5 Steps to Get Back the Time Facebook is Stealing From Your Writing
We only have 24 hours each day. Therefore, in order to be the most effective in our lives (writing, business, personal, etc.), it is important to evaluate periodically WHERE our time is going. This is especially true for social media accounts like Facebook.
I have been evaluating my time recently and realize that Facebook is stealing a lot of my time and I decided to be proactive and do a few things to help. Below I have listed 5 steps to get back the time Facebook is stealing from your writing.
Here are the 5 steps I took…
Step #1:
I removed “likes” to any pages I don’t follow anymore. You can find your likes on your profile and then go through and unlike pages from there. https://www.facebook.com/help/
This limits the posts in my main newsfeed from those pages that I’m not interested in. You can also choose to remove a page or from your newsfeed as well without unliking them. Find out more here: https://www.facebook.com/help/
Step #2:
I also chose to “hide” most of my Facebook groups from my newsfeed. Most of the groups I am in are for networking and marketing purposes. I have found that with the book groups I am in, I end up seeing several of the same posts one right after another from different groups. There is also some material posted in these groups I would rather not see in my feed.
GOOD NEWS…there is a way to stay in the group and yet hide the posts from your feed. The next time you see a post from that group in your newsfeed, hover over the right-hand corner to get the drop-down menu…then click “I don’t want to see this.” You will then have the option to click on a link to HIDE ALL posts from that group. Click the link to HIDE ALL and you will no longer see posts from that group in your feed. YAY!!!
Step #3:
I have decided to keep my personal profile for those actively in my life as close friends and family. However, there are people that I have kept as friends for networking purposes and so I placed them on my “restricted list.” This allows me to stay friends with these people but they will only ever see my public posts. See more information on lists here: https://www.facebook.com/help/
Step #4:
I turned off most of my e-mail notifications from Facebook except the ones that I consider important (i.e. private messages). This keeps me from getting distracted by Facebook notifications throughout the day in my e-mail account. Find out how to edit your notifications here: https://www.facebook.com/help/www/154884887910599
Step #5:
I “unfollow” certain posts that I have commented on so that I stop getting notifications. Did you know that you can unfollow posts? When you receive a notification for a post you no longer want to follow, simply to that post and then click on the “Unfollow Post” link.
Conclusion:
Those are 5 steps I have taken to get back more of my time from Facebook. What do you do to help you manage your time on social media? Share in the comments below.
Be social! Share this post with your friends and help them get back their time from Facebook as well!
Great post, Shelley! Thanks for #2 and 3. I didn’t know that!
Thanks Elke! Glad you learned something new 🙂
I have a hard time “unliking” pages when I also have a page that I’m hoping folks like. I tend to change the settings on a page I no longer want to follow so that I’m not seeing it in my newsfeed, rather than taking the step to “unlike” which in most cases, I think, sends a message to the page owner I don’t intend.
Carey, You can manage it either way…either unlike the page or remove it from your newsfeed. However, I found that there were a lot of random pages that I have liked over the years that I no longer even had relationships with the owner or brand. Sometimes it is good to simply do some Facebook housecleaning. 🙂
Great post!
Most of the time I stay only in the groups. I seldom even look at my news feed. I really love Face Book groups and they have helped me a lot. I think of late the most helpful thing is adding a group or page to my favorites. It’s really helped me to keep up with my posts and has saved me a lot of time.
Thanks
Samantha Fury
Fury Cover Design
Thanks so much for this. A housecleaning is in order for sure for me. I am going to look into the restricted list. I find it hard to follow my family and true friends now because I have so many “friends.”