2. First your vegetables, then a candy
tomatoAnother great way to limit online media and let your creativity flow is to work with blocks in your day. For example, choose not to check email, Facebook or Twitter until 11am (die-hards even choose 2pm).
What do you do then? Well, what you want to do in your life: write that chapter of your book. Write out that project plan for your work in one go. Call all the clients that have been on your to-do list for weeks. Draw and program the concept for your website.
Don't start the day with the small quick jobs, but focus on the big chunks. The things that are important for your work and your life. Do you look at the clock every 10 minutes to see if it's 11 o'clock yet? Then you know you're an online junkie and you should definitely stick to this regime for 30 days!
3. That inspiring online library next to the café
Social media can sometimes be like a noisy café. One after the other comes along with a nice story, a funny list to data joke or a bad message. Before you know it, you've been hanging around for hours, without really reading or learning anything. You can easily prevent that. Install the excellent app Pocket (or Evernote, InstaPaper or a variant) on your smartphone. With one click of a button, you can now forward all the interesting articles and links you encounter on social media to your own online collection bin.
Sit down every now and then and read all those great articles in half an hour that you almost forgot about while tweeting or posting. That way, you no longer use social media just as a café, but also as a library. I can tell you from my own experience: those reading hours with good inspiration from your online friends are great. I often find them more fun and better than the Saturday supplement in the newspaper.
4. Your own secret VIP list
Do you go to a random bar every night where everyone hangs out? No way! After a few nights you'll find that boring. Do you want to talk to real friends? People with whom you share things, who inspire you. It works the same way on social media. It's fun to follow a lot of people, but also make a real VIP list. A secret subgroup with people who make you happy. People who share interesting links, share positive messages, who inspire you.
And: use a tool that makes it easy to start reading your VIP list. For example, I use Tweetdeck on my iPhone for Twitter, so I always start with my VIP list instead of the general timeline. It's a simple trick that will make you much happier after catching up on your social media.
5. Hanging around mindlessly, or making the world a better place?
Don't just use social media as passive entertainment, use it to share, build or make things. Ask questions, invite people, create something beautiful together. This is how you go from being a passive consumer who has everything dumped on him to a co-builder of our world. This is the best part of social media. You are no longer a consumer of mass media, but you help build your own mini-media empire. From couch potato to producer, from anonymous listener to opinion leader. It's easy and you can do it too.
alcoholics anonymous
We all hang out mindlessly on social media. I have discovered that mindless hanging out is often connected to emotions. I feel bored. I am tired. I am looking for a distraction or a kick. Then I can quickly start Facebook. But then I end up half an hour even more mindless than when I started.
Much better is to recognize my emotion: I'm bored. I'm looking for a challenge. What can I do then? Starting Facebook is not a real solution. But writing a nice article about brainless Facebooking is fun. Alcoholics often have emotions that drive them to drink. We social media junkies have that too, although fortunately usually less serious. Listen carefully to yourself: which emotions drive you to hang around brainless online? And how can you convert that into creative building, sharing or making beautiful things. Because that is also possible with social media.
Social media is everywhere these days. Probably in your pocket too. But are you using it wisely? Are you the alcoholic who denies being addicted, but secretly takes a swig from that bottle in his pocket? Or do you know your own emotions and remain in control of online media?