034 - Balancing Screen Time for a Healthier You!

Welcome to another episode of Women Powering e-Commerce! In today's discussion, we're going to delve into an issue that many of us can relate to: screen time. Specifically, we'll explore the delicate balance between the benefits of digital tools and the necessity of disconnecting from our screens. This topic is particularly relevant in our digital age, where our smartphones, computers, and TVs have become integral parts of our lives. Join me as we navigate the highs and lows of screen time and discover how it can impact our well-being.

The Journey to Balance

A few years ago, I had a revelation: I had developed what I can only describe as a minor screen addiction. I realized that I was spending too much time on social media and digital devices, and it was affecting my overall well-being. Like many others, I initially tried the extreme approach of deleting my social media accounts, only to find myself recreating them later. This cycle wasn't sustainable, so I decided to take a different path.

Instead of completely disconnecting, I chose to keep my social media accounts open but consciously made an effort to be less active on them. I limited my interactions to platforms and content that were educational and beneficial to my personal growth and business. This approach allowed me to strike a balance between staying connected and avoiding mindless scrolling.

The Impact of Screen Time on Mental Health

My decision to reduce screen time stemmed from the noticeable impact it had on my mental health. I used to go to bed scrolling through my phone and wake up with anxiety. Even after trying various solutions like blue light glasses, I couldn't escape the negative effects on my sleep and overall well-being. It was clear that a change was needed.

One of the most effective solutions I found was to leave my phone in the kitchen overnight, relying on my trusty Apple Watch to wake me up. This simple act helped me break the habit of checking my phone before sleep and immediately upon waking. Additionally, I started replacing screen time with reading physical books, which had a calming effect on me and improved my sleep quality.

Balancing Screen Time: Lessons from Harvard

Research conducted by experts like Rich, the director of the Center on Media and Child Health at Boston Children's Hospital and a professor at Harvard, sheds light on the importance of how we use screens rather than just the amount of time spent on them. Rich emphasizes that it's not about the duration but how screen time affects our brains. For instance, spending 15 minutes on educational content versus entertainment can have vastly different effects on our cognitive development.

The key takeaway here is that we shouldn't demonize screen time but rather be flexible and discerning in how we use technology. Just as fire has both benefits and dangers, we must learn to harness the power of screens for our benefit while mitigating the negatives.

The Balanced Approach

As e-commerce entrepreneurs, we spend a significant amount of time in front of screens. It's crucial that we reflect on our screen time habits and strive for balance. An article in The Times Magazine offers five simple questions to gauge if our screen time has become excessive:

Are you sleeping well?
Are you eating well?
Are you leaving the house and being social?
Is your work going well?
Are you physically active?

These basic questions serve as a practical guide to assess whether our screen time is negatively impacting our lives. If you find that your answers lean toward the negative, it might be time to reevaluate your screen time habits.

Conclusion

In our digital age, it's essential to find a balance between reaping the benefits of digital tools and disconnecting to safeguard our mental and physical health. Screen time is not inherently evil; it's how we use it that matters most. As we navigate our e-commerce journeys, let's remember to be conscious of our screen time habits and strive for a healthy, sustainable approach.

I'd love to hear from you: Do you impose screen time restrictions for yourself? Share your experiences and insights, and let's continue this discussion. If you enjoyed this episode, please rate, share, and subscribe to this podcast. Together, we can inspire and support more women entrepreneurs in the e-commerce world. Thank you for being a part of this journey, and I look forward to our next episode!

Episode Transcription

034 - Balancing Screen Time for a Healthier You!

(00:00):

Welcome to this episode of Women Powering e-Commerce. Join me every Tuesday and Thursday as I take you behind the scenes of my journey as a female e-commerce entrepreneur. Together we'll explore the highs, the lows, inspiring you to take action and achieve your own business goals. So let's get started. Okay, so let's talk about screen time today. More specifically balancing the benefits of digital tools with the need to disconnect from our phones or computer screens our TVs, et cetera. And why do I want to talk about this today? It's just because a few years ago I realized I had... I could say it, a minor screen addiction, maybe. I actually had to, or felt the need to disconnect most of my social media accounts. So many have done that and usually what happens after a while, what I've seen is that they'll just reopen their social media accounts and then just fall back into whatever they were doing before.

(01:15):

So it was just more of a break and not a change in their habits of how they consumed social media or any screen time, basically. So I just decided to... A lot of things I do in life, I try to find the actual habits or ways of doing things that will be sustainable. So I've tried in the past, I disconnected. I'm using social media as an example. I think it's a great example. So I've deleted my social media accounts in the past to only reinstall and recreate ones, and I find that wasn't sustainable. So what I decided to do is find just kind of a in-between, and I've decided to just keep my accounts open, but consciously decided not to be active on them. By not active on them I mean... Honestly, if you go and try and find me on social media, I don't post any more except for maybe on LinkedIn once in a while. I just decided to cross the line there.

(02:21):

Will it always be that way? Maybe not. I don't like to go into extremes and say I'll do something for the rest of my life. But for now, it's been a few years. I don't think I've posted much. And it's just to protect myself and to just actually draw a line somewhere. And I still keep my accounts open and follow some people online. And the reason I'll do that is only... I try to keep it to whatever will be educational or actually give me or serve me in my life somehow. I try to leave all the nonsense or anything that's really not constructive, I'll try and just not put too much time on that. So I do have accounts, I keep them alive for other purposes, such as following accounts that I can actually learn new things from. So personal development, business, and I usually limit myself to this.

