A few months back, I applied a simple hack that got me an extra 2 hours each day.

It’s so simple, it only took 5 seconds to do it.

I’m not messing with you. It’s true. 100% guaranteed.

And you only have to do it once.

Ready to know the secret? Here it is:

I deleted all social media apps from my phone.

I know what you’re thinking, “That’s crazy! Why the hell would I want to do that? How will I know what’s happening around me? I’ll miss out on a lot of stuff.”

Before I answer that question, let’s take a look at the following stats:

According to a study conducted by We Are Social, Filipinos spend an average of 4 hours a day on social media, mainly on Facebook.

Four hours a day. Almost half a day’s work.

Let that sink in for a bit. Let’s say you work from home and earn an average of Php1,000 for 8 hours of work.

How much will you earn if you have an extra 4 hours of work?

That’s right. Php 1,500. Which means that if your monthly pay averages at Php 20,000, your new monthly total will be—drumroll please—Php 30,000.

What can you do with an extra Php 10,000? A lot.

It could mean savings for your kid’s education. Stash for emergencies. Capital for that side business you’ve been dreaming of. Funding for travels to your dream destinations. Monthly payments for a car.

An extra Php 10,000 a month can be a life-changer for most of us.

And that’s if you’re “only” making Php 1000 a day. I know that a good number of people reading this are fortunate enough to earn more than that. For a person earning Php2k a day, that’s an easy Php 20,000 bonus per month.

Also Read: How to become a Virtual Assistant No Experience Required

In my case, I found out that I was spending roughly 2 hours on social media every day. How did I know? I tracked my usage. Geeky, right? But you’ll be surprised to know that I’m not alone.

Millions of people use apps that track and block your social media usage so you can focus and get back to work.

Why do they do this? Because social media distraction is Real. Let me ask you:

Do you reach for your phone during commercials? When waiting in line, do you scroll through your Facebook feed? When waiting for your food, you whip out your phone and check Instagram, right?

The first time I realized how social media is changing our behavior was during lunch breaks at work. A few years ago, we used to talk directly to each other and share stories while munching on food. Fast forward to today, I found myself staring at my friends while they were staring at their phones in between bites. Sad.

But I don’t blame them, really. Smartphone use has crept slowly into our daily lives and ate up hours of our day without us knowing it. And more importantly, it took out moments of personal interaction with the people we hold dear.

“My Phone is my Bestfriend”

A study conducted by Motorola revealed that half of its respondents confessed that “their phone it their best friend.” The level of addiction to smartphones and social media among Millennials is so deep that they actually prefer their phones over a real person.

Now that’s scary.

This moment of clarity urged me to step-back and see the situation as an spectator. All of a sudden, I noticed that social media was eating up my time way more than I thought.

I realized that I never seem to be doing only one thing at a time. I’m watching TV and scrolling through my News Feed at the same time. I’m feeding my son while checking out nasty comments in YouTube. At the end of the day, it felt as if I accomplished nothing. I felt tired and bored at the same time. It was a weird feeling. I started to investigate.

Upon realizing that my smartphone habits were the problem, I forced myself to focus on whatever I’m doing and give it my full attention. I kept my phone away. Literally. I didn’t connect it to WiFi.

At first, it was hard. I kept brushing off the itch of looking at my phone. TV commercials seemed to run forever. I cursed when I was waiting in line. I was constantly anxious thinking about stuff I’m missing out on my group chats.

It took tremendous effort not to pull out my phone while making PlayDoh burgers with my kid. Like a drug addict needing his fix, I was restless. Still, I soldiered on. I didn’t want to end up having my phone as my best friend.

After a difficult week of fighting off my old habits, however, I noticed something. NBA games were exciting again. I was making up commentaries in my head why Lebron and the Cavs will not make it in this year’s finals.

I was back to analyzing each team’s play and predicting who will win based on third-quarter stats. Sure, I’m not always right. But that’s not the point. For the first time in months, I was able to focus again.

As my smartphone usage waned, I noticed I suddenly have some “extra” time to do other stuff that’s not related to work or chores. I can read more again. I laugh out loud when my son shows me his weird lego masterpiece instead of get annoyed.

Another week passed by. I felt that I was not using my phone that much. To prove to myself that I was making progress, I decided to commit to the next step: Delete Facebook from my phone.

I was expecting some sort of withdrawal from this test. Surprisingly though, I was coping better than I thought. The initial strategy of lessening smartphone use paid off and pretty soon I also uninstalled Messenger.

So how do I check Facebook? Simple—from my laptop. I never said that I was never going to use Facebook again, did I? I just deleted it from my phone since that’s where the pull of social media is at its strongest. Those quick glances on your phone’s screen to check your feed quickly add up within the day.

So what did I do with the “extra” time? Like a true freelancer, I allocated it for work. And those extra 2 hours translated to additional earnings that never would have materialized if I hadn’t made the adjustment.

Working from home is not easy. Distractions are all around. But there are ways to combat this, and based from my experience, deleting social media apps from my phone was one of the best decisions I made.