How to Handle the Pressure of Social Media

Day 12 of Robert Lee Brewer's Platform Challenge and  the social media pressure just keeps on building.

Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, StumbleUpon, URL shortening, Linking websites...well, you get the idea.

As I mentioned in my last post, The Perils of Social Media, the time spent can be overwhelming although I'll admit I'm learning useful skills.

Check this out! This is the URL for the post I just mentioned:   

 http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3452135858490893237#editor/target=post;postID=3976601648716689391

I learned how to shorten it using bit.ly.   The URL now looks like this:

 http://bit.ly/IMUurO

As cool as that is I found that keeping up with the techno Jones' was putting a crimp in my novel writing style.

For me, it is important to stick to Elizabeth George's strict rule. Get cracking first thing in the morning and don't come up for air until you've completed your word count for that day. If that takes two hours - great. If it takes six hours - then so be it.

In school I always felt less guilty if I got my work done before I made time for friends and I guess this is the same thing.

The less guilt the better strategy works for me.  Only when I complete my word count  can I can dig into the platform challenge, check my FB, peek in on Twitter, etc.

If my solution seems too 'goody two shoes' for you check out the links below. Three totally different sites giving three totally different takes on how to manage social media time.

http://bit.ly/HBrwwL  The Three T's of Social Time Management by Robert Larson

http://bit.ly/HP8vlb 18 minutes a day to Social Time Management by Lisa Buyer

http://bit.ly/HDZVft   Robert Lee Brewer's Time Management Ideas.