(03:13):

And I try to keep all the other things that don't provide any value in helping me grow or learn something. I try to put that aside and not watch any of that stuff. And why am I telling you all of this? It's just I used to go to sleep scrolling my phone, and I still do once in a while and I'm trying to really draw back from that habit. And even if I tried the night screen, the blue glasses, I noticed I was so much more anxious before going to sleep than before. I would really clench my teeth at night. And the first thing I did when I got up in the morning was look at my phone and I saw automatically my anxiety spiked just after a few minutes I woke up. I thought that was not normal. And I definitely decided to just... Okay, look, I had to do an intervention with myself, and that's what I did.

(04:10):

So solution that I found, it's just leave my phone in the kitchen, I plug it there. I just keep my Apple Watch on to wake me up, which I love. It just wakes you up wonderfully. And I still have to be careful, because I very easily will tend to bring my phone back in the room, look at it. So I just have to... I'm still constantly battling this, but it's so beneficial when I just actually am disciplined and put my phone elsewhere and just wake up with my watch and before I go to bed... I mean, it takes time to actually fall asleep. So now I really try to stick to real paper like a book. I actually have printed on paper as my vision for the next couple of years, and I will read that. So I feel that it is just so much more constructive, so much more beneficial, and it feels like heaven.

(05:09):

I feel so much calmer now. So that's really something I've integrated and I'm still learning to master because I still sometimes will not do it. But I just see the difference between the two. And I found this interesting latest research, a Harvard News and research article, on screen time and the brain, and it was a research done on children, but it's still very interesting to adults I find. And I like the balance approach of screen time use they brought on because it's really good to choose extremes, like I said. Behaving in extremes rarely last, so that's really... Personally, I try to stay away from that. And I just want to share with you what I found in that research that is very interesting. So this guy named Rich, he's the director of the Center on Media and Child Health at Boston Children's Hospital, also a professor of social and behavioral sciences at Harvard.

(06:17):

So here's what he says. He says that... I'm just going to pull it up. Okay. He says, "It's not how long we're using screens that really matters, it's how we're using them and what's happening in our brains in response." So I thought that was actually very interesting. We hear so much about, "Oh, the time you spend on a screen, the time, the time." But in the end, how does it affect your brain? And I totally agree with that because if you spend 15 minutes watching something to educate your brain versus something to entertain yourself, then I think it will have two different responses on your brain, and one will probably be more beneficial than the other. So I thought that was actually very interesting. Okay. The other thing he says is, "We have to be flexible enough to evolve with the technology, but choose how to use it right. Fire was a great discovery to cook our food, but we had to learn it could hurt and kill as well."

(07:25):

I love that because it's balance. And like I said in the beginning, again, I don't like extremes, so I just find that it really correlates with what can be sustainable in regards to habits that you have to develop. So we cannot just run away from technology. We cannot run away from screens. We have to learn to live with them and just find a way to use them in a healthy way as much as possible. And the article finished off saying, "We don't want to be in a moral panic because kids are staring at smartphones. We need to be asking what's happening when they're staring at their smartphone in terms of their cognitive, social, and emotional development. As with most things, it will probably be a mix of positive and negative. Going forward with our eyes open, how can we enhance the positive and mitigate the negative?"

(08:28):

So I thought that was... I loved it. It is very balanced out. It makes sense. It's sustainable. It respects the era we're actually in right now, which is digital all around us. And I think that as e-commerce owners, we have lots to reflect on about this since we are spending most of our time in front of our computers and phones. And there was actually this other article in the Times Magazine on how much scream time is too much for adults. That's such a good question because if we circle back to what was being said by the professor I just quoted then if it's not how much... He wasn't so much into how much time you spend, it's more how it affects your brain. But still, I'm sure... I feel eventually you still have to watch the time you're spending on your screen. And here's what the article says.

(09:29):

It said, "We shouldn't necessarily freak out if your weekly iPhone screen time report pings you with a high number. If you feel as though your screen time has become excessive, ask yourself these five important questions." And these are very, you'll see they're very basic questions, but we can all ask ourselves those questions and really know quickly, are we spending too much time or not? So "Are you sleeping well? Are you eating well? Are you leaving the house and being social? Is your work going well? And are you physically active?"

(10:04):

I think this is actually very wise advice, very simple, but yet wise. And like I said before, I personally decided to make a change in my own screen time because I was not sleeping well. I was being more anxious. And so those were my answers to those questions, and that's why I decided to make a change. So those are just a few things I found interesting and worth reflecting on. And I'd like to know, do you impose screen time restrictions for yourself? So let me know. I'd definitely be interested. So did you like this episode? If so, take a moment to rate, share, subscribe to this podcast. Help me reach and inspire more women entrepreneurs in the e-commerce business. Thank you for being part of this journey with me. I hope you gained valuable insights and inspiration today to keep growing and taking action towards your goals. Please follow me on social media, and remember to like, share and comment this video. Subscribe to get notifications every time a new video is uploaded. See you next time.