Afternoon One & All 
Freshly motivated and inspired from the post I wrote last week and the comments that it had generated I thought that it would be a great start to this week by writing a post to share with you some Time Management tips for people who are incorporating Social Media into their daily working lives.
As many of you know (or may not know) my team is pretty much Me, Myself & I – which is absolutely fantastic in one respect (the only person I need to worry about is myself) and then in another it can be quite challenging (pretty much a jack of all trades – web master, designer, site management, content creator, blogger, social media account manager, enthusiastic student wanting to learn, helpful member of my online community, researcher, sales woman to name just a few!)
A massive misconception about working for yourself or working from home is that its “easy” or a “doss” for want of a better word, and similarly people believe that Social Media is all play and no work – when infact it’s quite the opposite.
I’ve NEVER worked harder in my life as I am right now – The only difference is I only have to answer to myself, and I am lucky that I can work wherever I want as long as there is internet connection – your own business gives you choice – and thats really important to remember.
Staying focused and on top of things can be really tough at times – whether you are working as a part of a team, or like I am there is ALWAYS so much to keep on top of at any one time quite often I’ve looked at emails and things I need to do and wanted to sink my head into my hands or go quietly to my bed and hide under the covers as a way of avoiding the mountain that I had created for myself.
So how do you do it? How do you manage your time to ensure that your ROI on yourself is as productive as it can possibly be?
“Fail To Prepare …. Prepare To Fail” – Benjamin Franklin
Everything boils down to preparation (and not just in web business either – ask any chef out there – the key is in the preparation)
I’ve looked around at others and I’ve looked at my own work ethic and now I want to share with you some key points on how I think you can manage your time better so you can stay on top of the necessary tasks associated with working for yourself and managing various aspects of marketing and running a web based business.
Have A Plan – More than almost any other activity, working in social media requires a plan. To create your plan, think about what you want to achieve in your social media work. Let’s say one of your social media marketing objectives includes increasing the number of followers for your company’s Twitter account. First, set a visible, specific goal – let’s say a 50% increase in six months. Then, start listing and scheduling the actions you’ll need to take in order to achieve that goal. Repeat this process until you have a workable plan.
A plan like this helps you discipline yourself. Whenever you notice you’re linkhopping from Pinterest to Facebook to YouTube, you can stop and consult your plan. It’ll be a huge help to your time management.
Prioritize your week/day - The benefit of time management is in the measurement. You want to know how you’re using your time and whether it’s being used effectively. If you think about it time is a resource like money. Just like we budget our finances, we need to budget and prioritize our time. So ask yourself: How do you want to prioritize your time?
Begin by sketching out the big “must-do’s” every day. These must-do’s are actions that – in order to be effective – must happen today. Are there other looming deadlines in the next 5 to 7 days? Build those into your schedule and prioritize them appropriately. If you create a work plan built around priorities, then you’ll feel more free to create content and build relationships with your customers.
My day doesn’t end until the following one is on paper – so when I am back in the think tank I know exactly whats on the agenda and can get straight to it with little fuss each day. I use a really great Day Planner I downloaded from Simon Jordan – you can grab a copy here.
Do the necessary then move on - Creating and curating great content is one of the chief tasks of being a social media marketer. It can also be one of the biggest challenges. This is where Hootsuite comes in helpful: you discover blogposts, webapps or other resources you think your followers will appreciate, you can schedule Tweets and Facebook posts into the future. Say you find ten informative websites, or you have specific messages you NEED to post, or you are out of the office, in training and don’t want to miss posting opportunities – auto-scheduling is designed for this. TO MAKE LIFE EASIER – not replace realtime engagement.
People frown upon it, but used correctly this can be a lifeline when the world around you seems to be working on overdrive.
Perfection isn’t always “Perfect” – One of the greatest enemies of time management is perfectionism. That’s when you spend far too much time getting a blogpost or a Facebook status absolutely right. I’m not suggesting you slack off from giving your best, but there’s a fine balance between perfection and excellence. If you’re spending four hours writing and editing a blogpost that should only take two hours, you’re giving up valuable time to other work. And you won’t know this if you don’t accurately track your time.
Have a POWER HOUR – Distraction defeats us all – EVERY SINGLE DAY I ensure that my phone is off, all websites, emails and ways of connecting with me are off – and I strictly focus on 60 minutes of uninterupted work – and it works. It’s not until you turn off the world around you, that you realise how much the world around you distracts you! Writing this post I’ve done exactly that – I’ve even turned my music off – which I am pretty much always listening too. In your power hour you can do as much or as little as you like – I catch up on Webinars, write newsletters, write chapters from my eBook’s i’m working on – anything really that needs doing – that could even be reading a book – pick which matters to you, and in your 60 minutes each day focus only on that.
