Five-Minute Writing Tip

Being Unbalanced Can Be A Good Thing

Maybe it’s just spring or the extra daylight, but this time of year seems to me to be more of a time for planning and reflection than New Year’s Day.

Lately I’ve longed for the good old days, before social media demanded so much of my time. “Demanded” may not be the right word, but social media is akin to sugar “demanding”: we consume too much of it. I like to think we still have a choice. There’s no question that for a writer who wants to promote her books, social media is a must: announcements on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Goodreads, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Google+ help spread the word about a new release or an event we’re attending. Social media introduces us to folks who can help us promote and connect with readers.

I’ve been struggling with spending too much time “connecting” online. So I started a new writing practice. I even wrote it as a motto on each day of my desk calendar: Write First, Write More.

WFWM means I begin my day writing, and clock my time throughout the day. Sending and answering emails comes second, and social-media comes last. The only exception is if I’m hosting an author on my blog site that day. If so, I immediately send her the link and share it on social media, but that doesn’t take more than fifteen minutes. On days that I have only a couple of hours to write and socialize, I make sure writing takes up at least fifty percent of that time.

After I first started categorizing my computer time and realized that I spent most of it on writing projects, it helped alleviate guilt over spending too much time online. In other words, it put things in an encouraging perspective.

You might think it’s all about balancing your time. But I like to think of it as an imbalance with the scales tilted toward writing—which makes me feel good about what I do.