How to stop wasting time on Youtube and Facebook without deactivating accounts

Recently I have been reading a lot of books about self improvement and how to use time more effectively. This made me think about what I spent (or rather waste) my time on during a normal workday and like many others, I do spend too much time on Facebook and Youtube. I have noticed that Youtube especially has found ways to keep me longer on the platform by suggesting videos that do not contribute to my life at all but are entertaining to watch. Facebook has these things too but my main issue with this platform is the way Facebook pushes politics and opinions on the public. Both of these platforms have also been steadily increasing the amount of ads and force fed information to a point where I'm watching more ads and "sponsored content" than the content I came to see. Because these platforms are on your phone and on your computer, we pretty much have them at our fingertips all day, making it very easy to get tempted into visiting the websites just for a quick update.

Because I've been trying to map out where my time in my day goes, I found that Youtube and Facebook takes up sometimes two hours per day. Per week that's 14 hours and if I'd keep that up for a year, I would've wasted about 15-30 full days on these platforms per year. In order to remedy this, I looked at what I could do to keep the platforms accessible (I like the Facebook messenger and marketplace and I need to use Youtube for tutorials on software, ...) but not as time wasting. I think I found the perfect (free!) solution.

The changes I made to my social media experience:

• Facebook: I unsubscribed to all my friends, groups and liked pages, which gets rid of notifications but keeps everyone/everything still accessible when you need it. I installed News Feed Eradicator which creates an overlay over your News Feed, blanking out that screen all together.
• Youtube: I installed HideRec, which lets you blank out certain features (Recommendations, Home Ads, Video Wall at the end of a Video, ...) of Youtube depending on your needs so you won't be tempted in watching that next suggested video. The extension allows for quick adjustments through a menu in your browser. I also removed the Youtube app from my phone, reducing the amount that I use my phone for entertainment drastically.
• My Google Chrome browser also uses the famous AdBlock, which removes all but the most persistent ads from websites, making them way more easy and efficient to use. Adblock does have a whitelist-feature to allow websites that you particularly like to display ads since ads are mostly what keeps them in business and blocking them could hinder their revenue.

I've noticed in the last three weeks that I am now using these two platforms a lot more sparingly and efficient. I only look at content that I am purposely looking for and I avoid getting annoyed with ads, "sponsored posts', ... Before installing these extensions, I was worried that I would feel the need to watch useless videos and waste time on Facebook but, to my surprise, I do not miss or need it at all. I am less frustrated, more positive and I have way more time on my hands to do what I really set out to do on the internet. It's been great having all this time back again.

This article was written not as a critique towards social media, I do think Facebook and Youtube have some great features and a place in modern society. It is written as a resource to help others who have similar feelings about their time use and want to do something about it without completely disabling their social media accounts.

Any thoughts? And what are your ways of reducing time wasting? I'd love to hear from my network which principles you apply on a day to day basis.