Burnout? But the Year Just Started! Five Steps to Being More Productive

We’re firmly entrenched into the New Year—the stress of the holidays is over, we’ve marketed like crazy to get to all those new device owners and the last thing we want to do is look at another social media tweet, blog, post or anything—especially, if you have to generate the content.

Burnout is serious business. It can kill your motivation and even leave you with a negative attitude toward the things that are an integral part of your overall writing/publishing career. So today, here are a few tips to avoid and even attack social media burnout.




1. Disconnect. Yep, that’s right. Let go for an entire day. No Facebook, Twitter, Socl, Pinterest, Google+ or any other platform. It’s just one day! Even give up your e-mail and blog. 

2.  Analyze why you feel this way. Start with the amount of time you’re spending on social media. Are you participating on numerous sites? Do you focus too much on just one site? Are you bored? Are you not getting the results you want?

Once you figure out why you’re burnt out, you’ll be able to redirect your focus to more productive activities. If you feel like you are not getting results with a particular platform, change what you are doing—shift to paid ads or free book campaigns with Amazon or giveaways on Goodreads.

After all, the definition of insanity is Doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.

3. Set boundaries. Schedule parts of your day where you don’t allow yourself to participate in social media or even answer e-mails. Do you realize that you lose four minutes every time you stop what you are doing to look at e-mails? That’s two hours a day if check your e-mail every fifteen minutes or so.

4. Set goals. You’ve heard me preach about this before on this blog. It’s so important to set goals and write them down. Schedule your day with specific blocks of time for each activity. You’ll find a whole new freedom with a schedule. You’ll be more productive and have time for everything, including social media.

5. Focus. This goes hand-in-hand with number four, but when it comes to social media, don’t try to be everywhere. Make sure you have quality posts and alternate weeks where you focus on different social media platforms. Divide the month into four segments where you focus on a particular platform. For example: Week one-Pinterest, Week two-Goodreads, Week three-Google+, Week four-Socl. You figure out what works best for you and schedule it into your overall plan.

You might think that once a month is not enough for a particular platform, but don’t worry, it will still be there when you get back. Figure out for yourself which ones are the most important and make that your primary, the lower tiered platforms are the ones that you divvy up for the month.

With these simple steps, you can avoid burnout, organize your day better and be more productive in 2013. What are some of the keys you have for making your week productive?

This post originally appeared in a post by Jim Devitt on Indies Unlimited, January 5th, 2013