One of my favorite yet most difficult things about blogging is social media — specifically Twitter. I love Twitter. I love the conversations I always get to have. How it really helps me to get to know other bloggers and them to get to know me. I love how it continues the conversations off our blogs. I just LOVE always having a place to go when I want to talk or ask a question. I’ve gotten closer with some of my now bffs BECAUSE of Twitter. Blog-wise, it’s a source of a good amount of traffic.
However, I have a hard time balancing the social media aspect of my blog sometimes. I want to be present. I want to talk and get to know people. I want to be a part of the community. At this point, though, I’m addicted to Twitter. I’m always refreshing it on my phone and always have Tweetdeck open on my computer. The result has been a plummeting level of productivity. Like, really really badly. I’m reading way less and being less efficient as I write my blog posts. It’s become a problem that I’ve been trying to tackle. I’ve started not really going on Twitter during the weekends and shutting down later at night as well as close Tweetdeck when I work on my blog posts. But I need to do more.
What is it that I am going to do to try and help myself get back to a good balance regarding social media?
I’m going on a social media diet for a week — so I guess sort of like a crash diet really?
For 1 week I will be limiting myself to 1 hour per day on Twitter — split however I choose. I’ll be keeping very close track of every single minute because they add up — I KNOW they do when I’m jumping on Twitter to refresh every 15-20 minutes and spend 5 minutes on there.
Why am I doing this/what do I hope to accomplish?
– Become more aware of the mindless Twitter refreshing and just how much time I’m really wasting (not talking about good conversation – just the refreshing and not talking or following drama that I don’t participate in.)
– To combat my Twitter refreshing tick on my phone
– To see how productive I can really be and hope that I’ll want that to be the norm.
– Remember that the world will probably not implode if I don’t answer right away or participate in every conversation.
– Get some “quiet” time — sometimes honestly having SO many opinions or seeing a lot of negativity really effects me and I need to step away.
– Ultimately I want to help myself to regain a good balance and realize how much time I waste and rather focus on quality conversation while I’m on Twitter.
Fears I have about doing this:
– That I will be so disconnected
– That I’ll miss out on good, fun conversations
– People will forget I exist
– That I’ll fail in the first day and forever be addicted to Twitter and my life will fall apart (I’m being REALLY dramatic here hah)
What do I plan to do during this week?
– get blog posts written for when I’ll be in BEA and maybe get further ahead
– do all the annoying behind the scenes things I hate doing (review archive updating, putting reviews on Goodreads, formatting old posts I still haven’t fixed from when I moved to WordPress in March 2012). That was one of my bookish resolutions for this year so I need to get crackin’ on that!
– clean the house
– indulge in some of my other hobbies
– get ready for BEA!!
– comment on blog posts!!
– Work on my super secret project that I referenced here.
– READ READ READ (that’s what always gets the short end of the stick because of my Twitter addiction…which is ironic because the only reason I’m on Twitter is because of my BOOK BLOG)
So what happens after the week?
Every day I plan on writing just a paragraph each day of what I got done for the day, how I feel and what not and then I’ll take that and really evaluate and see how much more I got done and how my general mood is after the week. I’m hoping that it will help me to realize I don’t need to be on as much and help strike a better balance in my social media usage for the blog. I know I’ll still probably be on a lot because I truly enjoy it but hopefully not as much! I’ll probably end up sharing the results of my little experiment. I also will probably be evaluating the other areas where I mindlessly waste time on Twitter.
What about you guys? Do you find yourself addicted to social media? How do you strike a balance? All tips will be welcome! Also, feel free to join me!!
Christianna says
I’m having issues with this as well! And I’ve been writing a lot. I’ve started regulating my twitter intake. I think this is a great idea, maybe I need to do something like this as well!
ashley says
I need to do this myself. However I have tackled this by not having twitter on my phone and at first it sucked cause I missed out on a lot of bonding and I often feel like the outsider looking in. But then I figure out who my actual friends are assuming I haven’t scared them off (HI JAMIE! HOW HAVE YOU NOT BLOCKED ME YET!?)
I know it’s weird how many feelings on this topic but when I used to be in fandom I wasted a lot of time on twitter and there were many hurt feelings (mine and others.) And I’ve never admitted that to anyone before.
