In my continuing quest to aid all those who are trying to cram 36 hours of life into a 24-hour day, I encourage you to read a new post by Amber Nasland on her social media blog called Altitude. Her focus: “Social Media Time Management: Nine Guiding Principles.”
When it comes to managing your time, she notes at the outset, “It’s a balancing act. And ultimately, you’re in the driver’s seat.”
Her first gear is managing disruptions: “Pick three things that you have to get done today, and focus relentlessly on those. (Hint: they should always be tied into your bigger picture goals, or you’re wasting time).”
Control information overoad, she continues, and make use of those tools that can save you a lot of time, such as WordPress for blogging or Google Reader to streamline your reading.
If you’re in a situation at work or some other circumstance in which you find yourself answering the same e-mail question over and over, Nasland suggests creating a “template” that you can use to cut and paste common responses. Or set up a link to answers for a set of frequently asked questions. I like that one.
And when you don’t have the answer, she says “communicate expectations.” If you can’t get to something for a day or two, say so, or refer people to somebody else who may be able to help.
But my two favorites are the last on her list: 8. Establish routines; and 9. Unplug:
If you set aside specific hours in your day, turn off other distractions. (Yes, it’s okay to close your e-mail program). Put your phone on Do Not Disturb or let it go to voicemail. Even 30 minutes of focused time on a single task, on a regular basis can ramp up your productivity.
and
Get offline. Go outside. Take a bath. Play with your kid. Go to the movies. Or go to an in-person event or Tweetup. There is nothing that will derail your social media efforts more than never walking away from them.
We all need to break from time to time …
-rp-
(Photo credit: “Time Flies…” by kamera.obskura, courtesy of Flickr.com/Creative Commons)
At first I didn't read the article because I spent more than three decades learning and occasionally practicing time management techniques. Today I am thinking more about social media and it occurred to me that it introduces new elements into most people's day.
For most of my career what I had to deal with were meetings,memos, walk ups, and phone. Later e-mail, and voice mail were added (and hard copy memos subtracted). The vast majority of those were "push", they came to me and I had to decide how to deal with them.
Now with blogs, social networks, aimless web surfing,and on-line
news, I find that I have to deal with things that "pull". I go looking for distractions rather than having them thrust upon me.
There were a few "pulls" around in the old days: the site library, journals, and walking out to the hallway to socialize. The big difference is that those were very visible, so I had an incentive to keep it in control.
Now I am a retired guy. Theoretically I can spend my time however I choose. But if I let the "pulls" sweep me away, I wind up using large parts of my day to do things that are not at all fulfilling. I still need time management. In some ways I need it more than ever before.
Thanks for the intriguing article.