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Diana Rene: 0:06

You're listening to The Decluttered Mom podcast, a podcast built specifically for busy moms by a busy mom. I'm your host, Diana Rene, and in 2017, I had my second daughter and it felt like I was literally drowning in my home okay, not literally, but I felt like I couldn't breathe with all of the stuff surrounding me. Over the next 10 months, I got rid of approximately 70% of our household belongings and I have never looked back. I kind of feel like I hacked the mom system and I'm here to share all the tips, tricks and encouragement. Let's listen to today's show.

Diana Rene: 0:50

This episode is going to be even shorter than most of my short episodes, but it's because I just want to tell you about a specific app that I have been using lately that has drastically reduced my compulsion to pull up social media when I'm on my phone. I don't know if it's just me. I am 100% sure, actually, it's not just me, but how many times are you maybe scrolling on Instagram and then you finally are done. You kind of get bored, and so you tap out of it and you open TikTok, and then you're on that for a few minutes and you scroll out and then tap out because you're kind of bored, and then you open Facebook and then you close that and then you open Reddit and like you know what I mean Like there's this like constant. It's almost like an instinctual need to just keep consuming information, looking for that next dopamine hit, whatever it may be. So I have tried so many things and there are a lot of things and I have a prior episode about this that I do to reduce my screen time when I feel like it's kind of like grabbing onto me and I know I've said this before, but because I run my business mostly from my phone, I think that I get like even more hooked into this because I will get on Instagram to post a reel or to reply to DMs for my business, and then I am in that mode already of like of needing those like tiny hits of dopamine and so I just keep going, even if I'm done working Right.

Diana Rene: 2:22

So there are lots of things that I have done that have helped me reduce that need or reduce the time spent on my phone, but I still struggle with that pull of just automatically opening apps when I do grab my phone. So all of the tips that I provided before will help you not pick up your phone in the first place. But if you are picking up your phone and then you're still finding yourself just like automatically opening up these different apps, then I found an app. I know that feels counterintuitive, right, but I found an app that really is helping me with this. I know of other people that it has helped them also, so I wanted to share it with you. So I have tried like screen time limits and things like that, where you kind of like technically lock yourself out of an app that you can set up on your iPhone. But for me, like, all I would have to do is click like the override button and I would just do that, and it just became like a habit for me to open the app, see that thing come up and just click it or type in the passcode and be done and move into the app, right.

Diana Rene: 3:27

So this app is called OneSec, so the number one think about that. I wanted to say letter, the number one, and then sec, s-e-c as in like second. So OneSec and this app. It does cost money, but I think it's like less than $2 a month, so it's an inexpensive app compared to many apps out there. What it does is that you have to set it up when you first start. So you do download the app, you add it to your purchases in the app store. Download the app, you add it to your purchases in the app store and then they give you like a, basically instruction sheet for how to install it for the apps that you're wanting to use it on, which I appreciate, because it doesn't like automatically do every single app in your phone. It's the ones that you constantly struggle with. So for me, I added Instagram, I added TikTok, I added Facebook and I added Facebook Messenger. Those are the ones that I tend to tap into when I'm just mindlessly on my phone. So what was nice is that it also allowed the option to email yourself the instructions, so that way you could pull them up on a computer and not have to go back and forth all the time, which my ADHD brain appreciated. So I was able to pull up the instructions on a computer and not have to like go back and forth all the time, which my ADHD brain appreciated. So I was able to pull up the instructions on my computer. I was able to figure it out how to install it for those apps pretty quickly. I think it maybe took me 10 minutes total to do all four of the apps and have them all set up.

Diana Rene: 4:59

So what it does is, every time you go to open one of the apps let's say it's Instagram, for example you click on Instagram and this screen will pop up and it will say let's take a deep breath. And then it has this like wave that goes all the way to the top of the screen and then slowly all the way to the bottom. So I really like that because it's just kind of a reminder to like. It makes you pause. It makes you pause and it makes you think about what you're doing instead of just mindlessly tapping into the app, right? So I believe that you can actually change whatever it's going to say instead of saying like it's time to take a breath or whatever. I'm pretty sure you can put in your own custom saying or reminder there, but I really like the take a breath one, so I left it.

Diana Rene: 5:52

The other thing is that you can change the duration of it. So I think the the auto setting is like three seconds or something, but you can do it like up to a minute. You can also have it set so that, like the first time you try to log in during the day it does three seconds and then every time you try to log in throughout the day it slowly adds more time. So if you're like checking it constantly, it's like okay, forcing you to take an even longer pause. So I have that set up on mine also because I appreciate that again, because the more I try to log into something, the more I feel like I need that reminder.

Diana Rene: 6:32

So once this pause happens, the breath then it has like two options no, I don't want to open the app, or yes, I do want to open the app. So if you hit yes, I want to open the app, then you can also put in an intention box. So an intention box pops up and it says what is your intention with this session essentially, and then, like the little box that you type in your answer, it says like let's be honest here. And so again, it's just obviously you can like override it, you can click something, you can lie, but it's forcing you to pause for a minute and be like okay, am I just mindlessly going in here, or do I have to grab a recipe that I saved yesterday or whatever it might be. It just again gives you that pause. There's another thing you can set up on there where it like gives you healthy options. So it's like go for a walk, stretch, read a book, open this other healthy app, so like your audible account or podcast or something like that, where it's just another option of maybe something that you deem a little bit more healthy for you to spend your time.

Diana Rene: 7:46

So, um, this app isn't magical, it's not going to like completely break your screen addiction if you have one but I think that it's just a really neat tool that forces you to slow down, forces you to pause, and for me, it's annoying, but in a good way, right, like anytime I click on Instagram or anytime I click on TikTok and the thing pops up. I'm like, oh, that's so annoying, I don't want to wait. And so then I won't, I won't wait, I'll click out of it, cause I'm like, okay, this is dumb, because I don't want to wait for this thing to like make me take a breath. But then I also know that I'm going to probably go on here and waste time and not feel great about it, and so it's really forced me to just put my phone down more and do the things that I want to be doing that I know are good for me instead of just mindlessly scrolling. I hope this is helpful. I hope this app can help someone else out there, too, as much as it's helped me.

Diana Rene: 8:51

Ps. This is not sponsored. I am not an affiliate. The creators of this app have no idea who I am. This is just a really useful app that I really love and I wanted to share with you, so I just wanted to make it clear that I am not getting paid or anything for recommending this app. Thanks for hanging out and listening to The Decluttered Mom podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, it would mean the world if you could write a review or share this episode with a friend or your Instagram stories, and if you're on Instagram, be sure to follow me at thedeclutteredmom and send me a DM to say hi. I'd love to hear what you thought about today's episode. I hope you'll come back next week and hang out with us again.