by Megan Spears
Recently, I was reading an article in the newspaper about Internet addiction and it’s affects on personal interaction and relationships. Between social networks and generic Internet surfing, a person can spend hours of each day on their computers, in addition to their workload. And lets not forget to add the texting piece to this equation. If you really sat down and thought about it….
“How much time does social Internet usage take from your day? “
I think it’s important to spend time doing various social networking, Internet activities… but how do you set the limits? Especially as a small business owner? Another important fact is that when you are trying to do too many things at once, are you really giving each task your full attention? Here are three great ways you can dial in the amount of time you are spending on these various tasks…
1. I encourage most of my clients who spend lots of time on the computer to actually track for one week how much time they are spending on the Internet. It’s an eye opening experience when you actually start tracking how much time you are spending online. It’s even better when you track how much time goes to each type of usage. Don’t fool yourself… it’s not 15 minutes a day!
2. After looking at how much time you are currently spending, determine what a good limit should be for each day or week. Once you have a reasonable amount, use a timer or set an alarm on your computer to remind you when it’s time to stop. When you set that reasonable boundary, it becomes easier to live within your means and enjoy the time you are spending on each type of task.
3. If you are struggling with limitations and/or struggle with making decisions on where to spend your time, use a quick tools that will help you manage multiple networks or services for you in one action. For example, services like HootSuite is a fantastic service that will allow you to manage multiple Facebook pages and/or profiles, Twitter or other networks in one application. This way, you can update a status once or twice a week once, versus five different times once or twice a week.
The key is to really decide what your priorities are and understand that multi-tasking isn’t always a good thing. It’s also important to be dedicating time to various Internet activities… However… proceed with caution. When you start to feel that draw that you might be missing out or you need to quickly check what people are saying on Facebook… you might want to stop yourself and consider how important that is right now.