How To Manage Technology & Social Media So You Are More Focused, Present, and Intentional

Speaker 1: (00:00)
Hey, Hey, welcome to another episode of the glam life of real estate podcast. This is Stephanie Lindamood and I am so excited that you joined me today. So today we're going to talk about all things technology, how to manage it, how to manage those wonderful little devices that are in our pockets and our purses that seem to sometimes rule our lives. So let me ask you a question. Have you ever thought, Oh my gosh, like I keep looking at the screen I don't like, I can't get a break. It keeps stinging. It keeps buzzing. I keep getting notifications or let me ask you another question. Have you ever felt really happy when you get a ding on your phone? Have you ever been like, Ooh, what? W what is it? I got to check it. So we're going to talk about all the things today. I'm going to share some tips on how to manage it.

Speaker 1: (00:50)
I'm going to share some things that you can do to control it so that you can be focused on what's important to you. Still have time on your device. Don't worry, I'm not going to tell you to delete Instagram, I promise, but just some best practices and things that you can try out, experiment with, and then stay tuned to the very end because I'm going to give you guys a link that you can download my free list, my top productivity apps that I use every single day to keep me more productive. That helped me schedule things out so you don't want to miss that. So stay tuned.

Speaker 2: (01:22)
You're listening to the glam life of real estate podcast where we talk about everything from productivity tips, social media strategies, business hacks, and more to get ahead of the curve and crush it as a real estate sales professional. Whether you office out of a model home or your car where leopard print and high heels never go out of style. Here's your host, top producing real estate agent, social media strategist, and for baby mama Stephanie Linda mood.

Speaker 1: (01:54)
All right, so I thought I would bring you guys this episode because about a year and a half ago, I decided that I was getting way too many notifications and my phone was distracting me and as well as my computer, frankly, way too much when I was trying to do work and I was just constantly what I would call it task switching. And I know that's not good for me from just a brain standpoint because anytime your brain switched tasks, switches, tasks, even if it's something you think is similar, it takes it a while to get back into the original tasks you were working on. And so therefore you're less productive, you feel more fried at the end of the day. And a lot of times I would just kind of look up and go, what did I end up doing? Because I know I worked, but I wasn't very focused and very intentional. And we talk a little bit about this on the episode with the full focus planner that I did.

Speaker 1: (02:44)
Um, you guys can go back to that one. Let me find that episode. Hang on one second. Okay. It's episode number five. So if you guys want to get back to that episode, um, that's going to give you some tips on just how to get organized, how to get focused using a planner that I really highly recommended by Hyatt. But today I just really wanted to focus on some technology best practices to really get you guys out of the distraction mode. So I've got a couple of different points that I wanted to talk about and then we'll go into detail. So the first thing is starting with just your phone in general, like when you have your phone in your hand, there's a couple of things you can do immediately to just cut down on some of the distractions and overwhelm. So if you're like me, sometimes I'll go app crazy, you know, I'll read an article and they'll talk about the latest photo editing apps or something that I'm super interested in.

Speaker 1: (03:33)
And I'll just download app after app after app to just try them out and see what works best. But then I'm not the best about going through and deleting maybe the ones that I don't need anymore. And as a result, my homescreen, my second and third page can get filled up with all these apps. And I think over time what happens subconsciously is it gets a little overwhelming. It's like a cluttered room and you don't realize that you're overwhelmed cause it's something that just happens subconsciously. But every time you look at that cluttered room or that cluttered phone screen, it adds a little bit of anxiety. So one thing I'd recommend doing is like maybe on a monthly or quarterly basis is just going through and auditing your phone of all the apps. Plus it's going to help a storage if you have a storage issue on your phone.

Speaker 1: (04:14)
So clear out and delete all the apps that you don't use. And then one thing you can also do is take the apps that are highly distracting to you that like anytime you get on your phone you go to like whether it's Instagram or social media or who knows, maybe it's you're checking email or looking at the stock market. Whatever those apps are that you go to every single time you turn your phone on. Try moving that to the second page, they're not so assessable and so visually there and just see how that works for you. The other thing you can do after you've cleaned off the screens of all the apps eat, don't use is you can and you and you move the ones that really distract you to like the second page. Then what you can do is go to your settings and look at what notifications you currently have turned on for your phone.

Speaker 1: (05:01)
I had email turned on every single social media notification turned on. So anytime someone liked, commented, anything like that, I was getting notified. And so what I did is I turned all of that off. And so what I do now is if I want to go check email, I will go and look at email on my phone and it will load in the new email. So I'm not being notified every single time I get a new email and I took off any kind of, you know, uh, audible notification vibration or just visual banners so you can turn off your notification. And that helps dramatically. It feels a little weird because what happens is studies are showing that our brains, whatever we get a notification or a text message, a chemical reaction happens when that occurs and it spikes a chemical called dopamine. And dopamine is something you've probably heard about.

