One of my 30 before 30 goals was to spend less time online. This has proven to be much harder than expected! I have been struggling for a balance. I want to stay connected and inspired without getting totally overwhelmed. While trying to grow my blog and get myself out there in the design world, I feel like it is hard to get away from my computer. I am constantly looking to make new connections, and well, that involves a lot of online time!
t Everyday I struggle with this, as I’m sure some of you do as well. So to try to create a better balance, I have come up with a few tips to having a fun, active online world without having it take over your life.
Make a list
I am huge on planning and list making so of course that is going to be my first suggestion. Make a to-do list of your top online priorities each day so you don’t get distracted.
Schedule
Come up with a realistic schedule of the time you need online daily. When that time is up then move on! I like to check all my social media while I drink my coffee in the morning. But if you know that starting your day online is only going to lead to major procrastination, save that until the end of the day. Setting your email to only check every hour also helps to minimize wasted time.
Just Say No
If you are using social media to procrastinate, just say no! You should use it for the reasons on your list and then get outta there!
Do it for you
Don’t feel the need to prove yourself. You know that you’re having a busy day but don’t need to update your networks each time you send an email. Share the inspiring and important parts of your day, when you publish a blog post, list an item to your Etsy shop or receive a new piece of artwork that you ordered!
Weed out the negative
Hide or unfollow people and blogs that are negative or make you feel jealous or frustrated, for whatever the reason may be. This is a good way to keep your online world positive. If you are not sure, opt out of these blogs for a few days and see how you feel.
Interact
Interact with people instead of just following. I love being able to connect with all types of people all over the world, that is what excites me about social media. Trust me, most people out there would love to have a little twitter convo or go back and forth for a while on Facebook! Leaving comments on a blog is also a great way to connect. It lets the author know the time they devote to their content is appreciated.
It’s not an easy balance and I have to concentrate on these approaches to a healthy online life daily. I hope that these tips can help you to create a fulfilling online space without getting stuck in an online procrastination loop! If you have any other advice or comments, please share!
established 2010
Great post! It is essential for everyone to find the right balance between reality and social media.
Social media can easily eat someone up – I know it certainly ate me up and I had to step back for awhile to realize what was important to me.
I used to have a relatively large instagram following, but I realized that I was just in it for the likes, the comments, and just for other wrong reasons. Plus there were other instagrammers that I envied in an unhealthy manner, so I just deleted the account to give myself a break and assess my intentions.
Great post – this certainly is something everyone needs a reminded of every once in awhile.
– Juliet from http://www.thelittlejewelsoflife.com
This is so inspiring Juliet, I love that you had the strength to do that!
Great tips and thanks for sharing! I just had my first baby so I’m really struggling with balancing my online life, my art work, me time, baby time and fiance time! I love the tip about interacting instead of just following and that’s my hardest right now. I can usually make time to work but then baby needs me and I don’t get time to network, make friends and actually interact with other bloggers! Frustrating.
That is a tough one! I can’t even image adding a baby to the mix 🙂
So, so true!
I am actually half-way through a personal 60 Days of No Facebook challenge. Despite my desire not to, I found myself hitting refresh altogether too often just for the sake of hitting refresh. I allowed it to take up way too much of my time, so I quit cold turkey. So far? It’s been awesome! I still use Twitter, email and I’ve fallen in love with BBN (you’re so right about connecting with people rather than just being the careful voyeur), so I still feel connected. The break has done everything I wanted it to; by taking away my major source of procrastination I’ve found I’m actually writing again (not just blog-writing, fiction/personal project writing). And yes, weeding the negative is so, so important. There’s no use wasting that much energy, it’s too valuable.
Great post. Great.
wow! That is a great challenge and so great it is turning out as a positive experience! So happy for you!
Yes! Thank you for these tips. I can always use a reminder. Ive realized this year thaf lists really keep me on track and yet somehow I keep thinking I dont need to make them. Then every time I do make one Im reminded why i always should. Its so easy to get sucked into the internet blackhole.
I have been slacking on my lists lately but I NEED them to keep me on track!
Good advice, especially the two last ones! I have a lot of stress in my life and definitely don’t need to read blogs that adds to the negativity! So now I’m trying to removing everything that doesn’t make me feel good.
I’m definitely an online junkie, but have realized that it’s because it’s a way to “survive” when everything sucks in real life. When things go better, I don’t need to be online as much. Sounds really bad, I know.
“Interact with people instead of just following.” BEST TIP!! I hope to find balance in my online life too. This is a great post. 🙂
Thanks! BBN has been an awesome way to interact with other bloggers!
Love these tips! I especially can relate to the tip about unsubscribing from blogs that make you feel jealous or negative. I have really tried to stay on top of that and it really makes a huge difference in my own attitude if I’m not constantly reading/ interacting with blogs and bloggers that bring out the worst in me. I think that change in attitude probably also comes through in my own posts, so the more positive blogs that I read I get the more likely my own posts will be positive!
Thanks Jennifer! Yea that is a huge one that took me a while to figure out. I want honesty and transparency from a blog, but wouldn’t want to follow a ‘debbie downer’ 🙂
Great tips!
It’s crazy how effective weeding out the negative is!
This is my first time here and I’m so happy that I happened upon your blog. I’m inspired by your tips because I’ve noticed lately that my online life is kind of over shadowing my real one. (if that makes any sense) Anyhow, thanx a lot for sharing the tips are very helpful and useful, at least for me anyway.
So glad you stopped by! I definitely know what you mean, it is so easy for your online life to quickly take over and it becomes hard to balance everything. I’m so happy these tips can help!