Social Media Essentialism: Step-by-Step

✏︎ Social Media Essentialism: Step-by-Step ✏︎
Freeing up massive amounts of time in 7 steps

I mentioned in a previous post that I usually take a complete social media sabbatical during the summer months. I also took a 2+ year Social Media Sabbatical from 2016 to 2019. I teach digital media research and practice to grad students, many of whom are already working in the field and don’t have the privilege of taking complete sabbaticals. This inspired me to research and experiment with what is required social media engagement and practice and what is not. While reading Greg McKeown’s “Essentialism,” I quickly transferred the ideas from the book to Social Media participation and practice. I’m calling it Social Media Essentialism. In one of my grad classes, we run a Digital Detox experiment where they have to give up some key media/device/app addiction and document the experience. I have seen dozens of people through this process and seen what works and what doesn’t. I’ve heard all the stories our minds tell us to justify the scrolling and liking. Just the other day as I caught myself mindlessly scrolling and went to stop, my mind said, “It’s OK, you’ve had such a hard week, you deserve to lose yourself in the eye candy.” Now, if that isn’t the voice of an addict, I don’t know what is!

Over the next few weeks, I’m going to be sharing a 7-step process to free up 7 or more hours a week. That’s right, for many people, this process will free up way over 7 hours. One of my favorite writing teachers, Kenneth Atchity, says in his book, “A Writer’s Time,” that an hour of writing every day can add up to a life in publishing. Whether you think that’s a stretch or not, I just read about a barber in NYC that started painting during his lunch hour and now has an art career. What are those things that you tell yourself you don’t have time for? If you had an “extra” hour today, what would you do with it? The topics we’ll be exploring in the coming days include: What will I do with all that time? What is the absolute essential participation and engagement? How can I practice “less but better”? What is “minimum viable participation”? How can I practice “what’s important now”?

CHECK OUT THE ENTIRE SERIES ON ONE PAGE!
https://mindfulmarks.com/digitaldetox

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