In the past few weeks, I’ve been trying to set some new boundaries regarding my social media usage. I don’t know why. It might be that I’m trying to accomplish more in the evening. Maybe I’m being my usual control-freak self and imposing limits. Maybe I’m rebelling against Facebook’s attempt to encroach upon every activity.
The boundaries could exist for all sorts of reasons, but I don’t see much point in trying to pinpoint them. I have boundaries. I like them. Setting them gives me the freedom to pursue other things and to “time chunk” for a few hours in the evening.
For instance, I’ve basically stopped checking Facebook after six p.m. on weekdays. I don’t keep that boundary all the time, but it seems to be forming into something concrete. The weekends? I try to avoid Facebook altogether unless I want to be silly and check into some location or have something funny or sarcastic to say.
I don’t keep that particular boundary with Twitter, but Twitter has a different purpose than Facebook. Twitter is my conversational tool. I use it in much the same way that I text except that I share links from my blog and other places.
Email always has had its boundaries. I set them long ago, but I might re-evaluate them. I’m beginning to wonder if I need to set stricter boundaries for email. Maybe I need to borrow a page from Patrick Rhone and only check email twice per day during certain hours. In a way, office hours for email.
Writing all this has made me realize exactly why I’m setting boundaries. I need control. I feel as though I’m out of control and not accomplishing much of anything. The only way I know how to start accomplishing something is to exert some control, to say enough is enough, to take back what time I can.
Love this one, I have to set some too. So many places to be with so little time.
@lisabuben290 …and you’re everywhere! You’re always investigating the latest thing. I don’t know how you do it.
Yep, boundries can work out 🙂 It worked for you. But if I stop checking my Facebook account after 6 PM, I may miss blogging queries from friends, messages, invitations, sometime I have to help people via Facebook and all. Also I may miss interesting stories too. Facebook id my info center where I always look out for tech news 🙂 I can’t miss ’em all and bring ’em to next day. If so it increases my workload.
Yeah, earlier I just spent lot of time on Facebook with no special work. You know, gaming and sort of things. However now I’m using it for my good. How about checking out your social networks in given times per day? 🙂 Will it work out for you? 🙂
Cheers…
@Mayura I track Facebook and some other sites during the day, but the night time is my time. I need to keep that time reserved for Write Right – I can’t work on it during the day because I have a full-time day job – or for spending time with friends in real life.
Agreed; boundaries allow us to not be as scattered brain and accomplish more goals; mini and long-term. At least for me anyway. Instead of having multiple half-finished and half-started jobs on the table, boundaries help in focusing.
Now I need to start doing a better job of it….. good reminder, Erin.
@Jacob Yount It’s as much of a reminder to myself as it is to people who read this post. 🙂
I think these are good rules to have as social media can get addicting and you can easily find yourself whiling away the time on meaningless social media chatter if you don’t set boundaries. I find that I’m doing very little that’s truly productive on social media most of the time anyways.
@richescorner Exactly. I’m trying to rid myself of the things that aren’t helping with productivity. If that means turning off the social media channels for a few hours, so be it.
Boundaries are good. They help provide structure and that is a good thing.
@TheJackB Agreed. 🙂