So, I am back from my vacation 😀 Which was an amazingly good time and I loved it!
Some pics:
Me reading in my amazing colourful pyjamas!
Books we took to read.
Harli enjoying the beach.
A pic of the amazing sunset by my very talented mum- Twisted Pixel on Flickr- Click on pic to go to photostream
I had planned to do some writing and reading whilst I was there, but ended up staring into space for the entire week. I think my brain really needed to do nothing for a whole 7 days.
Whilst on vacation I realised just how stressed out I had gotten. I was so busy and overwhelmed that I was not in a good place! Although I have tried my best to be organised and keep to a schedule, I think I was trying to pour too much into a working day and it was getting too much to handle.
Then I saw this post this morning- http://nhwn.wordpress.com/2014/09/15/remember-to-make-time-for-yourself-not-only-work-and-family/, and it inspired me to make a change that was most definitely needed.
Most of my day is taken up by social media (blogging, facebook, twitter, etc), which I know is very important in building an author platform, but surely, it can’t be more important than doing the actual writing when taking on a writing career, right?
So, my plan from now is to only do 2 hours of social media a day. A big cut from the 5+ hours I was spending on it before! But I really think it needs to be done. It means I won’t be able to comment as much on blogs or re-tweet so much, but I will hopefully learn to utilise those two hours more effectively, rather than letting the social media side of my career drag on and on throughout the day and into the night!
And that was pretty much all that came out of my vacation: a much needed revise of my schedule! I did manage to read one book, but that was about it, I really did just sit, stare, and walk on the beach.
It was the perfect vacation 😀
How long do you spend on social media? Do you ever need to revise your schedule? Are you good at sticking to a schedule? If you have any tips, then please let me know! 🙂
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Progress Report:
Status of fifth manuscript: Editing. (Finally has a title though! 😀 Will do reveal soon).
Books read: 2/4
Mid-September Book Review: Written and ready.
A Writer's Life For Me. 
I’m glad to hear you enjoyed the holiday 🙂 It’s good to have you back.
Thank you so much! It’s nice to be back and ready to go once again 😀
Happy to hear that you had a great holiday! 😀
My 2 social media tabs always open are WordPress and Tumblr. Twitter, Facebook and Google+ aren’t checked as much. I realize that I have stepped back from Twitter a bit, though I still share a lot of links there, including from others. My email tabs are also always open, but when I write, I need small breaks on a regular basis, so if I’m set on writing, it doesn’t affect my productivity.
You’re lucky! If I have the internet open whilst writing, I can get easily distracted 😀
I try and be active on most social media sites, but it can get rather busy trying to keep up with them all. I do enjoy twitter for sharing links, it’s also the way I find new posts to read as people post a lot of good links on there.
Thank you so much for your comment! 🙂
Welcome back. Love the book collection. To answer your questions, I probably spend too much time on social media. I’ve cut it down by scheduling blog posts and Tweets, but I check things too much. My goal this week is to tone it down until I finish my current editing project and then take a day to relax. It’s really tough though.
That sounds like a good approach, but I know what you mean about it being tough! 😀
I think scheduling posts would be a really useful thing to do, I just got to find some time to write posts to schedule!
Thank you so much for commenting 🙂
I keep a list of post topics and I take a weekend day or a night to prep them. Sometimes I do a week’s worth of posts over the course of a day between projects. It’s led to me having my posts set up about a month in advance. Good for time management, but it does create an issue when comments start. I have to reread things every now and then.
That’s a great idea! Never though about keeping a list of post topics, that would help a bunch when sitting down to write a few posts in one good.
Thank you for the tips, will definitely be taking them on board! 🙂
You’re welcome. Good luck with the time management.
I’m too scared to calculate just how much time I spend on social media each day. I like to think it’s only 2 hours or less, but am afraid it might be much, much more… Sensible strategy and I’m glad you had a restful holiday!
Yeah, social media is very good at eating up time 😀 Definitely will have to monitor how many hours I do very strictly.
Thank you so much for commenting! 🙂
In between writing, editing, answering emails and managing 5 social media accounts, the amount of work is immense, not to mention that I actually have to work a day-job for a living. So, social media time has to be cute to the bare minimum although I can easily slip and spend two hours laughing at funny cats.
