Now that I've been more active on social media platforms such as Threads and X to help Hulry reach more people, I've noticed a change in my behaviour:

I might open these apps to browse, reply to comments and participate in other conversations for 5–10 minutes, but I spend way more time — the classic social media trap.

So, to limit my time on social media, I'm trying out a couple of automation on my phone.

The first one is setting a timer when I open one of the social media apps on my phone.

Here's how it works:

When I open apps like Threads, Instagram or X, the Shortcuts app on my phone automatically brings up a popup menu on the screen asking for the time I intend to spend on the app:

Once I select a time, it sets a timer for me like this:

If I'm still on the app past my set time, the timer alerts me that it's time to close the app.

On the other hand, the timer gets cancelled automatically if I close the app before the set time has elapsed.

A minor change, but over the last few days, this tiny automation has been helping me not spend 30 minutes scrolling on social media when I really wanted was to dive in for a quick 10 minutes to reply to some comments on my posts.

This automation also comes in handy when taking short social media breaks from work. The timer ensures it's a short break and not 40 minutes of doomscrolling.

If you're trying to curb your social media usage time, try this technique; it can help.

I explore more such shortcuts, automation and workflows and share them along with steps to recreate or download links with Hulry Plus members on a private Discord community:

If you haven't joined yet, become a member to access these discussions and read a growing collection of member-only series, blog posts and summaries.

Now, speaking of saving time, have you checked Shortform yet?

Before you move on to the rest of this newsletter issue, here are a few words from: