About six weeks ago I wrote a post talking about when people disappear. I wondered at what point people miss you, and then at what point it’s done and over and we’ve moved on with life.
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Not that this is necessarily an experiment to see who might miss me in some places but it’s more of an experiment to see what I will do with my extra time. For the next week I don’t plan on checking on Twitter or Facebook or LinkedIn to see what’s going on. The only time I’ll be on any of those sites is to respond to something if someone uses my name. I’ll know when that happens because all of them send emails when someone has said something directly to me.
Most of you don’t know this but Mitchell Allen and I have been working our way through this plan from a book called Get Clients Now by C. J. Hayden. Its basic purpose is to help you get clients, obviously. But it’s secondary purpose is to help you get things completed that have been on your list that will help you in some fashion. It also helps to do it with someone else to help keep you accountable, which is what we try to do for each other.
I’ve had a couple of things on my list for the past couple of months that I haven’t even started. I’m not sure that if I have more time to dedicate to it that I’ll get to either of them. But what I do know is that the marketing part is definitely something I need to do more of. I actually have gotten at least one new client over the past 3 months, so my efforts haven’t gone in vain. But I need to do more. This isn’t a vacation or a rest, but a re-dedication of work priorities, not including my blogs.
So, until Saturday at least, I’ll have my blog posts and be responding to people that post a comment here, but I’m not doing anything beyond that and what I’ve mentioned above. As for the blog posts, y’all know I write these things in advance, so that means I won’t be taking any time out to have to write anything new this week either, as it’ll already be written. I’ll either be working or relaxing some; I could use a bit of each.
That is, unless something big happens; please don’t let anything big happen. 😉
Hi Mitch,
Good to see you relaxing. 🙂
It is so easy to get hung up on Twitter and Facebook, but sometimes, we must step away and take a break from it all.
Enjoy!
Evelyn
Thanks Evelyn, but if it all goes according to plan it won’t be relaxing at all. It will be kind of intense, and I hope to achieve something during the week. Of course I need the time to get to it as well.
Can’t blame you much for this. I’ve been cutting back on a lot of my activities as well to try to catch up on things. Seems like there’s always something popping up somewhere though.
Good luck with what you’re doing.
Lee
Tossing It Out
Thanks Arlee. It will be a busy week, but it’s also kind of an experiment to see what happens.
Hi, Mitch.
It is good to finally read something about you on cutting back on something. I have been going through your past posts and was amazed to learn that you are quite the busybody. I hope you do find the time to relax even if this week promises to be quite intense for you.
Sit back and enjoy that chocolate cake you love so much. 🙂
Thanks Kim, but it won’t be a period of relaxation at all. In a way, I expect to be busier than normal; just trying to break some habits that I’ve gotten into that aren’t all that productive. So far, one day in, I’ve only kind of conquered one. lol
I have cut back on all of my online activities in the past month or so. I actually went two weekends without turning on the computer!
Believe it or not, I think this past month has been my biggest money maker working online ever.
Maybe I was trying TOO hard before?
I did drop the networking company I was involved with for several years as well…..
Carolee, I noticed you’d been quieter than normal, and I think that refocus probably has helped your income as well as your sanity. Then again you’re going camping, and I always question the sanity of folks doing that. 😉
Good luck with that, Mitch. I take frequent ‘breaks’ from my blog and some other internet activities to concentrate on stuff that needs to be done, and it is always my best way of focussing my mind on other tasks. I’m currently involved with a couple of things, myself – one is ongoing so taking breaks doesn’t help, but the other has to be done away from distractions.
Thanks Val. I’ve just had so much going and I know my focus has gone awry. So I’m hoping to regain some of it; we’ll see if it occurs or not. No far… not so much.
Writing in advance is always a good idea. I also do it for few of my blogs and schedule the publishing date. However sometimes, I am completely empty and don’t have any ideas for topic so I give myself a break.
Carl, the one problem I never have is figuring out what to write about. Having the time to write it… now there’s a problem.
Yeah, I wish a day to have about 26 hours then there will be time for everything. I must admit, many times, I have my breakfast, lunch and dinner on the PC.
Hi Mitch!
It’s good to see you taking some time to cut back and recharge. It’s also exciting to see you working with Mitch Allen, too. He’s a really awesome guy, fun and hilarious to talk to! Have fun; it’ll be interesting to see what neat things pop up from your mini-vacation.
Delena
Delena, it seems everyone’s kind of missing what’s going on here. I’m not taking any kind of vacation or rest. I’m just trying to get my mind into a different focus where I’ll hopefully get some projects done that have been on the schedule that I’ve skipped because of other things. Of course, the first two days haven’t gone quite to plan, and the next three days are quite involved as well, so I might end up making this a two week project. At least no blog posts will be shucked.
Hi Mitch,
I’m sorry! I didn’t mean it to sound like I was thinking you meant you were taking a full-on vacation from everything. Sometimes, even just pulling back from one or two things is a vacation if it lets you put more energy and focus on other things. I totally get that. Over here, we call those “vacations” as much as anything else, even if it only means the only thing getting a break is the subconscious because it’s fussing over one less thing. 🙂
Delena
Delena, I guess people see certain words differently based on where they are. Last week’s plan didn’t work out as I had hoped, and the way this week began I knew I couldn’t implement it again. It’s amazing how time messes us up; I really need to seriously look at things I do and see what I can push around so I can be more productive.
Sometimes we should learn the way to leave Internet and social network to relax.If not,we can have some problems with our health
Interesting perspective, Haley. However, I’m not relaxing,just slowing down on some of the social networks for a bit while I work on other things. Relax; don’t know the meaning of the word. lol
Last summer, my intention was to temporarily cut down time spent on social networks. Funny thing, a year later I find that it still does not comfortably fit into my schedule. I was always striving to complete my endless to-do list every day and adding to overwhelm for beating myself up when I did not complete the list. I am now more realistic about my time each day and decide what’s most important to complete. I feel that when I focus on my values and goals, I accomplish only what really matters and insignificant
tasks fall away.
That’s a smart thing to do, Rachel. Actually I’m not quite sure what will come from my little experiment but I do know that, based on what I do, I’ll be back with some of my social media practices once it’s over. It’s just that in the last full month I’ve had family issues and travel things to deal with, along with some health things of my own, and part of me is just overwhelmed. That and I’m not even close to keeping up with my potential projects.
Hi Mitch,
I think people need some break from their routine, like checking the Facebook, twitter or other social media. We’ll get tired or bored someday, so have a break time is the good thing.