Rest.

This past weekend I decided to take myself offline.  For the past several weeks I've been feeling worn out, frustrated, and bogged down with all things social media.  It's hard to put yourself out there continually and see little in the way of results, so I decided to take a short break.  I also realized that I was getting really angsty whenever I'd see someone I know having some awesome success with their business.  Not jealous or angry, because I know that I am not putting in the effort I need for those successes, but each triumphant post gave me a little nervous twitter in my chest that I should be doing those things, and if I did those things, I too could have the awesome successes.  The weight of both were starting to build on me.  So other than a couple quick searches, one scroll through Instagram, and one quick check of my emails which yielded nothing but junk mail, I spent the whole weekend with the computer closed and the iPad in another room, which hasn't happened in a very, very long time.

While I can't say that I was super-productive while not being attached to my devices - as I figured I would be, I did realize a few things about my habits: I found that I use the Internet as a placeholder throughout the day when I'm not sure what I want to do next, as a diversion from getting other things done.  When I'd finish something like laundry, I'd go wander over to the kitchen where the computer usually sits and where I'd stand and check my feeds.  Not having it sitting there made me realize just how much I do that, and how much I could be going from one productive activity to another instead.  Just in writing this post I've had a hard time not clicking over to another tab and focusing on finishing this.

I've previously thought about keeping the computer in my office so that it's not sitting in the main space all the time, and this experiment has totally cemented my feelings that that might be a good idea.  I also think that, at least for the summer months, I'm going to set myself a schedule for when I can look at certain platforms, so that I am not constant checking feeds.  If I've learned anything this weekend, it's that my immediate response is not necessary or possibly even appreciated, so I'm not going to make myself so completely available.  I'm going to respond to things in my own time, and I'm going to put some of my own work first.  I need to realign what I do and how I do it and this might be the best first step.