A Lust for Life seven day social challenge #soundsocial – disconnect to reconnect. Follow the daily challenge with the aim that by the end of the week you’ll have created more time in your life to enjoy something truly worthwhile.
We fully believe in the power of social media to inspire, engage and entertain. It is a fantastic tool for education, connection and often, having a laugh! We all know it can turn ugly, breed anger, let toxicity grow however it’s up to each one of us to choose how to use this. Allow your social media to be powerful, to inspire you, to make you feel good and connect with those who raise you to a higher frequency. Start with this seven-day detox.
The aim of this week is to unfollow accounts that make you feel bad (simple), monitor time spent on social media and pick one thing you wish you had more time to do – and create that time! You would be amazed at how much time you can win back from social media.
What you need for this challenge:
- An alarm clock – these can be purchased cheaply from any bargain store
- A notebook
- Add a social media usage app to monitor time on social media
- Set an app lock
See here how to set the app limits and check screen time on iPhone
App limit on Samsung
Time usage on Samsung
Day one of our seven day sound social challenge. The purpose of this challenge is to monitor how we use social media, to make sure we use it in a sound way; sound to ourselves and to others. It’s also to look at how much time we spend scrolling and what we could do if we gifted ourselves more free (from scrolling) time. Please tag us and use #soundsocial if you’re following the challenge and let us know how you’re getting on.
Today we’ll look at a number of things to set us up for the week ahead. Today’s focus is to begin awareness of the amount of time we spend on social and to create better habits around bed time.
Firstly – set the app lock on your phone so your apps are only available to you during certain hours.
Second – check the time usage on your phone. It should tell you how much time you spent on your apps and social media per day and per week. Make a note of this and we’ll compare it at the end of the week.
See here how to set the app limits and check screen time on iPhone
App limit on Samsung
Time usage on Samsung
Third – Get an alarm clock, make sure to put batteries in it, set it for tomorrow morning and put it by your bed.
Forth – When you go to bed tonight, put the phone in another room, completely turned off if possible. Leave on and close-by if you really need to in case of emergencies but turn off wifi and leave it on the other side of the room, not within arms reach. Use your alarm clock to wake you.
Fifth – Don’t look at phone until after 9am tomorrow morning!! When you do, check A Lust for Life for day two!!
Let us know how you get on today by tagging us and use #soundsocial
Welcome to day two of our #soundsocial challenge. Don’t forget to tag us and use the hashtag #soundsocial if you’re following the challenge – let us know how you’re getting on :) On day one, we looked at setting limits around using social media by making note of our time spent, setting app locks for time limits and not bringing the phone to bed. Today we will look at cleaning up our feeds.
Some things to note: Write in your notebook how you’re feeling each day and make note of the time spent on social media/your phone daily using your time screentime app/setting.
Every morning just as you wake up – replace the reaching for the phone habit with a body scan exercise. We have a really simple one to follow on our website.
Today your challenge is to:
- Delete apps you don’t use
- Delete negative news apps
- Unfollow accounts or influencers that generally make you feel bad about yourself. This might include influencers you like to follow but somehow find negatively yourself comparing body image, lifestyle or anything else that makes you look at yourself in a bad way.
- Unfollow friends who generally post content that make you feel bad, no need to unfriend them but you can unfollow so you don’t see their posts.
- Stop clicking into clickbait or gossipy articles.
- Stop reading comments under clickbait articles.
- Unfollow news outlets that produce clickbait articles.
- Only consume positive content that brings joy – this might also meaning turning down the news on the TV/radio or catching the main evening bulletin – not every hour.
- Repeat every day: leave your phone in another room turned off or in case of emergencies keep it in your room but not at arms length with wifi turned off.
- Don’t look at social media until 9am tomorrow – then tune back in for day three of the A Lust for Life #soundsocial challenge.
Day three of our #soundsocial challenge. Don’t forget to tag us and use the hashtag #soundsocial if you’re following the challenge – let us know how you’re getting on :) On day two, we looked at cleaning up our feeds so we’re only consuming positive content, on day three we start to focus on that one thing we keep putting off due to lack of time.
Some things to note: Write in your notebook how you’re feeling each day and make note of the time spent on social media/your phone daily using your time screentime app/setting.
Every morning just as you wake up – replace the reaching for the phone habit with a body scan exercise. We have a really simple one to follow on our website.
Today’s challenge is to pick one thing you keep saying “I must do….” but never get round to due to having no time. This doesn’t have to be change the world stuff but can be as simple as visiting a friend, going for a walk somewhere new, playing your instrument that’s been gathering dust, picking up that scarf you started to knit, going to a new class you’ve been interested in, clearing out a cluttered room, setting up a 5-a-side, joining the library….you get it!
Ask yourself what is one thing you always say “I wish I had time to….” and let’s work together this week to achieve it over the next few days.
- Write in a notebook this one thing
- What would it mean to you to do this?
- What would it look like?
- What difference would it make to your life if you got to do this?
- How good would it feel?
