WEBVTT - Second Cup: Enjoy social media without wasting time

0:00:03.200 --> 0:00:06.400
<v Speaker 1>Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of I Heart Radio.

0:00:09.240 --> 0:00:13.840
<v Speaker 1>Good Morning, This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.

0:00:14.640 --> 0:00:18.520
<v Speaker 1>Today's tip is about how to enjoy social media responsibly

0:00:19.160 --> 0:00:22.040
<v Speaker 1>without losing hours down rabbit holes that you didn't mean

0:00:22.079 --> 0:00:26.280
<v Speaker 1>to jump into. Every year, new surveys point out how

0:00:26.440 --> 0:00:29.840
<v Speaker 1>much time people spend on social media and messaging platforms.

0:00:30.600 --> 0:00:33.080
<v Speaker 1>One recent report claimed that among people who do use

0:00:33.120 --> 0:00:36.160
<v Speaker 1>the Internet, the average was a hundred forty two minutes

0:00:36.200 --> 0:00:40.480
<v Speaker 1>per day, or two hours and twenty two minutes. This

0:00:40.680 --> 0:00:44.040
<v Speaker 1>is quite a bit of time, just for comparison's sake.

0:00:44.080 --> 0:00:46.919
<v Speaker 1>If you use that time to read War and Peace instead,

0:00:47.440 --> 0:00:50.560
<v Speaker 1>you'd be done in less than two weeks. And it's

0:00:50.640 --> 0:00:54.639
<v Speaker 1>not a short book. Of course, this time isn't all wasted,

0:00:55.080 --> 0:00:57.480
<v Speaker 1>some is sure, But the amount of time we spend

0:00:57.480 --> 0:01:00.240
<v Speaker 1>on social media is complicated by the reality that these

0:01:00.320 --> 0:01:03.040
<v Speaker 1>days many people do need to be plugged in as

0:01:03.160 --> 0:01:07.119
<v Speaker 1>part of their jobs. Maybe they do digital marketing or communications,

0:01:07.600 --> 0:01:09.520
<v Speaker 1>or they work for policy groups that need to be

0:01:09.560 --> 0:01:12.679
<v Speaker 1>aware of the news cycle. Plus plenty of us want

0:01:12.680 --> 0:01:15.160
<v Speaker 1>to know what people in our industries are talking about.

0:01:15.760 --> 0:01:19.480
<v Speaker 1>These are absolutely legitimate uses of work time and preclude

0:01:19.520 --> 0:01:24.360
<v Speaker 1>swearing off social media completely. The problem is that you

0:01:24.440 --> 0:01:27.039
<v Speaker 1>might go on Twitter to check what a client's competitor

0:01:27.160 --> 0:01:29.800
<v Speaker 1>is talking about, and then all of a sudden, you're

0:01:29.800 --> 0:01:33.840
<v Speaker 1>watching cat videos. People who use social media professionally are

0:01:33.920 --> 0:01:36.160
<v Speaker 1>no more immune to this than the rest of us.

0:01:37.040 --> 0:01:39.440
<v Speaker 1>So I've been talking lately with people who do use

0:01:39.480 --> 0:01:43.600
<v Speaker 1>social media professionally about how they manage their time. How

0:01:43.640 --> 0:01:46.160
<v Speaker 1>do they focus on the necessary parts of social media

0:01:46.480 --> 0:01:49.080
<v Speaker 1>while skipping the rest. What can the rest of us

0:01:49.200 --> 0:01:54.080
<v Speaker 1>learn from them? The first tip recognize that social media,

0:01:54.680 --> 0:01:58.160
<v Speaker 1>like email, can fill in cracks of time around other things.

0:01:58.960 --> 0:02:01.639
<v Speaker 1>You can check headlines and Twitter or your competitors YouTube

0:02:01.720 --> 0:02:05.160
<v Speaker 1>videos in chunks of ten minutes or less, but you

0:02:05.200 --> 0:02:08.480
<v Speaker 1>probably won't write not ed or a press release, or

0:02:08.520 --> 0:02:11.240
<v Speaker 1>give your direct report a thoughtful critique of her proposed

0:02:11.240 --> 0:02:15.560
<v Speaker 1>strategy in ten minutes. So build your daily schedule around

0:02:15.560 --> 0:02:18.320
<v Speaker 1>the big stuff. You might aim to work on big

0:02:18.320 --> 0:02:20.680
<v Speaker 1>stuff for forty five minutes, and then you could spend

0:02:20.680 --> 0:02:25.120
<v Speaker 1>a few minutes on social channels. Second, put some intention

0:02:25.440 --> 0:02:29.400
<v Speaker 1>into those social media breaks. People who do this professionally

0:02:29.480 --> 0:02:32.120
<v Speaker 1>take the time to curate lists of accounts that they

0:02:32.120 --> 0:02:37.240
<v Speaker 1>find worth following. Yes, There's always the possibility of serendipitous gold,

0:02:37.800 --> 0:02:39.640
<v Speaker 1>but you have to scroll through a lot of stuff

0:02:39.639 --> 0:02:42.000
<v Speaker 1>to get there, and it might not be worth the time.

0:02:42.800 --> 0:02:45.200
<v Speaker 1>In any case, if you follow a diverse group of

0:02:45.200 --> 0:02:48.640
<v Speaker 1>thoughtful people in your industry or in your area of interests,

0:02:49.040 --> 0:02:52.400
<v Speaker 1>you will see pretty much anything that's being discussed. The

0:02:52.480 --> 0:02:55.200
<v Speaker 1>nature of social media is that you can rely somewhat

0:02:55.240 --> 0:02:58.160
<v Speaker 1>on other people to do the searching for you. I'd

0:02:58.200 --> 0:03:01.480
<v Speaker 1>add that unless you do have a really good professional reason,

0:03:01.880 --> 0:03:05.600
<v Speaker 1>it's not worth following any accounts that tend to upset you.

0:03:06.280 --> 0:03:09.880
<v Speaker 1>Thoughtful disagreements are fine, but drama and personal attacks aren't

0:03:09.880 --> 0:03:15.000
<v Speaker 1>worth the mental space. Focus on quality. Third, and just

0:03:15.160 --> 0:03:19.000
<v Speaker 1>as important, you also need to identify an end of

0:03:19.040 --> 0:03:22.919
<v Speaker 1>the social media scrolling cycle. Many of us keep going

0:03:23.040 --> 0:03:26.200
<v Speaker 1>until we realize that we've just kept going or something

0:03:26.240 --> 0:03:30.080
<v Speaker 1>interrupts us. People who do this professionally might decide to

0:03:30.080 --> 0:03:32.720
<v Speaker 1>look at a specific group of ten accounts during a check.

0:03:33.240 --> 0:03:36.800
<v Speaker 1>At the end of that cycle, they move on. If

0:03:36.840 --> 0:03:39.440
<v Speaker 1>you have a really difficult time setting an end like this, well,

0:03:39.480 --> 0:03:43.080
<v Speaker 1>then set a timer. Well. I don't recommend snoozing in

0:03:43.080 --> 0:03:44.640
<v Speaker 1>the morning when you're trying to get out of bed.

0:03:45.120 --> 0:03:47.960
<v Speaker 1>Using a nine minute timer for social media breaks could

0:03:48.000 --> 0:03:50.760
<v Speaker 1>be smart. Think of it as using the snooze function

0:03:50.800 --> 0:03:54.440
<v Speaker 1>on your phone for good. Finally, the best way to

0:03:54.520 --> 0:03:57.360
<v Speaker 1>keep social media in check is to be more proactive

0:03:57.520 --> 0:04:01.480
<v Speaker 1>about your leisure time. Cal newport Its book Digital Minimalism

