Posted by K. S. Dearsley on Sunday, June 15, 2014
Strange how those little jobs that you thought would only take a minute or two have a habit of eating up half your day. Social media, such as Facebook and Twitter, can be a great help to writers as a means of publishing their work and of keeping up with what else is going on in the 'literary' world, but if you aren't careful, you could find that there's no time left for anything else. Coming up with a strategy to keep them within bounds makes sense.
Be clear what it is that you want to achieve with Facebook and Twitter and don't be tempted to stray from it. Those quizzes that tell you what your superhero qualities are, or which of Shakespeare's characters you are, might be fun but they're time-wasters. I try only to look at social media for a set period, once a day maximum.
Rather than sitting at the computer trying to compose tweets, I try to be alert to the odd thoughts and sentences that tend to occur to me when I'm out and about and unable to get on with anything that requires a more sustained train of thought. It's surprising how long it can take to trim excess characters from tweets and no one pays a fortune for them, so although they have their uses and I enjoy writing them, it would be silly to make them a priority.
I've never heard of a writer who didn't like to procrastinate. The successful ones are those who don't allow themselves to be distracted.
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procrastination routine marketing