- When could you start?
- How feasible is it to start this week?
- How much time will it take?
Let us know in the comments if you want to share what your one thing is??
Repeat leaving your phone off in another room or with the wifi off out of arms length in your room in case you need it for emergencies.
As you wake in the morning do your body scan.
Extra challenge…can you turn on your phone tomorrow morning but not check social media until 11am?
Day four of our #soundsocial challenge. Don’t forget to tag us and use the hashtag #soundsocial if you’re following the challenge – let us know how you’re getting on :) Day one, two and three were about beginning to bring awareness and monitor our social media use. We began to be sounder on social media by filtering what we follow. We looked at one thing we’d love to free up some time to do. The next four days are about building on that so we create habits that stick.
Some things to note: Write in your notebook how you’re feeling each day and make note of the time spent on social media/your phone daily using your time screentime app/setting.
Every morning just as you wake up – replace the reaching for the phone habit with a body scan exercise. We have a really simple one to follow on our website.
Today’s challenge is
- Pick one social media channel and don’t look at it at all today
- How is your activity planning going? Can you progress with your one thing?
- Write down, how are you feeling as the week progresses?
- Don’t look at social media until lunchtime tomorrow.
Repeat leaving your phone off in another room or with the wifi off out of arms length in your room in case you need it for emergencies.
As you wake in the morning do your body scan.
Comment how you’re getting on and lean on each other for that #soundsocial support!
Day five of our #soundsocial challenge and we’ve got that Friday feeling! Don’t forget to tag us and use the hashtag #soundsocial if you’re following the challenge – let us know how you’re getting on :) The weekend is usually a time we most get sucked into social media. Posting our best lives, consuming what others are doing, comparing, sharing, down a rabbit hole of social feeds without really taking a moment to be. The week so far has been building habits, monitoring our social media use and giving ourselves time to do something we really want to get done.
The weekend ahead is about further building on this!
Some things to note: Write in your notebook how you’re feeling each day and make note of the time spent on social media/your phone daily using your time screentime app/setting.
Every morning just as you wake up – replace the reaching for the phone habit with a body scan exercise. We have a really simple one to follow on our website.
Day five of your challenge is:
- How did you get on with not looking at social media until lunchtime?
- Pick two social media channels and don’t look at it at all today
- How is your activity planning going?
- Write down, how are you feeling as the week progresses?
- What is your reward for progressing this far?
Repeat leaving your phone off in another room or with the wifi off out of arms length in your room in case you need it for emergencies.
As you wake in the morning do your body scan.
Make sure to reward yourself this evening for a week well spent. It’s not easy building these new habits so a big well done to you for following this challenge and giving yourself the gift of building a positive environment while creating more time for you.
It’s the weekend!! Day six and seven of our #soundsocial challenge. Don’t forget to tag us and use the hashtag #soundsocial if you’re following the challenge – let us know how you’re getting on :) We’ve been working hard all week to change our habits aound social media while gifting ourselves with time to do those things we keep putting off. Is this weekend the time you get to do them?
Some things to note: Write in your notebook how you’re feeling each day and make note of the time spent on social media/your phone daily using your time screentime app/setting.
Every morning just as you wake up – replace the reaching for the phone habit with a body scan exercise. We have a really simple one to follow on our website.
We’re saying social media off – social life on but don’t worry, we don’t mean don the dancing shoes and hit the club – nightmare for the introverts. We mean how can you bring some social into your #soundsocial challenge. If it’s a room that needs clearing, who can help? Is there anyone who could start that class with you? Any local clubs you can join to improve your hobby like cyling, running, knitting, flower arranging, bee keeping? what about any yoga or meditation groups? Or regular games on the astroturf you could join? Can you bring anyone into your activity who would help you keep consistent while having a great time?
The challenge for this weekend is:
- Do something fun, how’s that activity coming along?
- Pick your activity, see who can join you!
- Turn off your WiFi entirely for as long as you can.
- Document in your notebook how long it lasted.
- How do you feel?
- Don’t beat your self up if you check it, just do what you need to do and turn it off again – don’t waste time scrolling.
Repeat leaving your phone off in another room or with the wifi off out of arms length in your room in case you need it for emergencies.
As you wake in the morning do your body scan.
Congratulations for getting to the final day of our #soundsocial challenge. Don’t forget to tag us and use the hashtag #soundsocial if you’re following the challenge – let us know how you’re getting on :)
If you’re really feeling challenged you will log off for the day as soon as you’ve seen this of course what’s most important going forward is building on your habits. We fully believe social media is a fantastic tool but it’s up to you how you use it. We hope this week helped you get into a routine of checking in on yourself, before checking social and seeing how much time you can save on scrolling.
Let us know in the comments how much time you saved on scrolling this week!? Check your screentime on your phone to see what difference there is from the beginning of the week until now. Did you get to complete your one thing? How do you feel now you’ve cleaned up your feed and created more mental space?
Thanks for taking part. Please let us know how you got on and invite your friends to like A Lust for Life!
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