I can’t believe that the life of a self-publishing author can be so busy!
Funny cat pics are far too easy to lose time on 😀 I am definitely going to have to get better at streamlining my schedule!
I know what you mean 🙂 Being self published has some great benefits, but doing all the work yourself certainly has draw backs!
Ah, I’m so happy you had a good time on your vacation – we did miss you over here, though, and it’s wonderful that you’re back. 😀 I think it’s great that you’re re-evaluating your writing priorities, as well. It has to be hard to be juggling everything, and we must remember that writing is the #1 most important thing a writer can do. 🙂
That’s very true. Writing has to come first, I really don’t want the quality of my books to suffer because I’m so stressed out over doing hours of social media! 😀
Thank you so much for the kind comment 🙂
Glad you had a good time on your vacation. Sometimes you just need to let your brain take a rest from everything! I don’t have a schedule for anything – writing, social media, etc. I started to say “I’m just lazy,” but I’ll change it to “I’m a free spirit!” I must spend more time writing, though, and I need to become more disciplined in setting and following a schedule. I think many writers deal that issue.
I think calling it a free spirit way of thinking is a great idea 😀 Wish I could go with the flow more often, but I am terrible at having to make myself a schedule and routine!
Thank you so much for the kind comment 🙂
It’s so important to make space and time for yourself!
Social media is important, but can also drain away so much of your time… I’m still trying to figure out the balance… it’s sad to not have the time to read and comment on the blogs I want to read and comment on — but I need to constantly remind myself that I can only do so much. We may be super-heroes (because I think all writers who actually are able to juggle, well, life, are super-heroes), but even super-heroes have their limits.
A very good point, us super-hero writers need time practice their superpowers, right? (Mainly writing and editing :D).
It is hard though, finding the right balance and trying to fit everything in. There are so many good blogs and post out there, I feel horrible when I can’t get to them all!
Thank you so much for commenting 🙂
Harli is such a damn cutie!!!! Welcome home and you look like you were in a beautiful place for a vacation, though I’m always partial to the beach myself. lol.
Harli really is cute, and she definitely knows it! 😀
It was a stunning place and the weather was absolutely gorgeous, which was unexpected for this time of year!
Thank you so much for the kind comment 🙂
What a lovely vacation! The ones where you do nothing are often the best types. Finding that balance between social media and everything else is difficult. I try to keep a schedule but life tends to make short work of it pretty quickly. I keep a prioritized to-do list for each day, set up a week in advance and that helps. Still working on the balancing act, though. Love that sunset photo!
I think having a daily to-do list might help. Would help me figure out the tasks that need prioritising!
Schedules can easily get blown out of the water when life gets in the way or something unexpected comes up! I try to be flexible, but find I am much better when I can stick to a routine (however much life would like to throw my routine away!).
Thank you so much for commenting 🙂
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Lovely photos–definitely sounds like a much needed vacation. I think it’s important to make time for self and that is something I have to learn to do. I can’t wait to hear about your new story!!!
I think taking time for ourselves is one of the most important things, but something that people often forget to do! 😀
Thank you so much for the kind comment 🙂
5+ hours on social media? And it’s been sounding like you’ve been writing pretty much full-time on top of that. Where do you find the time?!
It certainly makes my days very busy 😀 Hence why I’m cutting down. I’ve just got to learn to be strict with myself on this new routine!
Welcome back, Mishka 😀 I try to keep away from social media as much as possible, but it doesn’t always end up that way (guess where I am now) 😉
I’m glad you got to get away and relax. I agree, blogging can take up the lion’s share of the day. Personally, I have been feeling it more of a chore than fun lately. Yet they say it’s important for us as writers to do. I like your 2 hour solution. Good luck! 😀
It is more of a slog than anything else at times, so I’m hoping cutting down my hours will help bring the joy back into it 😀
Just have to make sure I get things done in that time!
Thank you so much for your kind comment 🙂
LOL! Slog = That’s funny! And yes, so appropriate sometimes as well, at least with my own. Best wishes! 😀
Welcome back, Mishka!