Speaker 1: (05:56)
It taps into feelings of pleasure, motivation, lust, et cetera. And it triggers what's called a dopamine high. Similar to when you do things like an eat something sweet, do drugs, maybe do retail therapy, et cetera. And what happens is this dopamine high wears off and then whenever we get another notification it spikes again. And so then we start having this feedback loop that we come addicted to to be honest. And so what happens is we almost create the notification. We almost crave our phones buzzing because it's almost like this validation or this, this hit that we get with the dopamine. So it may take a little bit of kind of weaning off to be honest with you, as weird as that may sound of the notifications, but just try it. And here's the thing, try it for a day, try it for a week. And here's the thing, you can always go back to what you were doing if it doesn't work for you.

Speaker 1: (06:47)
So if you're wanting to just look at this as an experiment, that's a really good way to do that. It doesn't mean you have to do it forever. So we deleted all the apps we don't use, we've moved distracting apps off the the home screen and then we've turned off certain notifications. And then the other thing you can do is, let's say you're getting into some deep work, like if I'm brainstorming content ideas or recording a cot, a podcast episode or meeting with a client, I will turn my phone on do not disturb, which means it won't even vibrate. You can put exceptions in like let's say you want to make sure if someone calls you twice in a row that it's on your favorites list, like your husband or wife or something or your kids, it will come through to you. You can do that.

Speaker 1: (07:29)
That way, you're not worried that if there is an emergency that you're not going to receive a phone call or notification. So you can set your phone up to where if you do receive some kind of notification, um, that you set the criteria to, you will get notified. So you don't have to worry about that. But what I'll do is I'll turn on my phone on do not disturb and they'll actually turn it over to where I can't see the screen. That way if I am doing some deep work or engaged in a conversation with somebody, I'm not even distracted by the screen lighting up, which is a really big deal when you are in front of other people to show them respect and for you mentally to be focused on them. So implementing the do not disturb and the notifications and your setting is really key.

Speaker 1: (08:10)
And there's different ways you can do that. You can also do, do not disturb at certain times of the day. Like if you primarily get work, you know, texts or emails or phone calls on your phone and after a certain time of night you don't want to have those even come to you to where you're notified. You can put your phone on do not disturb so that you don't even have to worry about getting notified until you choose to check your phone. So that's kind of what you can do from just a device standpoint. And the other thing I recommend is if you are like, I'm trying to really focus, I would probably recommend just turning your phone off of vibrate even if you have the ringer off cause the vibration is gonna bug you as well if you're trying to stay focused. The second area we can talk about just to be more productive and let technology be controlled by you instead of it controlling you, which is a really big deal to me is time blocking and scheduling when you do certain activities.

Speaker 1: (09:03)
So a lot of people look at email, the way they do text messages, like they get one and they respond to it and they get one and they respond to it. And primarily it's because of the way you're getting notified either on your computer or on your phone is as each one trickles in, you're getting a notification. Um, secondly, I think we're just programmed like, Oh, we got something new. We have to address it. Really you don't, I mean, yes, there's some exception. Like yeah, if your boss is emailing you saying, Hey, I need this in the next 10 minutes, that's one thing. But a lot of times if you respond same day to somebody, that's perfectly acceptable. So a lot of times what I do is I'll check email in the morning, I'll check email in the evening. I try to check it around lunchtime and that's it.

Speaker 1: (09:47)
Unless I have a day where it's not a big deal, I'm not doing deep work. But I really try to batch when I check my email because otherwise you're going to be an email hell for like six hours a day. Right. And so that's one thing that I highly recommend is picking when you're going to check your emails and respond to them, and time block that so that your focus when you're doing it and when you're finished, you're done. The second thing I recommend doing is when you're going to be on social media. Even if you're going to be on social media, just for pure pleasure, figure out when you're going to do that and for how long, and then if you're going to, if you're doing it for business or for some other intentional reason, like you're wanting to check in on people that you know or love and see what they're up to, be intentional about it and set a timer.

