Back in February, I opted to take a social media sabbatical which is nothing more than a fancy way of saying “time off of social media.” This was a continuation of something I did last year, too.
Then, back in December, I took the month off of pretty much every social network of which I was a part and thoroughly enjoyed the time away. But it wasn’t because of anything such as removing myself from something bad.
Over the year, I’ve begun to question what I think about social media as a whole, but I think that time away from it serves me well (that is, me personally – I don’t pretend nor attempt to make this prescriptive for anyone else).
Anyway, with us heading into the final month of the year and with the success that I’ve had in months past, I thought it might be time for me to do this again to close out the year.
This time, though, I might remix it a little bit.
Social Media Sabbatical of 2018: Episode III
When I do this, I typically go completely dark on all forms of social media. In the past, this has meant services like:
This time around, I’m planning to stay off of Instagram for the month (and mark my account as private).
And for Twitter, I’m only going to use it during the workday whenever I’m at my desk. I don’t see a compelling need to keep it with me when ever I’m anywhere else.
This Time, Last Quarter
A few months, when I did this last, the plan was to focus on a few personal things that included:
- Self-Directed Studies
- Fitness
- And better organization
You can read more about it in detail in the original post, but the short of it is that, in retrospect, this worked out really well – better than expected, in fact, because I was able to complete one of the studies I’d done and heard the author speak at an event in Jacksonville.
This time around, though, I have slightly different goals.
Goals for Quarter 4
This time around, I have slightly different goals (which is also why I’m opting not to go completely dark on social media during the work day).
1. A New Service
For a few months now, I’ve talked about Blogging Plugins and wanting to get that particular service running. One of the things I’m doing with this, though, is to validate the market.
That is, once I have as many people signed up as possible, I want to determine how viable the idea is for what I want to build based on feedback from those who have shown interest.
If it seems viable, then I’m after it; if not, there are other ideas in the hopper.
But to do this right, I’ve also made a few purchases to help me understand how to properly evaluate the viability of the idea.
So it’s not only asking others what they think, but it’s making sure that I can properly articular what it is I want to do and to ask questions in a way that’s respectful of everyone’s time and determines whether or not this is something that will work for everyone.
I want to do it, but I want to do it right.
2. Personal Development
This includes an umbrella of things, but I’ll aim to keep it short.
Fitness
At the time of this writing, I’ll be finishing my final fitness program of the year by the afternoon.
This doesn’t mean that I’ll be done with fitness for the year, but I’ll be done with the strict calendars I’d set out for myself starting in January.
This has been a common thing for me over the past three years, so I’ll have a retrospective of this later in December, but it feels good to complete it.
Reading
I set a goal for myself to read at least 12 books this year. For some, that’s not much, I know, but I wanted to at least set myself up for a book a month. I’ve read some of them twice so but haven’t counted that.
There’s at least one more book I’d like to finish before the end of the year. And if I have a chance (read: if I remember), I’ll share a list of some of them here.
Though I don’t necessarily know if it provides a benefit to anyone to know what I’ve read. Instead, I’d rather share ideas from what I’ve read and give credit where it’s due.
But I’ll figure that out later.
Studying
Finally, there are still some studies I want to complete – or at least start – by the end of the year. This time, though, I’m not looking to do any “self-directed” studies (though I do have those lined up for the start of the year next year.
Instead, I’d like to dedicate some time to some of the material from Design+Code that I recently purchased.
I’d also, as mentioned earlier, like to jump into reading and to learn a bit more about evaluating the market for ideas before spending hours building something only to find no one is interested.
3. Time Off
During this time of year, I’m big on time off – from celebrating Christmas and New Years to hanging out with my own family as well as friends and family I’ve not gotten a chance to see throughout the year.
There’s a lot of good that comes from this. As much as I truly do enjoy what I do for a living and the opportunity to work with those with whom I do work, there’s a time for working and a time for family and friends.
So at this time of year, specifically, I try to make sure that I’m putting as much effort into the latter as possible. And this is especially meaningful since some come into town from all over the country.
I’m also a fan of video games, but because I’ve spent so much time during this particular year focused on my business, a few studies, and things outside of that, I’ve not gotten to play any video games.
So I’m looking to dive back into my Switch and play a few games.
Until January (Sort Of)
Unlike past time off of social media, I’m not fully offline – but I’m greatly decreasing it.
So I’ll be on Twitter during the time I’m at work, I’m still available via email, and I’m going to continue to write my usual posts (which are also available in a newsletter each month). But I won’t be sharing the usual nonsense on Instagram nor will I be trying to follow-up with all the GIFs on Twitter as much as usual.
So, if anything, I’m working to strike a balance. But there you have it: My final social media sabbatical for 2018 starting today.
