How to Avoid Social Media Distraction When Working from Home
I have a love/hate relationship with social media. I love it because it’s a great way to keep up
with friends and family, and it’s a great way to advertise my business and draw traffic to my blog. But I hate it
because getting sucked into social media is so easy. I might “quick” check Facebook and find that
I waste 20 or 30 minutes there.
Arggh! I’m sure you can relate. Yet for most of us, using social media is a
part of the job, and not using it means a loss of website traffic and income.
However, there are ways to use and benefit from social media
without endlessly falling down a rabbit hole.
If you’re wondering how to avoid social media distraction when working
from home, here’s what I’d recommend.
Have Set Times To Use Social Media
The first step is to discipline yourself to only use social
media at specific times during the day, perhaps at 8 a.m., 2 p.m. and 7
p.m. If it’s outside your designated
time, you simply don’t go on any social media sites.
Do Your Work Tasks on Social Media First
When it is your designated time to use social media, do your
work BEFORE you browse. If you need to
post to Facebook and Instagram for work, do that first. Then, when you’ve done your work, take the
time to scroll through your feed.
Set a Timer
In addition to having set times to use social media, decide
how long you want to be on social media.
If you check three times a day and give yourself 20 minutes per
designated time, you’ll be on social media a total of 60 minutes a day. If you do your own tasks first, you may end
up with 10 minutes of browse time each of your designated times, which is a
good ratio of work to play time.
However, to enforce your allowed time, make sure to set a
timer every time you go on social media and get off promptly when the timer goes
off.
Also, remember that the 20 minutes each designated time is
across ALL social media sites, not per social media site.
Take Social Media Apps Off Your Phone
Do you have social media apps on your phone? Chances are, if you do, that you use social
media more per day simply because it’s so accessible. One way to drastically cut down on your
social media usage is to simply take the apps off your phone. Then when you’re outside the home, you will
have no access to social media. While
that may initially be a traumatizing thought, after a few weeks without it,
you’ll likely feel liberated.
Be Selective With Your Use of Social Media
Finally, be selective with your use of social media. There are so many social media sites out
there—Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Tik Tok—and so many more. You don’t have to have a presence on all of
them. Choose two to three to focus on, and concentrate your time, both professionally and personally, on those few
sites.
Social media can be beneficial in our lives if we don’t
overdo it or become addicted to it. Take
these steps to rein in your social media use and give it its proper place in
your life. You then can control social
media instead of having it control you.
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