As if staying off Instagram wasn’t hard enough before! The mobile app giant has introduced a new feature which means your friends and followers can see when you were last online. Now, anyone who messages you directly can see how many minutes or hours it has been since you last opened the app.
Users will experience the same sense of urgency which comes from conversation on the likes of Facebook and WhatsApp- making it much harder to ignore messages while you’ve lots of work to get through. Dangerous!
The new feature began to appear on both Android and iOS phones in late 2017 and is expected to be in place on all smartphones soon. Instagram updated everyone’s profile automatically but failed to provide any instructions on how to switch it off.
In order to turn off their activity status, users must tap on their profile page and click on ‘Options’ (triple dot icon) on the top right-hand side. From there, click into settings to find a toggle bar for ‘Show Activity Status’. Once turned off, your online status will be private but you won’t be able to see when friends last opened the app either.
If you’re an Insta addict, try these tips to keep you focused on work.
- Log out of social media on your web browser
When you’re working on something online, it’s possible to open a new tab and have your Facebook newsfeed open in a matter of seconds. This can become a bad habit, and take up a huge amount of accumulated time every day. If it takes an extra few seconds to log in to social media sites on your work computer, it gives you time to question if it’s really necessary.
2. Block social media channels on your web browser
If you’ve already logged out, but don’t have the will power to stop filling out details, there are websites that can help you kick the habit! Apps such as freedom and self-control block access to certain websites from your browser, completely removing the temptation!
3. Use social media as a reward for completing tasks
Planning when you’ll log on to social media is an effective way to limit time spent on it during the work day. Instead of opening the Twitter app five times throughout a three hour project, promising yourself the opportunity only to check it afterward is an effective prevention from subconsciously watching 20 minutes of cat videos
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4. Limit which social media sites you use
Is there really any need for having Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, LinkedIn and more? Limiting your sites to only ones you need for work or to stay connected removes the excess content that takes up precious work time!
5. Turn off notifications
Whether it’s the WhatsApp group that’s never quiet or the Instagram post about to hit 100 likes, is there any reason why you need to know right that minute? Turning off notifications will help you really concentrate on your work- and your co-workers will thank you for getting rid of the distraction.
6. Delete the apps
Turning off notifications only made you more inclined to go looking? Maybe deleting social media apps from your phone will work better for you.
7. Turn off your phone
Maybe a little drastic in case someone needs to contact you during the work day. But when it comes to weaning yourself off, this is certainly one way to break the habit!
8. Distract yourself with something more productive
We all hit those points during the workday when your eyes blur and there’s no way you can read another sentence- let alone another article or report. People often use social media at these stages in order to destress and let their mind off the heavy workload, however if these intervals were replaced instead with a brief walk around the office or a chat with a co-worker, they’re less likely to turn into 30 minutes of catching up with the Kardashians on Twitter!
9. Buy an alarm clock
Many of us kick start our days being woken up by our phone alarms. Then wake ourselves up by shining the artificial light in our faces and using apps. As a result, the first and last thing that we’re doing every day involves our phones, making it harder to unwind and break the work day habit. A good old fashioned alarm clock does the job just as well, except the ring tones may not be as good!
