Are You Managing Your Social Media Time or is it Managing You?

 Have you caught yourself on Facebook, Twitter, Instragram, or another social media site at work, at the dinner table, driving (let’s hope not!), or at a restaurant with your family? You are one of the millions of people who do this on a daily basis. But what is social media stealing from your life? It can steal your time with friends and family, your attention to detail, your time at work, and most of all, your productivity.

Statistics show that 50.7 million people spend their time on Facebook and other social media sites. Since social media is so readily accessible through free downloads onto our phones, we have it in hand at all times. We also spend our time with our laptops on social media! It has become very easy and addictive to plug in and lose track of the day.

Let’s now talk about how much time we spend on social media. It has been shown that we spend 3+ hours daily! As the chart shows below, women spend more time on it than men.

Dwindling down to age demographics, we see that:

• 18-34-year-olds report spending 3.8 hours a day;

• 35-49-year-olds report spending 3 hours per day; and

• 50-64-year-olds report spending 2.4 hours per day.

No matter how old you are, you will spend about 2 hours or more on a tablet, mobile device, laptop, or desktop on a social media network.

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Tips for Managing Your Social Media Time

Dr. Deepika Chopra, health and wellness expert, has tips on how you can manage your social media time so you can get back to doing the important things – like spending real time with your family and being more productive at work.

• Track your time with social media. Tracking your time with social media will show you just how much you spend on it. The average American spends about 3 hours on social media. Do you know how much time you spend on social media? The answer may surprise you.
• Ask a human being for advice, help, or directions. Immediately, we go to Google Maps or Siri for directions or advice, but picking up your phone and actually talking with someone is one way to bond with another human being.
• Make a “No Phones at the Table” Rule.
• When someone texts you, call them back rather than responding with a text.
• Get moving with your friends. Instead of talking to your friends through Facebook or Twitter about meeting at the park to go for a walk or jog, call your friends and start exercising together. When you’re moving, you’re not going to focus on your mobile device. Pick an activity that you and your friend enjoy and start talking and moving!
• Temporarily delete your mobile app from your phone.

See how long you can go without Facebook, Twitter, Instragram, or other social media mobile apps. Take notice of the change in your mood, time, productivity, and focus. See if you can live without Facebook on your phone! This way, you free up time by only checking on your laptop or desktop.

Another way to minimize the time you spend on social media sites is to get the Hootsuite app, which allows you to connect to 35 social media sites all in one place. This will help you spend less time on different networks, constantly hopping around. But you’ll still need to be wary of the time you allow yourself to be on there. It’s always good to discipline yourself regarding your use of time.

We hope that you’ll start to improve your productivity, focus, time, and relationships with the tips mentioned above! We would love to hear your success stories – what worked, and what didn’t work for you – at www.TheProductivityExperts.com or email Cathy at cathy@theproductivityexperts.com

Now delete that Facebook app and start spending time enjoying your day rather than staring at a device!