I have a secret love for Instagram. I barely have any followers nor do I follow many people, ergo the secret love, but I can go on there and scroll through the explore page for days. And it's so easy, it's so fun and, best of all, it's a perfect distraction from life's woes and stresses.

However, one cannot stay immersed in the world of Instagram during the semester, especially when finals are less than a month away (YIKES). But as a procrastinator, it can be hard to get to my school work when the comforting arms of Instagram are waiting for me. If you struggle with dragging yourself away from Instagram too, here are some tips and tricks I (try) to incorporate into my life to curb my Instagram usage.

1. Check out the activity reminder

Instagram has a wonderful setting that allows you to monitor your usage as well as set reminders for yourself to avoid those moments where you only want to spend 5 minutes scrolling but then an hour goes by. I currently have my reminder set to 35 minutes and, so far, it's working really well for me. The only downside to this curtailed usage is I'm forced to find another way to deal with stress. You never know how much you depend on social media for stress reduction until you stop using it (but that's another article in itself).

2. Turn off those notifications

If I clicked on Instagram every time a notification popped up on my phone, I'd literally be on it ALL the time. To avoid this temptation entirely, I turn off the notifications. It's easy for me to do this because I don't message anyone on Instagram but if you do, perhaps let people know that you wouldn't be checking Instagram regularly for a bit. Sometimes I do this with my phone too and it's quite relaxing, just to have some peace and quiet all to yourself without having to worry about getting back to someone.

3. Try checking out stories instead of posts

It's easy to keep scrolling through an explore page but at least with stories, there's an end to them after a while. Sometimes when I just need a quick social break, I do a few taps through people's stories and I'm good to go again. Also, I find stories take a little longer to get through if you follow people who put a bunch of stuff in them so after a while, I get bored or focus on what they are saying enough to forget why I needed my life break in the first place.