A few weeks ago a man came to my house to see my Mom. I was outside writing a post. After conversing for some time with her, when he was leaving, he came outside and saw me still operating my phone. I didn't know he was concerned about it, "The way you spend so much time on the screen like this, I hope it's not going to affect your eyes before old age," He asked.
I was surprised, I looked at him and laughed. He then started telling me how his son doesn't sleep at night and operates his phone throughout.
I understand his grievances, but not everyone uses their devices without moderation. Just because you saw me operating my phone for hours doesn't mean I don't know my limits.
You won't even blame some people for killing themselves on these things. These days, almost everything is digital, and the government has failed us when it comes to jobs. Business, on the other hand, demands a lot of capital, not everyone can manage it. But you see online, you can make your money effortlessly with little or no capital at all.
It's not as if most people want to give all their time to their phones and personal computers (PCs) but some of them don't have any other option.
For someone like me, I spend almost all my day on the screen. There are days I wake up in the morning and start attending to the work I have online until night. However, I take breaks in between in order to avoid breaking down.
Excessive exposure of the eyes to light from the phone has a very big side effect, which I know and I am being very careful with how much I stay on it. However, sometimes I break the rules to meet certain demands.
My phone is my office, ideally, I am supposed to spend time on it, it's where I earn from, if I quit or become lazy in the name of running from its effects I'll definitely run broke.
There is no job on earth that doesn't affect our bodies, these bodies are like machines, when they are been used over time, they gradually wear out, though if we are careful enough to maintain them, we may be able to extend their life span but it doesn't mean they won't be affected at all.
That part of the body that gets used for the job often has the tendency to wear away gradually because there is nothing to replace it with. meanwhile, I am not saying we should be careless with our bodies because they are sure to break down, that's foolish.
There is always a wise way of doing things, some people don't pity their bodies at all, God himself who created the heavens and the earth rested, but some individuals don't know the word "rest," their bus stop is when they fall sick and that's very bad. we work for this very body, if we use work to kill it, what are we going to give the money to?
We have to know that we can never have enough of what we are chasing in life, so rest for some moment when you hit a certain milestone and continue again. No one will beat you but don't rest the kind of rest that will put you into trouble. That's why they say "There's time for everything." Rest, when you hit your target for the day.
My Tips On How To Manage Screen Time
1 . Know Your Limit: a lot of people don't just know when to stop and say I am not going any further until I give myself some rest. It is not a lie, we are in a busy world, and we have many tasks than the time we have but that doesn't mean we should kill ourselves.
Our bodies have signals they display when they reach limits, don't ignore them if you want to live long. If you are working and your head starts to ach for instance, I'll advise you to save your work then go get some rest and return later.
2 . Plan Your Activities: if you have time allocated to each activity you do online, you will discover that you have enough time to rest. Most times I write at night, during the day, especially morning, I rest, and I give myself some sweet sleep.
You know yourself and your schedule, go for the time that will be convenient for you. There are days you may be tempted to touch your device even when you are supposed to rest, especially when you have not finished up the task you have on the ground.
For such situations, if it's not urgent rest, and if it's urgent still rest then set an alarm to help you wake up. Our bodies are not machines, they need rest too.
3 . Fix A Free Day For Yourself: working online can be so tricky, but being able to work at your own convenience makes it very easy for people to work throughout the week without getting some days off to allow their bodies to recover.
Set a day when you take at least a 12-hour break from your device, just shut everything down for that period, use the time for yourself, and if possible sleep, if you can't, spend it with your family. When that time is over then you resume work, you won't die for taking twelve hours for yourself.
It is not easy to break screen addiction, and the truth is we can't even cut away from it but we can learn how to use it with balance so that other areas of our lives won't suffer harm.
