Rather than scrolling

spending your time to have more meaningful outcomes

home sweet home <3

I saw this instagram post that said if you spend 2 hours on your phone a day, that’s 60 hours per month. Which is equivalent to reading 13 books, cooking 60 meals, and walking 160 miles. Imagine all the learning and life that could take place in 60 hours per month. It’s pretty mind-blowing, honestly. Learning how to draw, paint, write, speak a new language, pick up a new instrument. Or, read books on books, find a groove with exercising, meditating. The possibilities are pretty endless if you have 60 hours a month to dedicate to life outside of social media. And the other thing is — If you spent 2 hours a day learning or practicing something, you’d get really good. Like really, really good. In 6 months, you’d be so surprised at your progress. Even 3 months of progress would be so inspiring!

Heck, you could even pick two things. (Or more! but for argument sake, lets say two.) And dedicate an hour a day to two new skills, hobbies, studies, etc. And at the end of the month, you would have 30 hours under your belt for each one. And that’s two hours of your day — It doesn’t mean you have to throw your phone out the window. There’s still so much time to have a scroll session, but it probably won’t leave you feeling as bleak or empty after you’ve invested in yourself, your life.

Breaking it down like that is just such a good illustration of how valuable our time is. How valuable our life is. That’s why these social media platforms are created to be so addicting, because your time spent on their app is pure profit for them. Think about that — They are after your time. And we (myself, super included) gladly give up our time. In exchange for what? Maybe one or two good jolts of inspiration, at best? We exchange our time without even thinking about the value of it, without thinking what we’re giving up. We’re giving up our living hours.

from a walk — sweet tennessee

I want to start a new series in Life, Deliberately (Starting now! This is the first edition of that new series — Surprise!) that highlights and recommends resources, activities, online courses, good books, etc. that are inspiring and things you can invest your time into to have more meaningful outcomes rather than scrolling on social media. Maybe it’ll be called rather than scrolling, or something of that sort. (Actually, that’s probably what it will be called.)

And if you have any suggestions that you’d like to share, or even progress that you’ve made with your new hobby, skill, etc. comment what you’ve been doing and how your journey has been! Maybe you can connect with someone who is learning the same language, skill, or reading the same book and you can help each other along. Because friends make everything better. Facts.

I have a few recommendations off the top of my head, so consider this the first edition of the Rather Than Scrolling series <3 I also have a non-comprehensive list on my phone that I’ve been creating and I’ll add a screenshot of that in here too.

- Learning to art -

• A slightly over 2 year curriculum for learning to draw — A drawing curriculum built for the self-taught artist looking for structure and direction

• Draw-a-box — A free drawing curriculum that teaches drawing through exercises and really focuses on fundamentals

• Evolve artist — A modern approach to art education. I have personally seen amazing outcomes from this.

- Learning a language -

• Pimsleur — I’m sure there are tons of amazing language resources out there. This is my favorite that I’ve ever come across. It’s super fun, and you really do pick up the language incredibly fast with the Pimsleur method.

- Podcasts -

• The Bible Project — My absolute favorite. I’ve learned so much from Tim Mackie. Not only does the Bible Project have an amazing podcast, they have great classes too. An all around A+ resource for all things Bible, for the Bible nerds.

• We can Do Hard Things with Glenn Doyle — A super healing podcast about facing life’s everyday hard things.

- Good Reads -

• A creative person’s guide to feeling healthy

• On how to be a creative person with a job

• 21 questions to ask about your life on the internet — This would be a really good journal prompt too!

Do you have a Rather Than Scrolling recommendation? Feel free to comment & I’ll add it to next months edition! Or click here & drop your suggestion here. Using this link, I also ask to share your experience with the resource and how it’s impacted you. I may share your answer in my next Rather Than Scrolling post to encourage & inspire others!

I hope this was nourishing, even just a little bit, for you. I’ll be on the hunt for more good recommendations this month and release them at the beginning of every month.

See you later this week!

— Jak