Speaker 1: (10:34)
It's super easy and it's not your fault. The way the social media companies work is they know how our brains work, so everything they do is geared towards keeping us on the screen, keeping us on their sites. I can't blame them, right, but you're kind of set up for failure. If you go in and don't have a plan, it's like going to the grocery store, it candy store. When you're hungry, you're going to overbuy or overeat. It's just is what it is, right? Unless you have some discipline or a plan. So when you hop on Facebook, when you have one Instagram, YouTube, what have you, be focused on what your intent is and set a timer so that you don't get lost in the, you know, whole of watching cat videos. Now if you want to watch cat videos, that's fine, but just know that you only want to watch 20 minutes to cat videos to give yourself a mental break from work or whatever.

Speaker 1: (11:18)
But then you're going to get back onto whatever you are going to do for the rest of the day. And then the third thing that goes hand in hand with social media is scheduling your social posts and there's different tools you can use. I don't schedule everything cause I still do like social media to be social. I like it to be in the moment what I'm doing that day. But I do tend to have some of my content scheduled so that it does go out and I don't have to be in real time on every single platform about every single topic. And I'll be providing you guys a list of things that I use from an app standpoint to help me be more productive that you guys can download here at the end of the episode. Um, but that is really key as well. In addition to that thinking through a content calendar, so like maybe you're not scheduling out your Instagram posts, but you kind of know what you want to talk about for the week and then as those days come up you can edit it so that it can be real time and it can be the real you and it's not so scheduled and canned, but you do want to have a plan for it versus every day you are thinking, I want to be social and post something, but what does that look like?

Speaker 1: (12:25)
Especially if you have a business or a personal brand. So that's kind of what I would say as far as if you want to try time blocking and scheduling, that's a big area that you can really focus on to make technology work for you versus eight controlling your entire day and evening. The third area I want to talk about is like physical separation from your device. Okay. First of all, if you don't already know, they're coming out with studies that are saying that the phones, they have radiation, like there's, there's certain amounts of radiation they really don't recommend it touching your skin. Especially don't, you know, especially, I don't know, I'm really nervous about like putting it in my pocket or um, you know, I used to wear like a, a little arm band whenever I would run and it wasn't very thick as far as I, I just am not sure I'm really comfortable with it being on my skin.

Speaker 1: (13:19)
So just something to think about. You guys may want some separation from your devices. Make sure you don't fall asleep with them right near your head. Um, but as far as like physical separation, when you go to family events, when you are at dinner with your spouse or your family, I don't necessarily think it's realistic to leave it in the car because I do like to have something on me for, from a safety standpoint. But what a lot of times I'll do if I'm with my husband is when we go into a restaurant, one of us will take a phone in and we'll like put it on. Like if I'm sitting on a booth, I'll put it face down right beside me. So it's not on the table. Cause if it's on the table it's just a distraction. Even if it's turned over. But I turn it off, there's no vibration and I turn it over to where it's not even there.

Speaker 1: (14:00)
It's just there if I need it. If, if we're talking and maybe I want to reference something or pull something up, no worries. We're doing that together. But I don't want to be the family or the couple that when you're out, you're both buried in your phone, you're not talking to your kids. Nobody's looking at each other like I'm all for the phones and devices, but at certain points in time, and I just feel like we've all gotten into bad habits with keeping them honest. They've always being available and it really does a number on your conversation with the person that you're actually are face to face with. So I a lot of times won't even take it in if he's got his and then we just take him off vibrate, take them off ringer. That way we're totally focused on each other and just enjoying time together.

Speaker 1: (14:41)
The other thing that I highly recommend is not grabbing your phone in the morning or at night. And the reason I say that for the morning, and sometimes you guys will see me, I'll be on Instagram at 6:00 AM or 5:00 AM or whatever time I get up checking in. Um, so I'm kind of talking out of both sides of my mouth, but what I'll do a lot of times they'll film something real quick. I'll put a time stamp on it and I'll save the video and then I'll post it later and then I get on with my day. So if you're wanting to do stuff like that, you can do that too. What you're not getting into the social accounts, you're just recording something. Cause a lot of times people want to see like what your morning routine is and I totally feel that. So one way you can record that but not be so involved in that moment of trying to post it and do all that is you can record it, save it to your phone and then post it later when you're going to do your postings and they get out of it to where you're not scrolling the feed or doing anything like that.

Speaker 1: (15:33)
The other thing you can do in the morning, so like give you an example, I'll do a lot of workout videos so or I'll do a meditation's right and those are app based. So what I'll do is so that I don't have to look at it on my phone, I'll get my iPad out and my iPad doesn't have any email on it. It doesn't have any notifications on it. So really all I'm going to use my iPad for is if I want to access an app that I could also access on my phone, but not get distracted with text messages, phone calls, messages, anything like that. It's just truly so that yes, I'm still accessing technology in the morning. It is what it is because so much of our lives are on these devices, but it allows me to have a device. I'm not going to get bombarded with notifications or text messages or phone calls.

Speaker 1: (16:16)
So that's one thing you can do. The other thing is you can still use your phone. Like if you're going to listen to a meditation, like I use insight timer a lot for my meditations. Um, I'm still gonna be using my phone, but I don't have my, my notifications turned on. So I don't know if someone's Instagram me until I go into Instagram. And that allows me to say focus in the morning on what I'm trying to accomplish versus being bombarded in the morning with all these things, phone calls, text messages, that kind of stuff. The other thing is to turn it off at night. They really recommend turning up technology about two hours before you go to bed. Part of that's because the technology does have a blue light in it and that blue light does affect your body's ability to secrete, secrete different hormones and make different hormones.

Speaker 1: (16:59)
One of them is called melatonin and that helps you sleep at night. And so what I would recommend is trying to get off your devices about two hours before night. If you are going to stay on your device, make sure you wear blue light glasses, cause that's going to help blue light blocking glasses, that's going to help the light. And um, what you may try to do in the evening is instead, if you are a reader and maybe you're like to be online, go grab some actual books and just get off of the technology at night, allows your brain to rest a little bit. So you're having that physical separation at nighttime. Um, they say, and I highly recommend it as well, to put your phone somewhere else, not right beside your head, like on your nightside stand. I keep mine in the closet that way we still have a phone in our room if we need it from a just a safety standpoint, but it's on silent, there's no notifications coming onto it and it just goes in the closet that way there's total separation.

Speaker 1: (17:50)
And then the other thing is not having any electronics in the bedroom. So we took a TV out of our budget and probably, I dunno, 10 15 years ago. Um, so we don't have a TV in our bedroom anymore, which has been great. And then we don't usually allow electronics in the bedroom. The only time we make that exception is if we're going to have like crazy storms. We get tornadoes here in Texas, so every once in a while we'll have like the iPad in the bedroom so we can track the storm's late at night or something like that. But that's been a key, a game changer on how their bedroom fills as far as it's more relaxing. We're not just going to bed to then scroll and get online. We don't do that. So if we're going to stay online or going to say out of the bedroom, because when we come into the budget and mentally we want to just be totally unplugged.

Speaker 1: (18:34)
So as far as physical separation goes, you know, throwing the phone on silent, taking it off vibrate or leaving it in the car. When you do go to functions and events, not looking at it in the morning or in the evening before bed and then at night physically separating from it from your bedroom if possible. And then the fourth thing I would say is just kind of what we talked about with the iPad earlier is if you need to have separate devices, so like if you like reading, but you like to read on an online reader, do it on a Kindle. That way when you're reading, you're not getting phone calls, you're not getting text messages, you're not getting notified of anything. You can totally focus again, that's the same thing I do with my iPad where I've kind of controlled what apps I have on it.

Speaker 1: (19:19)
It has internet capability, all of that, but I don't have certain apps on that. I don't have any email going to it. And that way when I have on my iPad I only have the certain options. That way I'm not distracted or get tempted with any other um, app or notification that would normally be on my phone. So with all that being said, um, what I'm going to do is I feel like it would be really helpful if I shared with you some of the apps that I use that helped me be more productive. Um, some of them are going to be to keep the distractions at a minimum and then a lot of them are just productivity apps that I've used over the years. So what I'm going to do is put all that together in a download that you guys can access. And what you can do is go to the glam girl, boss.com forward slash productivity apps.

Speaker 1: (20:06)
Again, that's the glam girl, boss.com forward slash productivity apps. And that way you can download it, you can have it in print it or screenshot it. And then if there's any apps that you want to use or download, you have access to that versus trying to go through them all on this podcast. And then if you're running on a treadmill or driving down the road, you're not gonna remember him anyways. So at that thought that would help. Um, there's, that's certainly not an end all be all list. There's definitely going to be other things you can go out there and try. But this is just the things that I'm using right now that I find to be highly effective with productivity, both to help me stay organized, to help me not be so overwhelmed with technology in general. And then also to help from a scheduling standpoint because again, so much of what we do, if we can get out in front of it and time block and schedule it, then we don't have to be so reactive in our day to day life.

Speaker 1: (20:54)
We're going to be healthier. We're going to be more focused. We're going to be happier. And I know that's what all of you guys are looking to be. So anyways, I hope this was helpful. Let me know if you have any questions. If you haven't already, make sure you subscribe to the show. I would love it if you would send in an online review if you haven't done so, an iTunes, tell me what you're loving about the show. Tell me what you loved about this episode and what you got out of it, and we'll catch you later. Bye.