“Only five minutes,” you think to yourself as you tap on the purple-to-orange ombre app, the black hole, the neverending stream of distractions: Instagram. But more often than not, the “five” minutes become a lot more than that.

At the beginning of the school year, I spent hours on Instagram, mindlessly scrolling through my feed or talking to my online friends from my meme account. Life was pretty good. However, I couldn’t exactly say that about my grades or my work ethic at the time. My phone was always open on Instagram, and I would get distracted by messages or posts even when I turned on my phone to do something related to school.

Once, I tried to force myself to spend half of my day on a weekend without opening up Instagram and I barely met my goal, even though I bent the rules in all possible directions. At that point, I realized that my “happy place” was becoming increasingly dangerous. Fueled by annoyance and disappointment at myself, I decided to delete Instagram so I could focus on my academics.

It was tough in the beginning, and I would find myself always trying to press the place on my phone where my Instagram app had been. Sometimes, I even felt lonely because my friends in real life, who had a much better work ethic and kept their phones away while working, took forever to reply to texts. This was quite a contrast from my interactions via Instagram because there were many people I could talk to, and at least one of them would be online at the same time I was.

But after more than three weeks without the app, I notice my grades gradually improving, my sleep schedule getting healthier, and my eyes hurting a lot less. I know I definitely want Instagram back in my life when I reach my academic goals, but I can promise myself that this time, I’m going to be more careful with how attached I get to the app.

If you realize that you’re not where you want to be in life, maybe you should try to figure out the possible causes and eliminate distractions to better achieve your goals. I can promise you that your future self will thank you for doing it.