Skip to main content

Trying to limit Facebook and Twitter time

There have been lots of articles on Facebook since they went public, and there have been a few about people who deliberately refuse to get or re-up their Facebook profiles, for various reasons. Some of them don’t want to do it because it ended up sucking too much of their time.

I don’t think I could NOT be on Facebook or Twitter, but the articles have been making me more aware of how much time I’m on social media. I need to be a good steward of my time.

The other day, I spent half a hour just browsing around on Facebook. While that’s not necessarily bad, if I’m on Facebook when I should be working, that’s wasting the gift of writing full-time that God has given to me.

So I’m trying to be more conscious of my Facebook and Twitter time and trying to limit it to once or twice a day. Let’s see if I can do it!
Labels:

Comments

Anonymous said…
I've found that the most time-efficient way to interact with Facebook is put my friends and pages into lists. I have a Reading Rainbow list for my authors friends, a list for local news, Christian news, my Bible Study friends, my family, etc. Then I can click on those lists and find out what's happening with those most important to me without falling down the rabbit hole and being late for the party. Now reading, that has made me late for work at the library before. :-) I'm overwhelmed by the sheer volume of sheets and rarely read my Twitter feed. I think I need to unfollow some folks.
I also did away with the data plan on my phone so I don't get updates on the go unless I intentionally turn on Wi-Fi.
Mon May 21, 07:26:00 PM 2012
Camy Tang said…
Yes, I've been utilizing lists, too! But there's still so many updates to scroll through that I really have to limit my time these days.
Mon May 21, 11:33:00 PM 2012
Jacqueline Howett said…
Hi Camy,


Without some major discipline, the internet can be a big distraction for authors in their writing process.

Good luck with your process!
Tue May 22, 05:04:00 AM 2012
Susan F. said…
I've cut way back on Twitter. I feel that I'm wasting time on Facebook. I try to keep up with writers and their projects there though. I had played games but that is going to fade away. ;)
Tue May 22, 04:47:00 PM 2012
Camy Tang said…
Tell me about it! Thanks!
Tue May 22, 05:29:00 PM 2012
Camy Tang said…
I loved playing games, too, but I realized I spend too much time doing that! Ugh!
Tue May 22, 05:29:00 PM 2012
Post a Comment

Popular Posts

Brainstorm - character occupation

Captain's Log, Stardate 03.23.2009 Hey guys, I could use some help. In my current manuscript, The Year of the Dog , which is a humorous contemporary romance, I have a minor character, Eddie. He’s my heroine’s ex-boyfriend, and they’re on good terms with each other. He’s a bit irresponsible, but not so much so that he’s a complete loser. He’s got a very easy going attitude, he forgets to pay his bills sometimes, he’s friendly and charming. He’s adventurous and fun to be around, but he’s a little forgetful sometimes, and he tends to spend a little outside his income. I need an occupation for him. What would a charming, easy going, slightly irresponsible guy do for a living? He’s not too irresponsible, because otherwise readers will wonder what in the world my heroine saw in him to date him in the first place. She was attracted to his charm, his easy going attitude (her family’s uptight, and he was a nice contrast), and his adventurousness. But his forgetfulness and irresponsibility ...
64 comments
Read more

Window shopping

Captain’s Log, Stardate 03.14.2005 Knee update: I went to the doctor today for a checkup, and saw his assistant. I’ve been concerned because there’s still inflammation in my knee joint, and it’s been almost 4 months since the surgery. She said she’d talk to the doctor about it tomorrow and call me. Sometimes he suggests laying off the PT to see if that causes the inflammation to go away, but I don’t know if that will work because lately I’ve been pretty active outside of PT. At PT today, the therapist did ultrasound and some sort of electrical current on the joint. Hopefully that will make the inflammation start to go down. I’ll know by tomorrow, probably. Writing: Mt. Hermon conference starts this Friday! On Thursday night, I’ll be at the Santana Row Borders bookstore to help out (and hopefully learn a bit, too) at a booksigning for several of the ACFW authors who are attending Mt. Hermon . That should be lots of fun. I had a good brainstorming time at ...
Post a Comment
Read more

New book idea a la Captain Caffeine

Captain's Log, Stardate 04.14.2009 So my husband, Captain Caffeine, had lunch with a few friends a few days ago. And they asked about my writing, and if I’d been on Oprah yet. (Yeah, right) They then discussed NYT bestselling books, and why can’t Camy write a NYT bestseller. (Sure, let me just open a vein over a blank page and it’ll come right out.) So Captain Caffeine came home with ideas for my new NYT bestselling novel. First it starts with vampires, because Twilight is so hot. But not just any vampires. This one’s an Amish vampire. And he’s not just an Amish vampire, he’s a cop in disguise, infiltrating the Amish community to protect a witness. (Hmm, that storyline sounds familiar ...) But wait! There’s more! To add more conflict and stick with my brand of Asian fiction, we introduce the Tibetan monk! Who joins the Amish community to get away from the pressures of monkhood. But in reality, he’s protecting the Chinese princess on the run, trying to escape from her father’s Hong...
25 comments
Read more

Japanese language learning process in more detail

I blogged a few weeks ago that I’ve jumped back into my Japanese language learning after being lazy and letting it slide. I’ve been keeping my Japanese language study habit for about a month now, and I wanted to blog about my process in more detail. One thing I had noticed about my Japanese is that I tended not to do it if I left it to do at the end of the day. I realized that it was just like my exercise—if I didn’t do it first thing in the morning, it never got done. So I started doing my Japanese right after my exercise in the morning. I treated it like one of my “frogs,” as I read about in the book Eat That Frog!: 21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time . The book is based off of a Mark Twain quote: “Eat a live frog first thing in the morning and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day.” It suggests doing your “frogs”—your important things that you’re likely to procrastinate doing—first thing in the morning in order to get it done, and ...
2 comments
Read more

Chinese Take-Out and Sushi for One

Captain’s Log, Supplemental My agent sent me an article from Publisher’s Weekly that discussed this incident: Chinese Take-Out Spawns Christian Controversy And here’s also a blog post that talks about it in more detail: The Fighting 44s This is Soong-Chan Rah’s blog: The PCS blog In sum: Apparently Zondervan (yes, my publisher), who has partnered with Youth Specialties, had put out a youth leaders skit that had stereotypical Asian dialogue, which offended many Christian Asian Americans. In response to the outcry, Zondervan/Youth Specialities put out a sincere apology and is not only freezing the remaining stock of the book, but also reprinting it and replacing the copies people have already bought. I am very proud of my publisher for how they have handled this situation. The skit writers have also issued a public apology . (I feel sorry for them, because they were only trying to write a funny skit, not stir up this maelstrom of internet controversy. I’ve been in youth work long enou...
39 comments
Read more