Cutting back on Twitter
I started 2013 with the intention of cutting back on Twitter. I thought it best not to use it during normal work hours. Three days into the new year and I realised my approach was a little impractical.
I quickly cut back on my usage, but I realised that going cold-turkey was probably too severe. After all, paying attention to Twitter and being in the right place at the right time was how I got some of my best contracts in 2012. Not paying attention might literally cost me dearly.
I’ve decided instead to modify my usage, rather than turn it off completely. I’ve unfollowed anyone who’s not tweeting about my interests, or accounts which have become mainly personal. This reduced my follows by about 150 and took me below 400 which was my target.
I’m also employing these new tactics:
- Avoid Twitter during key blocks of work time. Only use it in the morning before I start work, during tea and lunch breaks, and in the evening.
- Don’t scroll back infinitely through my timeline when I next look at it: stick to 2-3 pages of old tweets at the most.
- Share only useful thoughts or links to useful information and reduce my pointless noise.
- Only engage in discussions when I have time to; I dislike the unfinished nature of many Twitter chats.
- Let go of FOMO (fear of missing out). Remember that Twitter is transitory and random and anything that I missed on a given day will surely come back up in the future.
There’s a danger that my Twitter could seem less “personal” but as I keep most of my personal stuff for my offline life, that’s fine. I’m not a fan of social media over-sharing.
In 2012 Twitter was a life saver for me (almost literally) and I’d be foolish to ignore it, but I know that I can’t afford to spend so much time on it if I want to achieve my goals in 2013.
Like most things in life, it’s about finding a good balance.