A little while back I heard a story from a friend of mine that struggled to maintain balance. The story was about a leader that was dedicated to what he did that he became the very best in his field. The leader made impressive breakthroughs because he spent so much time working.
His dedication caused to spend long hours at the office. During that time his children grew up and he and his wife grew apart. Once his children were grown, they didn’t even feel they knew him. He was so focused on his work that he didn’t maintain balance in his life and lost his wife and children in the process. They didn’t die, but he was not part of their lives. He became a workaholic.
He didn’t maintain balance. He spent so much time working that he lost sight of what was truly important in life. He didn’t set aside any time for himself, his family, or anything else important to him in life. So where did he go wrong? Wasn’t he dedicated to his work and became very successful? He failed to maintain balance.
Maintain Balance in Social Media
Social media is different than regular work life for most people, but it is just as important to maintain balance. Within social media there are many platforms. You can have a blog, be on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Google+, etc. That’s just a few of the many platforms that you can use. Once you get on a social media platform, there are many things you can do. You can connect with many people and could spend your whole day communicating with others on that platform. If you got on every social media platform that exists, you could spend every minute of every day on a social media platform. It can be a challenge to maintain balance.
One of my biggest challenges on this website been to maintain balance. I am always trying to maintain balance between producing new content, responding to comments, and making real connections with people through social media platforms. The number of hits per day fluctuates depending where I spend my time. When I have focused too much on one area my site traffic has goes down. At the same time, when I maintain balance between the different platforms, my traffic goes up. So what can you do to maintain balance?
1. Determine your level of dedication
First, identify how much time you want to spend on social media. Then divide your time up amongst the different platforms. Identify what your goals are and what you need to do to accomplish them.
2. Prioritize
Second, prioritize which platforms are most important to you. Identify which platform is most important to you. Once you make that decision, keep that platform moving forward. My blog is my number one priority, so I do all I can to post regularly.
3. Identify your balance levels
You can do this by setting specific time allotments to each platform. Stick to those time allotments to maintain balance. After you prioritize (as in step 2), you will know which platform to spend the most time on while still maintaining balance. It can be really easy to say that one platform is your most important and neglect the rest, but if you do that the other platforms will suffer and so will your most important platform. As I have done that, I have lost traffic and maybe even some of my readers.
4. Stick to your set criteria and don’t deviate
Once you set your criteria, it may take time for you to realize the benefits. As the days or weeks go by, it can be easy to get discouraged because your traffic isn’t where you want it to be, but you shouldn’t get discouraged. It can be easy to want to quit or change methods before you give it a chance to be effective. It is okay, however, to proactively change your focus if you find that something you are doing isn’t working.
Conclusion
As a leader, it is very important to maintain balance in social media and life. Do what you can to maintain balance so that you can be most effective. What do you do to maintain balance? Why is it important to maintain balance? Please share your thoughts in the comments section below!
Stick to priorities. And balance between physical and mental
affordability, by avoiding excesses.
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Fix your target and work to achieve with caution and care ……regards
Thank you for sharing your thoughts. You are completely right. If you are very focused on an end goal, social media will be used in its proper place. You will not allow yourself to spend too spend too much time on social media because you will use it for its time and place and not any more.
Great post and reminder. If not carefully guarded social media can waist a lot of time. I make it a point to not spend a lot of time on it. Which can be a challenge on some days:)
Thanks Dan! You make a great point that you need to make a concerted effort to not get sucked into social media too much. I have found that social media can be wonderful if used properly, but if you let it distract you it can eat up a bunch of your time and become an obsession. The key is to keep it in check and not let it take over so you can use it effectively but still maintain balance.