The Broken Shelf says
I Schedule a lot of me tweets – so I’m not on it ALL the time. – Except that time you couldn’t sleep and I was up at 3 at work and tweeting you. ha ha!!! I need to read more too. I just haven’t felt like it really. I have other hobbies that I’d rather be doing right now… I’ve just been scatter brained this month and moopy and it has effected my reading. I schedule a lot of my wed and monday blog posts also, so that saves me more time to read. After I’m done reconstructiong Amelia & Anna & The French Kiss – I’ll write a review about that AS soon as I’m done reading them, because I find if I Don’t – I forget parts of it and I forget why or why I didn’t like it as much.
Debby @ Snuggly Oranges says
I’m totally addicted to Twitter as well, and ideally, I’d do more or less the same thing. But I do have a modicum of self-control where I can just turn Twitter off while I really have to work. With exams coming up though, I wonder how well my self-control will work. I hope you have a super productive week!
Kristin says
It’s tally support your social media diet, and I think you’ll be surprised by how much happier and more productive you are. I got rid of Facebook over a year ago, and I cannot tell you how much more satisfied I am in my work, home, and social lives.
Kristin says
*I totally – typos!
Laurie C says
Good luck! Even a partial success on your goals will be a learning experience! I found Twitter was the first thing to go when I got too busy this month to even keep up with reading and blogging, and Facebook didn’t get much attention either.
River says
I used to be SO bad about this, but now that the Facebook app for iPad SUCKS I almost never go on there. As for twitter… I have a system where I only use it on my iPad and in the morning I check it while I’m waking up and then I try not to go on during the day unless I have a break at work or when I get home and am chatting with my mom on iChat. I recently went on vacation where I wasn’t as connected and it was a GREAT detox. I wish you luck with your own!
Kat (AussieZombie) says
Ah the old Twitter refresh – I do that ALL THE TIME. And I hate myself for it, because I could be there for over an hour before I actually tweet anything so it’s completely pointless but so addictive.
Lately I’ve just not opened Twitter at all – it really helps me focus because once I’ve finished looking at GR updates and reading my feed, there’s nothing else to do except go and be productive.
Good luck, I hope you find a perfect balance!
Mel@thedailyprophecy says
What a great idea! I honestly don’t understand Twitter and I hardly use it, but I have some other sites I browse on for hours (pinterest)
Ciska @ Ciska's Book Chest says
Sounds like a great plan. I did notice at some point that I kept staring at the computer even if nothing excited happened. I decided to turn it off and just read tweets on my phone. I usually get so caught up in my book though I forget 🙂 It did open my eyes of the time I spend online though and how much of it was wasted on just waiting more or less. I wish you all the luck with your diet!!
Jessica R says
I think this is a great idea, Jamie! I definitely notice that I can spend hours on Twitter in the evening and then I’ll look back at those hours and wish I had spent it reading or writing blog posts, just as you said. So I might just follow in your footsteps, especially with so much left for me to do before BEA! Hopefully we can both get our obsessions under control and be a little more productive 🙂
Kay @ It's a Book Life says
Good Luck! This is a great idea. I feel like some days all I do is sit on Twitter. You are not alone.
Lea B says
Good luck. I hope you’re successful. I get sucked into Twitter by reading all the tweets and then the articles (and the giveaways!). I’ve tried to get into a few conversations – inspired by your blogs about having conversations, but haven’t had too much success with it yet. It can definitely be a time suck, as can FB and Pinterest, I often get on my computer to do a quick something and two hours later I’m still on social media and haven’t even done what I went to do.
kailia Sage says
I think I need to do this too. For example, I found this post through your Twitter after refreshing it for about the 5th time in 30 minutes. I think I have an issue, lol! Good luck and I can’t wait to see what happens!
Gaby @ Queen Ella Bee Reads says
Loading the latest of my twitter feed on my phone has become an OBSESSION. Not to mention I can sit and watch TweetDeck scroll by for HOURS. I feel like I also really need to cut my hours… YOU ARE AN INSPIRATION, MY DEAR.
Sarah @ YA Love says
This is a great idea! It would be tough, but I might need to do this until the end of the school year… Good luck! 🙂
April @ Books And Wine says
Good luck! I just read a book on procrastination and productivity and it touched on social media and our cell phones just a little bit — one part actually really struck me and I’ll be talking about it in my review of the book, but the author mentions how social media and emails aren’t that important and how the world will still turn even if you miss a few tweets or texts or facebook posts and how it’s rare that those things actually truly need our attention. Anyways, yeah after reading that I am convinced that going on a “social media diet” truly will increase your productivity. It’s helped with mine — like I write reviews instead of refreshing twitter and I now have 3 weeks scheduled in advance and that number increases each day.
