What are you wondering? Who am I? And what am I doing with my time? It might be useful if you think through exactly how long you spend on social media. Not just in terms of time, but also in terms of value. What are you achieving with social media? In short, what are you doing? If you can’t think of anything useful or productive for your hour on Facebook, then it’s time to cut back. Get a life I think I was quite lucky in that I wasn’t exposed to social media when I was younger. But it was only by the time I reached university that I really started to use it properly. For many people, particularly those who use it at work or even college, their lives are tied to social media. There is the opportunity to meet people they wouldn’t have otherwise met – and indeed social media can also be used as a way of making contacts that could help in your career. And I get that. But just as you need to go for a run or hit the gym if you don’t want to end up with health problems, so too you need to exercise your brain. You need to get a life – and I don’t mean that in a Facebook sense! Be selective I am lucky that I am surrounded by talented people, and I can follow that to its logical conclusion by saying that I have really good people in my life. But there will always be people who are better than you at some things and worse at others. This is called imposter syndrome and you are not alone in experiencing it. My dad had it – his father would have been a genius in many areas – but he would always think that what he did was quite simple. I could say much the same about a number of people in the arts, where you might be surrounded by people who have studied in the best university, who are top athletes and have done all sorts of amazing things – and yet feel stupid and inadequate by comparison. What I realised early on is that social media is no different. I’m not going to have the best time of my life on Facebook, but I will certainly have the time of my life. Because I’m lucky enough to spend time with amazing people, all of whom have things to offer that are just as good, if not better, than the things they can post on social media. People have good ideas, have a great sense of humour and are fun to be with. Be positive Social media is one of those areas where I’m sure there are people out there who are really quite nasty, and are only on it to pick people up and show off. Just as you wouldn’t go to a bar if you want to meet people and have a good time, you wouldn’t use social media if your intention is simply to look cool or be better than everyone else. You’ll just end up looking sad. Or maybe you’re a person who likes to complain and see other people doing that too. So, take a step back and have a look at what’s going on. Are you actually being positive? Or are you just getting involved in negative energy that you are having no control over? If you can’t be positive, then I’d advise that you spend less time on social media. It’s not the easiest thing in the world to do, but it’s worth it – I promise. Use your phone I know this might seem counterintuitive. After all, there are whole companies that exist to advertise their products through social media. But it’s not about that. When I am online, I don’t get distracted and end up spending time on social media. What I do is make sure that I go to a very specific social media site, and even then, what I do is use my phone. Once I have finished reading an article I save it for when I’m driving. I’m always reading on my phone, and that leads to me getting through lots of emails – much faster than I could in my work inbox, which helps me to be more productive. But don’t worry – if you don’t know how to use your phone for social media, then I can tell you everything I’m doing. Use a computer I know some of you may be thinking that you don’t have a computer in your house. I am not on there now, and I will have a dig around to find the link. But I’m on a laptop all the time. And although I would never say that it is the best laptop ever, I will say that it is the best computer for my work that I have ever used. My computer might not be the most technically impressive and isn’t running all the latest technology – in fact it’s running Windows 7. But it has a word processor, email and internet connection that I can manage. You may have a computer that is a bit more modern than mine. But just as you want a new laptop, you want a new phone. If your computer is only a few years old, then I’m sure it still works as well as it ever did. It might be worth having a look at a review of some laptops on Amazon.com or some other site. But be careful – you might end up spending all your money when you’re not buying the one that you want. Buy stuff When you buy something, it’s amazing how much time you can waste looking at the packaging, trying to work out how to use it, thinking about how to keep it clean or thinking of reasons to give it as a gift. The whole process can take longer than it should. But, if you know that you will be using something often, and can store it properly, then buying it is a great way of getting ahead with work. Buying things allows you to look ahead, plan and keep your energy up. It’s no good using it all your time only to have to give it away, or sell it, when you can’t cope with it any more. Read I’m not saying that the internet is bad. Quite the opposite. I don’t spend a lot of time on it. I’ve got hundreds of posts on my blog, and read almost everything that comes across my screen. I wouldn’t mind spending all day, every day reading the internet. It is great for research, for knowledge and for enjoyment. But like all things, it can be overdone. You could find yourself spending more time on the internet than you can handle. And if you find yourself in a place where your phone is the best option, or you don’t have the time to read anything – or if you find that you are spending all your time on social media – then there is no reason why you can’t spend some time reading. And it’s not just reading. The point of spending time on social media is to be productive. That means going beyond reading what’s been written, and focusing your mind. Think about what you want to achieve and spend your time thinking about that, not posting about what you’re doing. Watch Now, you might be thinking that if you need to do anything productive with the time you spend on social media, then you’re not getting as much time out as you might have hoped. Well, of course, you’re not! You will never get as much out of the time you spend on social media as you would if you were doing it right. But if you can avoid getting stuck in your social media habits, then you will spend time on the internet that you can use for your creativity. Just as it’s important to get out and get fresh air, it’s important to stay in touch with new ideas and keep a creative mind. And the best way of doing that is by watching something. I’m not talking about the latest reality TV show, but about something that interests you. A film, a sport or a new band. There is always something interesting, somewhere. As a very simple example, I love American football. I also enjoy watching football. Which is why when I was thinking about this post, I saw that there was a free trial of an American Football League on iTunes. The league starts again in the fall, so I’ve now got a month to watch the games and find out what the league is like. Learn something The thing about finding out more about something is that you will have to read books, watch films or documentaries. The more you know, the more you will know how far you have to go, and what you need to do in order to get where you’re going. This knowledge gives you the opportunity to make plans, decide what’s important and what isn’t, and it may allow you to recognise the importance of a problem and a challenge that seems to be getting in your way. If you are spending time on social media, then I suggest that it is worth spending some time on learning something new. Take a break It might seem like a strange thing to say, but sometimes you have to get away from something in order to progress. If you want to learn something new, then you have to stop being in the situation that you’re already in. When I was working on the new site, I worked with people who worked at a lot of different companies, and so I was working with people who had the best and the worst of things. They were a bit like me, they got things wrong, they made mistakes, they had ideas about things that didn’t work and they had no idea