As if college isn't already stressful enough, midterms make it twice as bad. Having multiple tests a week, or day, can really take a lot out of you.

As midterms were approaching, I decided to do something I'd never done but read quite a lot about. I deleted my social media (for the most part.)

I didn't deactivate my accounts or anything extreme like that, but I did simply delete the apps from my phone. I figured that anything I could access from my laptop didn't need to be on my phone. So goodbye Facebook and Instagram apps.

It was kind of weird, not having those apps for quick access to fulfill my downtime. However, after a while, it was quite relaxing. No more constant, pointless notifications that took more time to load than check. No more scrolling through social media posts in class when the topics were boring. No more distractions.

It was more work trying to constantly log in on safari than it was worth, so I very rarely even browsed while on my phone. I didn't give it up completely but limited myself instead. Since it was super easy to do on my laptop, I got my daily feed from there. However, I rarely did this regularly beforehand, so it oftentimes slipped my mind.

Giving up these apps provided me with more downtime to do other things. And by other things, I mean studying. Midterms are absolutely awful, but this made it a little better. Instead of browsing while I was eating lunch, I filled that time reading my textbooks or studying for my next test. Instead of scrolling through before work, I spent that time doing homework or practicing my problems.

While sometimes it can be annoying, not knowing what's going on out there in the social world, I've found it very relaxing. It's helped my self-esteem and calmed my nerves not knowing what a million other people were up to that day.

I got all my social info with Snapchat, and when I ran out of stories to watch, I knew that it was time to focus. Deleting these apps freed me without making the full commitment to completely go unplugged. Logging off is like taking a little social break, something that as an introvert I very much enjoy.

This also made me very conscious of how much time I actually spend on my phone instead of doing other things. While this was a temporary solution in order to shift my focus more towards school, it might lead to a permanent lifestyle in order to promote more productivity in this procrastinator's life. I thought at first that I would hate being this socially distant, but as it turns out, I absolutely love it. It is definitely well worth a try, especially during finals!