The Social Media Fast, with Rochelle Melander

This January, after talking about the pitfalls of social media, Rochelle Melander and I both tried to monitor and change our habits for a month. You can read my take at Write Now! Coach. But first, here's what Rochelle has to share about her experience…

Over the winter holiday, while having coffee with Jocelyn Koehler, I confessed that I was both addicted to and sick of social media. Though I’m a habitual morning writer, I’d been checking Facebook before I started writing each day. By lunch, I’d be multitasking—eating a salad while watching a Netflix video and interacting with my various social media venues on HootSuite. By the time lunch was over, my head was spinning. I welcomed the idea of a forced hiatus.

1 Going into the experiment, did you have any ideas about what changes you wanted to implement? What did your daily plan look like? I wanted to reclaim my morning writing time for what I call my “genius” projects—the projects I’m passionate about. My plan was to stay completely offline until noon. Then after reviewing email, Tweeting, checking Facebook and LinkedIn, I’d dig into my afternoon projects—coaching and editing. I had no rules about the afternoon, but I found I worked better when I took a second social media break until about 4:00 PM, when I’d go back online for a final check. I planned to be done with the computer by 7 so I could spend the evening with my family.

2 How did the month go for you? Was it a triumph of steady progress? Lots of pitfalls? During the first week, I wanted to “google” every stray thought that wandered across my mind. And I couldn’t shackle my hands because I needed them to write. Yikes! Then, I experienced a crisis. One day when I checked email at noon, I discovered that a guest blogger’s post had failed to publish on my blog. The guest writer was frustrated, and I was embarrassed. Although I published the post within minutes of seeing the problem, I lost the rest of the day to stewing: how could I continue my month when THIS KIND OF THING happens? My solution—I’ve asked my virtual assistant to check if the blog publishes each day. (I hear outsourcing is all the rage!)

The other problem I experienced was a time crunch. If I wrote all morning and saw clients all afternoon, I often had little or no time to answer emails and connect on social media. Turns out, in order to make my life work, I need to schedule social media time just like I schedule writing time.

3 And how did the experiment change your writing habits? For the first week, I noticed that every time I got bored or hit a tough patch in the story, I wanted to check out what was happening on Facebook. In order to stop myself, I had to get up from the computer and do something—like the dishes. Shazam! All of a sudden I knew how to solve the plot problem, and I’d be back at my desk writing happily. Turns out the advice I’d been giving to clients (but failing to take) works—we can often solve our writing problems by doing mundane tasks. In addition, staying off of social media gave me extra time to do idea building sessions and research new projects. This social media fast made January one of my most productive months ever.

4 What did you learn? What hints or advice would you pass on to others? I think better, write more, and feel more content when I can spend my mornings in an offline world. Once I go online, I lose the ability to sink deeply into a topic, something I relish about my morning time.

My advice to other writers is this: Find your genius time—the time that you have the most energy to write—and commit to staying offline while you are creating. Pay attention to how your online life impacts your energy and happiness and create boundaries that work for you around the rest of your online life.

5 Have you developed new habits? Will there be lasting changes to your routine? I’m committed to staying offline in the mornings—at least until I have finished working on my genius project. I’ll also be asking my virtual assistant to load up my daily blog posts on Buffer or some other social media tool each morning. In January, I made soup every weekend. Spending time chopping vegetables and using my iPad as a cookbook gave me the idea to only use social media for fun activities on Saturday afternoons and Sundays. Now when I curl up with my iPad on the weekends, I’m watching a movie, playing games, or searching for recipes and crafts.

6 How has the experiment affected your perception of social media? Did it make you rethink about how you (or others) use/abuse these tools? I’ve caught myself aimlessly wandering online, lost in a sea of other people’s vacation or holiday photos when what I really need is a nap. I’m determined to be more intentional about how I spend my time (especially on social media) in the future.

7 What’s next? What other aspects of your writing practice could be looked at? I’ve recently read that most of us have additional creativity in the evenings, when we are tired. I’d like to experiment with writing or making art then—to see if I really can create at night. I’d also like to play with how my productivity improves when I’m working somewhere else—at a library or coffee shop. Anyone up for another month-long challenge?

Rochelle Melander is an author, speaker, and certified professional coach. She is the author of ten books, including Write-A-Thon: Write Your Book in 26 Days (and Live to Tell About It). Rochelle is once again fasting from social media, this time to finish a book proposal. Now when she has writer’s block, she cleans her house. Visit her online at www.writenowcoach.com

Jocelyn's Note: This blog is a comment-free zone, but I'd love it if you shared your thoughts on social media…on social media (I'm @jocelynk414 on Twitter, Rochelle is @writenowcoach). You can also find us on Facebook and ye olde Internete.