Talk To Your Peers – what works for them, you may find they can recommend some software to make your life that little bit easier – there is SO much ground to Social Media, that you can’t possibly know everything and have all the tools to do your job – This happened to me recently when Andi at Tims’ Minions did a great tutorial about using TweetAdder – to me this was a godsend, and until I sat and watched the tutorial I didn’t realise its full capability, and since introducing that to my work, i’ve more than halved my time on Twitter – with finding niche specific followers and contacting everyone that does follow me! So it just goes to show you, it does pay to talk to others – We’re all in this together afterall, and I firmly believe that sharing really is caring
Be Realistic – This is the last thing I would say to you. Rome wasn’t built in a day, and you can’t beat yourself up if you can’t take on everything and win. Personally I’d rather do one thing well than 3 things badly – set goals that you can achieve, and break it down. If you have website maintenance to do, then focus on that without thinking about Twitter updates, if you need to write blog posts, then write blog posts and don’t think about emails, and so forth.
I’d be delighted to know of any tips and tricks you may have to help with Time Management with Social Media or indeed any online work in general – so feel free to comment and share this post!
Clair
Fantastic tips Clair!
It can be extremely hard to get everything done in a day (especially when you work from home), but if you stick to a fairly structured plan, it can make all the difference.
My biggest problem is factoring in social media marketing to my day. Either I end up doing none at all or getting distracted by it and losing part of the day. I really like the idea of a “POWER HOUR”, could get a lot done by doing that.
Great advice Clair. Keep up the excellent work!
Thanks Matt!
Yes being home based has its negatives, much to a lot of peoples surprise! I base myself out of my family business offices most of the week as it helps me with focus and gives me some structure – getting up and “going to work”
I know factoring it in can be hard, I spend a lot of my week scheduling updates, or spend like 30 mins each morning with specific things i need to post. I think giving yourself a time limit on social media activities is important – because before you know it, 4 hours have passed! As long as you turn up each day and contribute what you can there is no written law to say it needs to be “x” hours a day ….. unless of course your niche is social media (like me) then it probably should factor quite a lot …. But for me, the flip side is my website needs to remain optimised and looking good – so I’m on the opposite side of the fence to you Matt!
Enjoy the power hour – let me know how it works out for you!
Thanks for the comments, I appreciate them!
Clair
This is an excellent post, a Power Hour is a great idea, turn off all distractions and focus on getting work done. Pure focus can give us great results, with email, social media, and blog commenting it is very easy to get distracted and lose focus.
I myself can only work on some projects in the evening due to a day job and with the evening jobs and chores it doesn’t leave me long to get on with things and I have a lot I want to do.
Focus without distraction is very important. The Power Hour is an excellent idea, as I write this I am sat at the lounge table with Eastenders on taking my focus away, a small flat doesn’t help with evening work lol.
Perfection or at least close to perfection will come with time, it should be worked at but never expected. Too many people want perfection but because they think what they have done, written or created isn’t perfect they do nothing with it, they do not post that blog post and by doing that they never advance.
It is sad that people hold themselves back by wanting perfection or allowing themselves to be distracted. I know, I was once one of those people
A great post and one I shall share.
SI
Hi SI
As always your comments are appreciated and very welcome at my blog
The Power Hour is KEY for me too – infact when it was introduced to me I found it an absolute godsend – i’ve always got about 10 tabs open on my browser and life gets very distracting when you hear a skype ping or a Facebook chat notification – I achieve so much in 60 minutes if I put my mind to it, that its become as much a part of my day as brushing my teeth is!
I understand that time and full time employment and other responsibilities can affect achieving goals – I have this myself sometimes, like for now – pretty much most of my day is being spent on Web development for one of my family business sites – not leaving me much time for other things – BUT a little more patience, and a whole lot of organisation and i’m still getting all my tasks completed daily ….. Heck I’m even pulling some late night work (like right now)
Thats the thing when working for yourself though – in order to make it full time you need to graft very hard, and once it is full time you can’t stop working and developing things further. The freedom that this work gives you geographically and financially is not without effort – but its a choice – and those of us who want it the most are the ones who work hard to achieve it.
The fear of being judged huh? Yes at times it has stopped me from writing posts and doing things as it wasn’t meeting my high standards … but its a part of the learning curve and as long as we learn we continue to grow.
Clair
This is an excellent post Clair, some great advice here… people need reassuring that they need to…
stop worrying about perfection, be realistic, do what they can and move on and more importantly do stuff! They need to be shown that distractions can drag out jobs and rob you of time. The Power Hour is a great concept.
I try and do something similar but with me being in an office with distractions I cannot control very easily, I often have to put headphones on and have some gentle soothing music that drowns out background chatter. Obviously this has to be non taxing music otherwise I start drifting off and being distracted.
As I write this I have now started a YouTube search for some music so it shows how easy it is to become distracted. I have often preferred working in my own space away from everything. Think I am going to rent out a cellar away from everyone and everything. I might then get some work done!
Oh Andi! hahaha, today is a day I am struggling with my own focus …. thankfully PowerHour was productive, so I am rewarding myself with some distraction ….
It can be extremely hard especially when you have others around you, I know how you feel, for I am in an office with 4 other people too …..
Headphones back on … and I’m going in
Thanks for the comments …
Clair
Great tips, Clair!
As someone who has worked at home for more years than I care to remember it’s so important to build structure into your day just as you’ve suggested, and the ‘power hour’ is an absolute must
Hi Debs,
Thanks for this comment! great to hear from someone else who works from home ….. Structure is the key without a doubt!
Clair