Time to do something different...

Time Management / Social Media Cuts

John Wylie —  October 3, 2012 — 3 Comments

Keeping on with this theme of time that I’ve been going with on my blog, I decided to talk about time management today.

Now, this mainly will be dealing with my issues of time management, especially in the area of social media.

Time to do something different…

I’ve noticed that ever since I’ve joined the social media world, I’ve been instantly drawn and, ultimately, sucked into it.
I love to connect with people, chat with people and get to know folks on a ‘deeper’ level online.

It wasn’t until yesterday that this finally clicked.
My friend Jason Trump posted a couple of tweets back to back about how he noticed his workflow being interrupted by social media.
He tweeted about how he is going to be more intentional about who and how he replies to tweets.

And then it clicked:
What an amazing idea!
I mean, seriously.

Is it really acceptable for me to be casually scrolling thru Twitter for hours a day looking for tweets to reply to, or replying to @mentions?
Probably not. And that isn’t a good way to live life, either.

I have my savior I want to know deeper, goals I want to accomplish, things I want to see, a lady I am pursuing.
If I am putting that much time and energy into my social media ‘life’ those key areas of my real life are going to take a hit.
And to be honest, I’ve felt the hit.

So, it all ends here.
I am going to be doing something rather drastic.
No, I am not deleting my Twitter and Facebook profile.
I am simply cutting back, quite a bit, and revamping my ‘social media guidelines’.
[That will be posted on the upper header at some point this week.]

It isn’t you – it’s me.
I am sorry if you notice I don’t reply to all of your lovely @mentions to me,
But I do read all of them, and will reply to a few during my allotted times at night / in the morning.

I challenge you to cut back with me.
Especially if you’ve noticed your ‘real life’ taking a hit lately.

I need people to keep me in check, other than my girlfriend and family.

Thank you so much for your time!

—————————————–

Also:
I am going to be using an awesome app called Buffer to spread out my updates, and keep my updates posting in a reasonable manner.
Now, please also know, that if there is something really cool going on, I am not going to upload it into Buffer, I will directly tweet it. But this is just going to be a tool that I use to try and keep things a bit more balanced.

Let’s see how this goes!

In Discussion Posts, Social Media , , ,
permalink

John Wylie

Posts Twitter Facebook

John Wylie is the man behind the cartoon - a guy who enjoys drumming, hanging out with friends, and traveling. John is currently attending the SevenTen Discipleship Program with Ryan Dalgliesh in Texas - he plans to use this education to preach & teach all over the country (and hopefully, the world). John also feels very awkward typing in third person.
  • http://bretwortman.com/ Bret Wortman

    Goodonya, John. Keep things in perspective. It’s really easy to get “interrupted” to death.

    Buffer has saved my bacon, though I still get too distracted. Thanks for the reminder to refocus and get back to what matters.
    Bret Wortman recently posted..How Values Make Hard Decisions EasyMy Profile

  • http://thomasmasonblog.com Thomas Mason

    I can relate that getting sucked into social media sometimes leaves little time for other areas of my life, even the important ones. I’ve been using Buffer for a while now but mainly use it to spread out my post tweets. It’s also good for spreading out throughout the day what you want to share with others. Looking forward to seeing your social media guidelines.
    Thomas Mason recently posted..What Really MattersMy Profile

  • http://www.joshbjones.com Joshua Jones

    I definitely find hootsuite useful for this with it’s automatic scheduling of posts. Then, on top of that, I schedule times for replies and tweets. It’s helped some, but i’m always on the lookout for more tools to help with this.