Good luck, yo.
Abria @ Read. Write. Discuss. says
I do this on a regular basis too. I can feel how much time Twitter/Facebook/Pinterest is sucking away from my other endeavours, but it’s so hard to switch off and tune out for fear of missing something or become irrelevant.
Dizneeee says
I have the same exact problem! Read. Refresh. Read. Refresh. Ahhhh!!!!
I notice if I take a day off from Twitter, I can read and review a book without even thinking about it. Or, I can watch a movie or TV show and read a book. It’s crazy! 😛 Those days need to be more frequent. Yet, I still find myself jumping from blog to blog and adding more people on Twitter. More conversations and such to read.
I’m thinking this is part of the reason my brain has such a hard time shutting down at night. I think I may need to put this into practice a bit. I’m not sure I could limit myself timewise in a day, but maybe I won’t allow myself to use Twitter until a certain time in the evening or after a certain amount of pages read, something something something…
Along with lowering my Twitter use, I need to try to remember to keep the cell phone put away when I’m doing something with my mom or niece. It’s such a habit to pull it out and see what’s going on. Must work on this…
Thanks for sharing with us and good luck to you!
Willa @ Willa's Ramblings says
So doing this this week! LOVE THIS, Jamie!
Ronnica says
That’s a great idea. I think a lot of our problem these days is just how distracted we are. By splitting our focus, we are not giving acting it’s proper attention.
Amanda says
I had the same problem with Facebook. I found it helped to remove the app off my phone because a lot of times it was just the easy access that made me log on. Good luck!
Nancy @ Tumbling Books says
OMG Good luck with this! I don’t think I would be strong enough to keep myself from constantly checking on Twitter. I check on it to read what’s going on, even when I don’t tweet/reply myself. It’s just so fun reading what everyone is up to! 🙂 Best of luck, I hope you don’t go over your 1 hour limit!! hehe
Christina (A Reader of Fictions) says
Oooh, yeah, I def have this problem sometimes. Thankfully, I tend to automatically Twitter diet on the weekends, just like I don’t really respond to comments then either. Like, the weekends are to be focused on reading and socializing. Some weekday nights, though, I do get nothing done because I’m twittering, which isn’t the worst, but not necessarily the best way I could have been spending my time.
Ginger @ GReads! says
I took a step back from twitter towards the end of last year for the same reasons. I felt like it was consuming a lot of my time spent on the internet. I also wanted to keep a definition between my blog life and my real life. Yes, I do consider myself personable, but there are some things I want to keep private, too. My little twitter break helped me define those lines a bit better. Since then I have noticed a decline in response to my blog, but you know what? I’m OK with that. If only a handful of people interact with me in regards to bookish things, that is perfectly fine with me. I’d rather focus on quality convo anyway.
Good luck Jamie & let me know how it goes!
Alexa Y. says
I am so, so proud of you for taking drastic measures to try and regulate your Twitter usage! It’s also an exciting concept, and I’m sincerely hoping that it produces great results for you. I used to be the same way – always refreshing my Twitter on my phone and the computer. It’s good to take a step back from social media and do other things that I would prefer or need to do – like reading, or hanging out with friends, or even just the chores around the house.
Personally, it’s become a bit easier for me to regulate my Twitter consumption. While I’m at work, I can’t really be on there so that’s about eight hours of my day that I’m doing other things (and that often includes blogging, since I can get away with that). I don’t know why but I’ve fallen into a pattern where I really only check Twitter three times a day – once during my morning commute, once during my evening commute and once before bed. Sometimes, if I have more free time or if I’m having a great conversation, I’ll be on there more. But otherwise, real life trumps it every time. And I usually have conversations with most of my bookish BFFs on text 😉
Good luck with your experiment! I can’t wait to hear about how it goes!
Bonnie says
I need to do this. lol I spend so much time on both Goodreads and Twitter doing I’m not even sure what… a whole bunch of time-wasting that’s for sure… that I am constantly wasting valuable reading time. I just get super distracted and if I’m reading on the computer then I’m always itching to open a browser window and then… there goes the time. Good luck on your experiment!
Mardra says
I hope you let us know how it all turns out.
Mardra says
I hope we get a follow-up. Good bad and ugly, or not…