Throughout the Kidlitosphere (bloggers who write about children’s literature from board books to young adult novels), many a blogger has just finished week two of the “comment challenge.”
The goal of the challenge is to post five comments a day for 21 days… the amount of time it takes, studies say, to form a habit.
I have done pretty well with the challenge, but I wasn’t looking for a new habit – reading blogs and commenting is part of my daily routine already.
Still, the idea of creating habits or routines to help be efficient and productive in social media is one I really love.
For example, I read blogs in the morning using Google Reader. New posts come in while I sleep, then with my morning coffee, I dive in to the fresh new blogs.
I give myself a minimum of 15 minutes and a maximum of 30 for my morning session (and usually hit the max when I’m not on the run).
I don’t always get to read everything that’s waiting, nor do I comment on all of them… though if I think I have something of value to add to the conversation or if I just flat out love a post, I do click on over.
This is a habit or routine (or both?) for me, a part of my day just like walking the dog. I view reading and commenting as one of the key things I want to do in social media, so I hard wired it into myself.
Routines like this, to me, are a part of using social media time efficiently. I could happily read blogs all day, but that ultimately isn’t practical. So, I use Reader to set things up for me – creating a newspaper, in effect – and I watch my time.
I also don’t lose time stressing about when I’ll read or if I should stop what I’m doing to read or or or. It’s a routine, and it gets done. I approach a few other “tasks” the same way, and as a result am able to rest easy knowing I’ve done the key things I want to do.
Most days I find another chance to dive into my Reader, but that’s a bonus. And since I’m always subscribing to new blogs, there are times I have to steal a weekend hour or two or even purge a few blogs I realize are no longer a fit. That’s part of efficiency, too.
Do you have routines or habits that you think help you manage your time and/or use social media more effectively? Please let us know (and hope you’ll make that a habit!).
(If anyone knows the source of the photo at the top of this post, which I have seen and enjoyed before, please let me know. I cannot find the source.)
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
great points re: making time spent online more efficient. I’m in definite need of some new routines, particularly regarding blog reading & email. Thanks!
I generally tend to save the reader for the end of the day – while *watching* Bones reruns, hockey, or basketball. The habit I want to get better at is balancing Twitter/LinkedIn/Facebook time. I had thought about rotating one each day, but I don’t like how that works.
The key to any progress in a day, though, is to NOT open the Email program before I tackle at least 2 things on the to-do list. Otherwise the day is shot!
Blog reading/commenting has always been one I’ve struggled with. I love reading blogs and jumping in conversations, but I really had to come up with a routine so it didn’t take my whole day. The combination of a reader and a time limit really made me more efficient. On the email front, I tend to deal with it more frequently because if I’m not on top of it, it can really back up, but routines there can help tremendously, too. As does simply a timed period of not looking!
I use Google Reader to subscribe to blogs I’m interested in, but use NetNewsWire (which picks up my subscriptions from Google Reader) to do the reading because I like NNW’s interface much better, plus NNW has “smart lists” which collect posts based on certain search terms.
I signed up for the Comment Challenge, and it’s been an amazing experience. I’ve encountered all sorts of new blogs, and it’s been great to connect with new people. Now I need to figure out a good routine for seeing what’s newly posted while not spending too much time away from my own writing. Thanks for sharing your process!