Managing your Digital Wellness through a “Screen Time Buddy”

Have you ever procrastinated on work & studies?

I’m sure a lot of you must be saying yes. This is a common human struggle.

Now, what if you had a study group or a team member was checking on your work regularly.

I’m sure a lot of you were successful in completing your studies, assignments & work in this case.

Wait… this sounds like a good technique…but you must be thinking what has this got to do with Digital Wellness & Screen time?

The answer is Accountability Partner. It helps us make sure we get work done as someone is keeping us accountable for it.

In the context of screen time, we can set a goal for our Digital Technologies & ask someone to keep us accountable for it.  For e.g, I want to reduce time on Instagram by 1 hour till the end of this month OR I want to watch 30 mins learning Educational content (Topic of my interest) on YouTube.  After setting this goal, you can ask your friend to check in on you every week to see the progress you’re making.

Moreover, there are Digital Wellness Apps like Focusmate where you can find someone anonymous to keep you accountable. Focusmate changes the way you work by connecting you to other professionals who have committed to being accountable for finishing their most important work. You choose a time to work, and Focusmate pairs you with an accountability partner for a live, virtual coworking session that will keep you on task. In their most recent internal survey, 95.5% of users reported a significant increase in productivity, and reduced procrastination.

I’ve personally used this ‘Accountability Partner’ technique with my close friend & both of us had decent success with it. Every week we would send screenshot of our screen time & decide our targets. For e.g, My friend wanted to reduce his Instagram time & I wanted to reduce my WhatsApp time by the end of 6 weeks.

Both of us had a decent success with this technique & were happy with our new found Digital Wellness (alongside catching up every week & building our bond). 

The impact of this technique is well summarized by Bob Proctor: “Accountability: The Glue that ties commitment to results”

Do you have a screen time buddy in mind? If yes, reach out & start this practice.

If not, I’m happy to be your ‘Screen time’ buddy/Accountability Partner & help you on your Digital Wellness journey so that you can thrive in the Digital World. Feel free to reach out :) !

-Rijul Arora