I used to check Facebook and Twitter obsessively then a major health issue changed my mindset. I didn’t want the negativity, the complaining about inconsequential things and just plain old animosity of so many people on there. Now I sporadically pop onto social media spend a few minutes and leave. I miss knowing what friends are doing but those that matter know how to reach me and a few I actually speak to on the phone. ~gasp~ imagine using an iPhone as an actual phone lol. I read posts such as yours here and just let the rest go.
Same. I used to spend hours a day. HOURS. I allow myself a half hour a day now, but usually turn on the blocks after just a few minutes. I post my art and news and get out.
Thanks for these app suggestions and the time suck avoidance advice. One other thing that I find that may be useful to you and others, is that I use the Duck Duck Go browser which does a great job at blacking trackers and bot so you don't get a myriad of websites and ads tracking you.
Anyways, thanks for all this and that Freedom app looks very useful.
The treadmill office! So divinely camp. I adore it. Made me think of Jean Smart in Hacks with her little cycling machine on her private plane.
For productivity I use pomodoro timers. Usually a free web one called Pomofocus. https://pomofocus.io/app You just stick at one thing for 25 mins, then it dings, and you can do whatever for the next 5 mins. That’s enough time to flick through twitter/facebook or make a cup of tea and then DING! back at it. I ignore all notifications during the 25 mins, because I know I’ll have time to look at them in my five minute window (or fifteen minute break - you get one of those after three focus sessions). It’s not foolproof and it’s very much about self-discipline, but I find it reduces my procrastination inclination, which the internet thrives on.
Oh, the pain of building a website before WordPress made things super easy. I started my website in 2006 and built it myself in HTML. But it was so much pain and grief trying to do updates to it, to add new material. It took me some time to transfer my content to WordPress, but I was so relieved once it was done. At the time, I'd also maintained a LiveJournal blog, and interacted there. But when the Russians bought it, I decided to copy all my posts from LJ onto my own website -- especially as I built it with sections for specific types of material (actually multiple WordPress installations hyperlinked to each other).
So, I definitely sympathize with the hassles you ran into getting your own site up and running!
I confess that I can easily let Facebook and YouTube surfing consume too much of my time. I've taken to charting my actual time usage, so I have a visual way of seeing how I'm spending my time. That has proved useful to me, because when I hit major problems (outside writing) I tend to engage in Avoidance activities. And now I can see how much that reaction affects everything else. I can look at the chart and go "Oh! I'm letting that problem affect me too much. Time to do something about it."
I discovered I really needed the visual aspect of a time chart to make that clear. Simply keeping a logbook didn't have the same impact as seeing time in a physical representation.
My solution is a little different than yours, Colleen, but I don't think I would have come up with it if I hadn't been reading your posts about time management and dealing with social media. So, thank you for being so open about time sucks and solutions that don't stifle one! :)
Very grateful for your kind comments, I'm so glad the posts were useful. And yeah, until I saw my activity on a time chart, I was way underestimating my social media usage.
It makes me happy when I hear creators I love interacting in a positive way! I’m glad to hear that JMS and you have a good relationship - Babylon 5 is my all-time favorite tv show!
Ah, that sucks, but it sounds like now you're in a better place with that at least. I think I'd assumed it was just two creators trying something new out and not really falling in love with it. It would be cool to hear your thoughts on all of the different formats you've worked in in one post.
I used to check Facebook and Twitter obsessively then a major health issue changed my mindset. I didn’t want the negativity, the complaining about inconsequential things and just plain old animosity of so many people on there. Now I sporadically pop onto social media spend a few minutes and leave. I miss knowing what friends are doing but those that matter know how to reach me and a few I actually speak to on the phone. ~gasp~ imagine using an iPhone as an actual phone lol. I read posts such as yours here and just let the rest go.
Same. I used to spend hours a day. HOURS. I allow myself a half hour a day now, but usually turn on the blocks after just a few minutes. I post my art and news and get out.
Thanks for these app suggestions and the time suck avoidance advice. One other thing that I find that may be useful to you and others, is that I use the Duck Duck Go browser which does a great job at blacking trackers and bot so you don't get a myriad of websites and ads tracking you.
Anyways, thanks for all this and that Freedom app looks very useful.
The treadmill office! So divinely camp. I adore it. Made me think of Jean Smart in Hacks with her little cycling machine on her private plane.
For productivity I use pomodoro timers. Usually a free web one called Pomofocus. https://pomofocus.io/app You just stick at one thing for 25 mins, then it dings, and you can do whatever for the next 5 mins. That’s enough time to flick through twitter/facebook or make a cup of tea and then DING! back at it. I ignore all notifications during the 25 mins, because I know I’ll have time to look at them in my five minute window (or fifteen minute break - you get one of those after three focus sessions). It’s not foolproof and it’s very much about self-discipline, but I find it reduces my procrastination inclination, which the internet thrives on.
I use FocusMate, really does the trick for me.
Oh, the pain of building a website before WordPress made things super easy. I started my website in 2006 and built it myself in HTML. But it was so much pain and grief trying to do updates to it, to add new material. It took me some time to transfer my content to WordPress, but I was so relieved once it was done. At the time, I'd also maintained a LiveJournal blog, and interacted there. But when the Russians bought it, I decided to copy all my posts from LJ onto my own website -- especially as I built it with sections for specific types of material (actually multiple WordPress installations hyperlinked to each other).
So, I definitely sympathize with the hassles you ran into getting your own site up and running!
I confess that I can easily let Facebook and YouTube surfing consume too much of my time. I've taken to charting my actual time usage, so I have a visual way of seeing how I'm spending my time. That has proved useful to me, because when I hit major problems (outside writing) I tend to engage in Avoidance activities. And now I can see how much that reaction affects everything else. I can look at the chart and go "Oh! I'm letting that problem affect me too much. Time to do something about it."
I discovered I really needed the visual aspect of a time chart to make that clear. Simply keeping a logbook didn't have the same impact as seeing time in a physical representation.
My solution is a little different than yours, Colleen, but I don't think I would have come up with it if I hadn't been reading your posts about time management and dealing with social media. So, thank you for being so open about time sucks and solutions that don't stifle one! :)
Very grateful for your kind comments, I'm so glad the posts were useful. And yeah, until I saw my activity on a time chart, I was way underestimating my social media usage.
It makes me happy when I hear creators I love interacting in a positive way! I’m glad to hear that JMS and you have a good relationship - Babylon 5 is my all-time favorite tv show!
Joe is a truly wonderful person.
I still remember the short-lived Webtoon experiment between you and Ellis. It was fun!
It was. I was the sole reason that didn't move forward. I had undiagnosed auto-immune disease, and it took me a long time to get my stuff together.
Ah, that sucks, but it sounds like now you're in a better place with that at least. I think I'd assumed it was just two creators trying something new out and not really falling in love with it. It would be cool to hear your thoughts on all of the different formats you've worked in in one post.
I absolutely loved it, and was very grateful for the way Warren stood by me.