I wrote on my personal blog about a “30 day challenge,” where I stopped going to twitter, google plus, and some other social media sites, blogs and message boards for 30 days. It was surprisingly easy.
What that lesson taught me, and what’s covered in the book Find Your Focus Zone, is that you shouldn’t fear “missing out.” What’s valuable to gain from constantly viewing updates on those networks anyway? Probably very little. What it ends up serving as is a go to avoidance crutch to visit instead of doing something meaningful (which might require careful and focused thought).
The 30 day challenge provided me motivation to stop visiting those networks so much, and the habit has continued. By not visiting those networks so much, I definitely gained back some valuable time. The point to consider is that although total time on those networks weren’t very much (for me), the interruptions they brought about are hard to recover from–although it’s not apparent when you are not aware if it. Idle time can be put to very good use instead of being wasted.
I’m only half way through the book. I’ll post a detailed review shortly. This is just one takeaway so far.