On-line activities take up more and more of everyone’s time these days.
Whether you go on-line as part of your business and marketing plan, or simply use this venue to connect with friends and family, you probably find yourself on-line more than ever before.
And do you feel like you often spend more time on-line than you’d like? Do you ‘come to’ after an hour or so and regret what you’ve just been doing?
This is a common problem, and happily, it’s also one that can be solved with some time planning, some boundary-setting, and some discipline.
On-Line Time: What’s Your Baseline?
The first step, when you’re looking to make a change, is to get a clear sense of where you are. That gives you a starting point and allows you to see your progress.
So, for a week, I suggest that you simply observe and record the amount of time you spend on-line. Decide ahead of time what level of detail you want to record. And you may want to check out some tools that you can use to help you do this.
IMPORTANT! If you want to get a clear picture of what you are actually doing, it is vital that you be a friendly, non-judgmental observer of your on-line time. Openness and acceptance allow you to truly see where you are – and this is a fundamental and necessary precursor to real change.
On-Line Time: What’s Your Goal?
Once you’ve got a good sense of your on-line time baseline, your next step is to decide what you’d actually like your on-line time to look like. Ask yourself if there are particular times of day or particular on-line venues that are especially challenging for you.
Once you’ve identified where you want to work, then set some realistic goals for yourself. One possibility would be to create time boundaries, limiting your on-line time to either specific times of day or specific periods of time.
For example, you might turn your e-mail off, except for specific times of day. Or maybe you’ll decide to spend just 15-minuts on Facebook at the end of the day.
Whatever you decide, using a timer to keep you on track is a big help.
And don’t aim to change everything at once. Small steps are the way to move ahead, consolidating the lessons as you go.
Openness and acceptance allow you to truly see where you are – and this is a fundamental and necessary precursor to real change. Click to Tweet!
Ready to delve further into planning and boundary-setting so you can make the most of your on-line time? Here’s a resource that we’ve created here at Finding Time. It’s called “The Twitter Trap” and it’s a step-by-step Quick Start Guide that has a unique focus: Twitter and Time.
As you probably know well, Twitter is a powerful tool and it can be a huge distraction and time drain. So The Twitter Trap is your very own, step-by-step, time-saving guide to help you create your Twitter Time Plan.
And the skills and time tools you use for your Twitter Time Plan can be easily extended to apply to other social media. Indeed, this Quick Start Guide offers a simple blueprint for setting and maintaining time boundaries and increasing your productivity in LOTS of areas of your life!
Just click this link to learn more about “The Twitter Trap” today. Use this Heart-Based Time Management™ resource to eliminate the frustration of the Twitter Time Trap by creating a Plan that works for YOU.
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