0:04:01.480 --> 0:04:03.400
<v Speaker 1>has a longer discussion of this, if you'd like to

0:04:03.440 --> 0:04:06.120
<v Speaker 1>check that out. It turns out that breaks at work

0:04:06.160 --> 0:04:09.240
<v Speaker 1>are one thing, but the biggest social media binges tend

0:04:09.320 --> 0:04:12.400
<v Speaker 1>to happen at other times, namely at night after the

0:04:12.480 --> 0:04:14.560
<v Speaker 1>kids have gone to bed, or when you're hanging out

0:04:14.560 --> 0:04:17.159
<v Speaker 1>around the house on the weekends when you don't have

0:04:17.240 --> 0:04:19.440
<v Speaker 1>ideas about what else you'd like to do with yourself.

0:04:19.880 --> 0:04:22.839
<v Speaker 1>Social media is a very easy option. You don't have

0:04:22.880 --> 0:04:25.520
<v Speaker 1>to dress up, and you don't have to hire a babysitter.

0:04:26.360 --> 0:04:28.440
<v Speaker 1>But there are plenty of more rewarding ways to spend

0:04:28.480 --> 0:04:32.880
<v Speaker 1>this time. Consider various forms of low energy analog fun,

0:04:33.320 --> 0:04:37.200
<v Speaker 1>like doing jigsaw puzzles or crossword puzzles, coloring and adult

0:04:37.200 --> 0:04:39.640
<v Speaker 1>coloring books, or doing a craft such as cross stitching

0:04:39.800 --> 0:04:43.200
<v Speaker 1>or knitting, or reading. I know that when I'm really

0:04:43.240 --> 0:04:45.320
<v Speaker 1>into a good book, I spend a lot less time

0:04:45.360 --> 0:04:48.159
<v Speaker 1>on Instagram when I don't have a good book, Well

0:04:48.320 --> 0:04:51.080
<v Speaker 1>that's when I actually get that sad message that I'm

0:04:51.120 --> 0:04:54.599
<v Speaker 1>all caught up, which is probably not a noteworthy achievement.

0:04:55.640 --> 0:04:59.240
<v Speaker 1>What do you do to enjoy social media responsibly? Please

0:04:59.320 --> 0:05:02.159
<v Speaker 1>let me know. You can email me at Before Breakfast

0:05:02.160 --> 0:05:05.760
<v Speaker 1>podcast at i heeart media dot com. In the meantime,

0:05:06.200 --> 0:05:09.160
<v Speaker 1>this is Laura. Thanks for listening, and here's to making

0:05:09.160 --> 0:05:18.080
<v Speaker 1>the most of our time. Hey, everybody, I'd love to

0:05:18.120 --> 0:05:21.080
<v Speaker 1>hear from you. You can send me your tips, your questions,

0:05:21.200 --> 0:05:24.920
<v Speaker 1>or anything else. Just connect with me on Twitter, Facebook

0:05:25.040 --> 0:05:30.520
<v Speaker 1>and Instagram at Before Breakfast pod that's B the number four,

0:05:31.080 --> 0:05:34.560
<v Speaker 1>then Breakfast p o D. You can also shoot me

0:05:34.600 --> 0:05:38.239
<v Speaker 1>an email at Before Breakfast podcast at i heeart media

0:05:38.320 --> 0:05:40.960
<v Speaker 1>dot com. That Before Breakfast is spelled out with all

0:05:40.960 --> 0:05:43.760
<v Speaker 1>the letters. Thanks so much. I look forward to staying

0:05:43.800 --> 0:05:52.480
<v Speaker 1>in touch. Before Breakfast is a production of I Heart Radio.

0:05:53.040 --> 0:05:55.960
<v Speaker 1>For more podcasts from my Heart Radio, visit the I

0:05:56.040 --> 0:05:59.480
<v Speaker 1>Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to

0:05:59.560 --> 0:06:00.359
<v Speaker 1>your favorite Chess