The ONE tool you need to stop wasting time on Facebook

We need to talk about Facebook. You can’t deny that genius as it is Facebook is THE best way ever invented to waste time. Hours and hours and hours of it. Days and days.

In 2016 Facebook’s own stats revealed that on average we spend nearly an hour a day on Facebook. That’s a whole working day PER WEEK!

I hate to think of the hours of my life I’ve lost to mindlessly scrolling through the Facebook news feed.

But not any more.

The tyranny of the Facebook newsfeed

Think of everything else you could be doing with an extra working day a week!? Including spending more time paying attention to your kids instead of Face-stalking people you went to school with 20 years ago!

But, it took more than the knowledge that I was wasting precious time to persuade me to break the habit.

At the end of last year – the annus horriblis that saw the Brexit vote and the Trump victory – I went into Facebook crisis. Faced with the daily outpouring of political rhetoric, and pointless pontificating I realised I urgently needed to take a hiatus.

I kept getting embroiled in pointless discussions with people who already agreed with me. Or worse, working myself up into a lather arguing with people whose viewpoint was so the polar opposite of mine we would never see eye-to-eye.

I’d pop into Facebook to post in a group and half-an-hour later still be there trying to draft the perfect response to someone’s latest attention-seeking political statement. Which I’d end up deleting when I realised it wasn’t worth arguing.

Not only that but the constant barrage of ads from online entrepreneur types flogging their ‘must-watch’ webinar or ‘six-figure launch’ formulas was doing my head in.

Not only was the world full of doom and gloom, but I was constantly being told that without someone’s secret formula I wouldn’t get the success they had. Success I didn’t even want!

So I decided to bail out.

The end to time-wasting on Facebook

I needed to ESCAPE. But I didn’t want to opt out of Facebook completely. I still wanted, and needed, to use it connect in groups linked to online courses I’ve invested in. Not to mention managing my own Facebook pages and group.

Thankfully I had the Pages app on my Iphone, and until recently the Groups app too. So I  took drastic action and deleted the main Facebook app on my phone.

That took care of the temptation to browse FB while watching telly, or out and about. But what about my laptop and desktop computers?

Thankfully I discovered the Facebook News Feed Eradicator! It is the ONE tool you need to stop wasting time on Facebook, once and for all.

This piece of genius, in the form of a Google Chrome extension, has revolutionised my life. It’s given me back my ability to concentrate, my peace of mind and ultimately, my self-respect.

This is what my Facebook news feed page looks like now:

No more distracting rants, memes or links to controversial articles about how the Trump victory signals the end of the world as we know it. It probably does, but I don’t need to be constantly reminded of that fact.

But I can still check my notifications, manage my pages and get involved in the groups I want to be in.

So step by step here’s what to do to get back in control, but not close the door on Facebook completely:

1 | Delete the Facebook app from your phone

Be ruthless. This was tough to do, but I haven’t looked back. OK, I did briefly when I thought I needed the IOS app to do Facebook live broadcasts. But fortunately I discovered I can do those from my desktop.

This is the first step to reducing Facebook’s vice like grip on your attention. It’s all too easy to click on the app any time you feel bored.

(If this is too extreme for you, the next best step is to unfollow everyone and I mean EVERYONE – groups, pages, people – you don’t really need or want to hear from. That way your newsfeed will only have news from your nearest and dearest and a select couple of online mentors.)

2 | Turn off ALL notifications.

Even with the News Feed Eradicator you’ll see see notifications. You don’t want to be distracted by notifications from every Facebook page and group you’ve ever joined. So turn the bloody things off.

You should choose when you want to interact with people, groups and pages, not the other way around.

Click on Notifications in the your home page and click on Settings. From there you can turn off all notications except those from your own pages or groups.

3 | Download Google Chrome

If you don’t use Chrome already (why not?), you need to download it. You can’t eradicate your news feed without it.

4 | Download the Facebook News Feed Eradicator browser extension.

Click here to get the Facebook News Feed Eradicator extension and add it to your browser. And just like that, the ten circles of distraction that is the Facebook news feed will disappear and be replaced by an inspiring motivational quote.

5 | Enjoy a more productive, peaceful life!

I’m not going to pretend that doing all of this isn’t challenging. I can remember a time when I couldn’t imagine not fully participating in Facebook.

But I knew I would be better off without it. That I wouldn’t miss out on anything truly important. Still, I approached it with a ‘never say never’ approach.

I told myself that if I REALLY missed the news feed I could always uninstall the extension. But nearly a year later, I haven’t even considered it.

I do occasionally use the Safari browser on my phone to look at the news feed, but I’ve made sure my phone asks for my password every time. This means I have to stop and think before I mindlessly scroll.

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So, have I convinced you to eradicate the Facebook news feed? What do you do to avoid wasting time on social media?

Got a question? Leave a comment, let’s chat!