Why Social Media Has Become A Productivity Nighmare

In the U.S. adults spend 27% of their day on social media.

That is 16 minutes out of every hour of the day, that you could be responding to emails, polishing reports, or creating and tackling lists of possible investors.

In the past decade or so, there has been an enormous jump in social media and social media platforms. From the early days of Myspace and Friendster to the power houses of today such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Digg, Reddit, Vine, Snapchat, Instagram and the list goes on.

There are literally thousands of time consuming social platforms fighting for you attention. But we are in a new era of social media.

Social media has evolved and created an army of time killers. Sites like The chive, WorldStar hiphop, Buzzfeed, going viral posts, and Iwastesomuchtime. These sites are the biggest killers of productivity. Even though they are highly entertaining.

As a budding entrepreneur or seasoned employee, you all know how necessary time is. And can agree that we all wish there were a few more hours in the day.

How to turn productivity killers off?

Running a startup or company, you will realize that the most valuable asset you will ever have is time. It is valuable in more ways than one, and you do not want to waste it frolicking around online.

Tips to resisting the urge?

1. Don’t go on them during working hours.

2. Uses tools such as:

StayFocused – Increases your productivity by limiting the amount of time that you can spend on time-wasting websites. A Google chrome add on. (Free)

Cold turkey – Allows you to block websites and applications. It also has timers on how long to block these sites and apps for. So that you can get the job done. (Free)

Anti social – blocks any sites that wastes your times. (Paid)

3. Limit time on social media unless it is for the benefit of the company. Don’t go on it check your notifications or what Becky is doing tonight.

4. Remember that you’re trying to run a company, or you are a part of a team. And every 16 minutes wasting online is accumulating and sooner or later you will be asking for more hours in the day. Sorry, 24 hrs. is the limit.

So whenever you have the urge to waste time online instead of running your business, just think about this

“If you spend (16 minutes x 40 hours a week x 52 weeks a year) / 60 mins then you’re spending 562 hours a year wasting time and hurting your potential earnings.”

Tuesday, November 4, 2014