I haven’t been on social media in six months. Here’s why.

Before you think I’m a hypocrite, hear me out…

I found myself scrolling through Instagram for the third time, and it wasn’t even noon yet on a Saturday.

My feed was full of copywriting tips, the latest Taylor Swift-spiracy, and, of course, puppies.  

Then, the infamous screen time limit notification popped up. Has it really been an hour?

I clicked the “give me one more minute” button and soaked in my last 60 seconds of hypnosis.

For the rest of the day, my hands fumbled for my phone, my mind forgetting that my screen time limit was up (thankfully, I asked my husband to set the passcode so I couldn’t bypass the limit).

On that day, I realized: I had a real addiction to social media, and limiting myself to sixty minutes each day wasn’t going to squash it.

It was a difficult realization to come to, because as a copywriter, I felt I needed to set the highest standard for what it looks like to show up on every platform.

But the algorithms were carrying me away.

Before you draw conclusions, let me be clear: It’s not that I think being active on social media is a bad thing. I did apply what I observed on social media in my own marketing. I incorporated trending audio. I took note of the carousels other entrepreneurs used; how they blended snippets of their personal lives with what they offered as business owners; how they showed up authentically each day in their stories.

I’m saying it’s important to look at the ROI.

Because numbers don’t lie, and here’s the truth for me: only a handful of leads per quarter came in through Instagram. And when I weigh the time I spent on social media against the business I earned from it, the numbers didn’t make sense.

In other words, I was lying to myself.

Heavily posting and engaging with others on Instagram was not good marketing for me. It was a distraction masked as marketing.

So I deleted the app from my phone. I gave my team the social media keys, and let them take on a lot of the heavy lifting. It’s not a priority for me right now, not because I’m lazy, but because I’m diligent about maximizing my time.  

I hope, if you’re active on social media, this doesn’t feel like a shot fired, but rather a letter of encouragement. If you’ve felt an urge to take a break, do it. If you feel your business would suffer if you stopped posting, delegate the crap out of it, and spend your time on other cash-generating aspects of your business.  

Because if we can make more time, we can make more money.

Just my two cents.

As always, happy Friday, and here’s to a scroll-less weekend.