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On Finding Balance before Digital Burnout

Everyone wants to “Crush It” these days, or maybe it’s just the people that I hang out with that are looking for more and to do more.

In case you’re not familiar with the term “Crush It”, check out one of my earlier posts: Do what you love, No Excuses!”

Basically, everything I have been reading these days says we-

• Live in a unprecedented time
• Everyone has voice
• Nothing is impossible

Anyone can do anything they want if they put their mind, heart, soul and ENERGY into it.

No pressure, right?

But this can make someone go a little wee bit nutso, no? Given the fact that at any given time there are zillions of conversations happening or waiting to be had on Twitter, people to interact with, blogs to comment on and so on.

Where do we find this untapped source of energy to keep us going and motivated? Aimee of One Hundred Jobs discusses this in her blog post: Digital Second Shift, which got me thinking of finding balance and the “Digital Burnout”.

So if you’re looking for an answer well you’ve come to the wrong place. Well, kind of. I don’t have the answer per se, but here’s what I’ve been trying to follow:

1. Plan your time: Whether it is a daily or weekly schedule, plan out your day and your “online” time.  Whether it is 30 min in the morning to check in with your Twitter crowd, hang out with some Facebook friends, 20 minutes after lunch to catch up with the world & another 20 in the evening to end the day.  Same thing goes for blog posts, have a plan. Whether it is blogging on Mondays and Wednesdays and research on the days in between you will feel more in control when you have a schedule to follow as opposed to feeling pressured all the time to write, tweet, engage, connect and follow.
2. To-do lists Personally, I am a big fan of to-do lists and still do them on paper, there is something very satisfying about crossing an item off the list. Heck, I will even add an item that wasn’t on the list just to cross it off. No completed task goes unnoticed! Whether it is planning your day or week, having a list will ground you and remind you of what you need to get done in the short and medium terms. Adjust as you see fit and re prioritize.
3. Make time for yourself. Disconnect. Try to impose a ‘digital blackout‘ time in your day or week where you focus on yourself and your family. You can only give to others if you give to yourself. Socialize. It is called ‘Social’ Media, after all. Not all business and networking needs to get done online. Organize a Tweetup or join a Meetup group. The key thing is to set some time out for yourself so you can re-energize your mind and engage with people in real life.
4. Exercise A good workout gets the oxygen flowing to the brain & helps get those creative juices flowing as well as reduce stress level. Personally, a lot of ideas come to me while I do yoga-so find what works for you, whether it is a walk, jog or an intense workout and add it to the schedule. If it’s not in the schedule or on the to-do list it won’t get done.

So is it working? Well, I have only been trying to do this for the last few weeks but as it gets more concrete I will share more details.

Final thought from the New York Times:

“Knowledge is increasing exponentially; human brainpower and waking hours are not”

Thoughts?