Staying Out Of The Social Media Abyss: 3 Simple Productivity Hacks (Debra Eckerling)

Debra Eckerling


The Social Media Abyss. We’ve all been there.

In the morning, you jump on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, or another social media platform to check something quickly. The next thing you know, your stomach’s rumbling. It’s 2 pm. Where did the last six hours go?

This may seem like an exaggeration, but is it really?

When social media is your vocation—and even when it isn’t—it’s too easy to go down rabbit holes. Don’t get me wrong, some rabbit holes are good; it’s how you discover new tools, passions, and even friends.

Whether you are managing your own social media, multiple social media accounts, and/or even multiple clients, you need to be keenly aware of your time, so it does not take over your life.

Here are three simple things you can do—separately or in tandem—to take back control of your social media time:

1. Batch your activities

When do you do your social media planning and content development?

Once a week? Once a month? Once a quarter?

My recommendation: All of the above. Do campaign/theme planning each quarter and brainstorm big picture ideas each month. Then, create your posts for the week all at once. Note: You can also batch taking photos, creating videos, recording podcasts, you get the idea.

Be sure to use a spreadsheet to track your ideas and content. When you batch like items together, it saves time and energy.

2. Block time

Look at your calendar and block time for your social media activities in the form of appointments. Use this for your creating content and also for posting and replies. When it’s in the calendar, it gets done!

During time blocks, silence your email and put your phone on Do Not Disturb. When you have committed, focused time, you work faster.

3. Set a timer

Set a timer for all of your social media sessions, whether it’s for an hour or two of content creation, 30 minutes of social-media scheduling, or 15-minutes of post replies. The beauty of setting a timer is you don’t even need to keep an eye on the clock—you can fully concentrate on the work at hand. Then, when your timer goes off, wrap up what you are doing, and get back to your other activities.

Bonus:

Find a social media tool—like Agorapulse—to help you manage multiple accounts and content. It’s another way to streamline.

Social media is essential for any business, whether it’s your own or your clients. It can be a major time-suck…but only if you let it be!

What’s your best productivity hack? Please share in the comments. It may be used for a future post.


Debra Eckerling @deckerling
Goal-setting strategist Debra Eckerling is author of Your Goal Guide: A Roadmap for Setting, Planning and Achieving Your Goals and creator of the DEB METHODⓇ system of goal-setting simplified. A consultant and workshop leader, Debra offers personal and professional planning, event strategy, and team-building for executives, entrepreneurs, consultants, and companies. Debra is the host of the #GoalChat Twitter chat, #GoalChatLive show, and The DEB Show podcast. Connect with Debra on LinkedIn.