Social media is frenetic and changing constantly. The weight of the information passing through can be overwhelming.
I spend a lot of my time as a social media consultant educating my clients on how they can reduce or manage their social media marketing in balance with their other small business needs.
Social media is a lot like being a manager of a student radio station. You need to make sure the station is ‘on the air’ at all times. Everyone is listening. Now they will contact you, instantly to tell you what they are thinking. We weren’t designed to work 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
So I started having a ‘no social media, no computer, no interactive online electronics’ day. A day off from devices.
I was talking to my business friend Nicholas Asamoah of Ecosteamvalet . He has a policy of leaving his phones downstairs to charge when the family go to bed.
“And you know what? It was the best sleep of my life,” he told me.
In 2015, thanks to The School of Life’s video’s on Youtube, I learnt, turning your devices off, or leaving them in another room is called a Digital Sabbath.
Ian Feilding directed me to a BBC article about ‘The 24 hours shut down experiment‘. Dan Rollman, chief executive officer and co-founder of world record site recordsetter.com. He’s created a lovely Sabbath Manifesto, a list of 10 principles aimed at carving out a weekly day of rest, including drink wine, get outside, connect with loved ones. The manifesto has grown into the National Day of Unplugging, which is held every year in March.
I recommend unplugging and trying a Digital Sabbath because it helps me stay grounded. I’ve learnt if something important happens, then my friends will tell me, to my face. It also helps you manage your worry because you can relax, really relax. Try it. Turn off your phone, such down your computer and switch off your Ipad or tablet one day a week and just relax. Let me know how it went for you, me I’m going to sit by a beach.
