Leverage LinkedIn but leverage your time too
Sometimes you come across a few posts that not only depict your thoughts but also compel you to think beyond the obvious. Most importantly, they inspire you to write and so here I’m!
We all want to work. We all want to showcase our talent, knowledge and what we’re capable of. We all want to make connections that add value to our lives. And fortunately, we are blessed to be born or to be alive in an era that allows us to leverage the power of social media and see most of our desires come to reality. When it comes to making professional connections that fuel growth that propels prosperity, LinkedIn wins the title.
Most professionals spend a hell lot of time on LinkedIn interacting with other professionals, sharing their thoughts and create connections expecting to get some “real” leads that can help them grow either their business or network or knowledge. To some extent, it does help!
The real question is how many of you end up making connections that truly add value to your life, particularly to your profession? And the moment you stop being active, all your connections shift to someone/something more interesting and more active. Isn’t it?
But if you want to be in the “scene” like most millennials would describe it as you gotta put out fresh content every day. Keep your social account flooding with new ideas, appreciate the ideas thrown by others and be genuinely interested in the achievement of others. While you are at it, don’t forget to find your “sweet spot”. Don’t compromise on your productivity. Don’t put all your efforts in pleasing your connection online, while your offline connections complain and suffer.
Keep it balanced. Keep it real…
…If you don’t know how, I’ve penned down a few points to help you get started!
Turn off the notifications
We all fret about getting distracted while working, yet we choose to let devices and notifications shift our focus from being “productive” to “non-productive”. We know what happens next! At the end of the day, we are filled with regret of spending too much time having pointless online conversations and feeds. I have some advice for you — Turn off your notifications! All of them. Only check your gadgets/devices only when you want to, and not when someone decides for you.
Social media, regardless of what platform you use, negatively affects your productivity offline. There’s no point of engaging with people online when you’ve so much of work to be done offline for some “real clients”.
Time management is the key
Facebook has recently announced that it would be soon rolling out a Time Management System so people can track how much time they spend on Facebook and Instagram each day. This is a good initiative to give people more control over the time they spend on social platforms.
While LinkedIn is still not considering to implement any such kinda system, but you can always come up with a fixed daily schedule, set time limits of your usage on LinkedIn and stick to it.
Ideally, you should spend about 30 minutes, by the clock, in the morning and 30 minutes in the evening to check your home feed. See if you can find something resourceful to study. if not, move on to the next step.
Be active, but in moderation
Comment and like the posts that get your attention, but don’t think too much while writing down your comments. No one is judging you. They are just interacting like they would have had they met you in a club or at a party. Be casual. Be yourself. Don’t try too hard, You’re only wasting your time.
Publish/post if you have anything constructive to share in your mind. If not, let it be for the day. Don’t spend hours trying to figure out your new post. It’s not going to help. It’s not going to make you any money. It might attract a few eyeballs, but even that would be temporary. So if you don’t know what to write today, let it go, come back tomorrow. Put your energy doing things that will get you real benefits.
Connect, but don’t get hitched
Connect with a few people, but don’t waste your time analyzing each and every detail that their profile entails. This ain’t their tinder or matrimonial profile. Strictly professional! You don’t really need to know everything about each and every connection that you make on LinkedIn. Only focus on those with whom you can collaborate for work.
Conclude and move on!
Once you are done with all of this, close the tab and move on to doing some “real work in the real world for real people” That’s how you get the numbers — by that, I mean numbers in the bank account and not social accounts.
What other strategies do you impose to fight your social media addiction? Share in the comment section below. Let’s help each other getting “digital detox”.
