I’ve always stayed busy, but lately I’ve been more busy than usual. Abnormally busy. Which means I’ve neglected a lot of my daily habits like checking the news, reading my favorite blogs, lacked on strolling through my feeds and even checking out industry news (and you better believe I haven’t been to the gym in, well, weeks).
Because I work in the space, it’s important to stay engaged, watch trends and know what’s going on. But, seriously, how do you find the time? Even catching an average of 3 to 4 hours a night of sleep has gotten me behind. So I’ve been looking for easier ways to get the information and save time. I’m looking for the fast food option to information.
I’m not good at analogies, I’ll admit that. But bear with me for just a second. Social media has changed the way we spend time online, and it’s changed quickly. I used to have the freedom to be proactive about my interests. I could spend time online looking for information because I wanted to. I could search for blogs that talked about my hobbies (mostly shoes, food, and embarrassingly enough, some celeb gossip) and I spent time reading through my friend’s facebook profiles to stalk catch up on their local news. But over the last month or so I haven’t spent time fine dining and savoring the space (partially due to schedule and partially due to, well, life like getting hit by a car, etc.), but that doesn’t mean I’m not interested in rich content. I mean, I’m freaking hungry for it.
I’ll admit, I’m a information/social media glutton. I need content, and with my recent schedule, I need it quick. So what does that mean? *sigh* I’ve become a Twitter Fast Food Junkie. With TweetDeck filtering out groups, I’ve used it to quickly browse through searches that are of interest to my own professional development. I use it to grab information snacks, and I watch for folks I know will disseminate useful news and information. Quick, easy and at a relatively low cost. But, as you might know the more unhealthy food you consume (information), the more bloated with unless content and lethargic you become. Ew.
So what do you do to change your dining (online) habits? Become smarter about time management? Or my favorite, do you sacrifice the little sleep you’re already getting? The truth is, I don’t know. I want to be healthy and provide valuable content, I want to learn from people who I know will help me grow and develop. But in such a fast paced and constantly moving environment, how do you avoid eating on the run?
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I’ve been struggling with the same thing – I hit a point where I was behind like 1500 articles on RSS a couple weeks ago. I honestly don’t know the solution – I got merciless with nixing feeds that were overlaps of others, but I don’t know that it’s really helped, because it’s not just articles, but people, like you said.
And pretty much there are endless numbers of people that have something to offer, and it keeps getting easier to find and connect with them.
That said, I have taken like week-long internet sabbaticals and found I was okay on the other end of it.
Great post Jessica. You also could have called this; Information Overload- when is it too much?
For me it is about priorities. Make sure you are actually dealing with people face to face. Never give up time that could be used for human interaction. For me- information & the internets need take a backseat to friends & family. Peers, I want peers. People that share the idea of mutual value.
What can I give up? Television, giving up TV has given me much more useful time in the day. I need to let go- & not post just one more article. The need to get just a few more followers. There will always be more stuff I could do. There is no end. Realizing this helps me not lose sleep, fun-time or other stuff that is more important.