long as you want you might come to find out that you don't want to have them at all if social media doesn't serve you and you realize that you don't find Value in a certain app or all of them then you don't need to have

them at all I'm not antiphone and I'm not against social media I think that these can and should be used to better our lives and help us do the things that we want to do and you can find so much useful information on social media too I wouldn't have started my YouTube channel and I wouldn't have known that I can share my ideas online without it but too much of anything is a bad thing so essentially you don't need to remove all dopaminergic activities from your life forever you just need to be mindful of what

you're spending your limited time on Earth doing every day so use this detox to to take some time away and reflect on what you want out of your life and come back stronger when you're ready so that is how I reset my brain this year and ended my phone addiction with social media detox I hope that I was able to give you an idea of how you should go about this yourself if you want to talk to me oneon-one about the subject if you need help setting up your detox or have any more questions for

me I do one toone coaching the link is in the description you can check that out also we have a community of lanm minded individuals who are also doing this um it's a Discord so you can check that out Below in the description but don't join it and then waste all your time on that either also if you are going to do this detox then when you're done come back and then share your experience with people in the comments so they can know what to look forward to and get tips on how to do it

better you might find better ways to do this than I have so if you do I want you to share them so that's all for now thank you for watching see you [Music]