3. Let people know that you are going to
take a break from one specific channel, like
Facebook. Set it up the same way you would
an email away message and set up an auto
response bot to answer any direct messages
you may receive while on your social media
vacation. Post the date that you will return
and then simply log off. For many of us,
it will take a week to remember our pass-
words again anyway!
4. If you use social media for work, con-
sider taking a break from your personal ac-
counts for an extended period of time. If you
are on Twitter all day, don’t check accounts
for more than five minutes when you get
home at night. Better yet, check your own
accounts on your lunch break and power
down as you leave the office, committing to
family, pets, friends or any other real-life in-
teraction when you are not at work.
5. Call up old friends. You know, the peo-
ple you usually only see on Facebook. If you
don’t have their phone number or wouldn’t
want to hang out with them in person, do
yourself a favor and take a day to declutter
your social media friends list.
Social media is a very
valuable tool in today’s world,
but that doesn’t mean you
have to be on every channel
all the time.
6. Track your usage for a few weeks before
your planned break. There are apps that can
help with this. Facebook Runner is a good
one, or use any other usage tracker. If you
can see that you are spending 20 minutes or
more (many people spend nearly an hour) on
each of several social media sites per day, it
can make it easier to wrap your mind around
taking a break.
7. Turn off your notifications. If you
haven’t done this yet…what are you waiting
for? There is no reason for your social chan-
nels to cause you the same sort of anxiety as
unread emails. If you miss something… let it
go. The half-life of a Tweet is only 16 min-
utes. You’ll catch the next one.
8. Install a blocker on your desktop
browser that you can remove when your
break is over. This will prevent you from
checking certain sites until you are ready to
come back. Think of it as insurance against a
late-night craving…sort of like not keeping
cookies in the house if you are powerless to
resist their siren call at midnight.
9. Don’t stop taking pictures. Just because
you aren’t posting your pictures for the world
to see, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t take them
anyway. You might be surprised how many
fewer images you take now that you aren’t
digitally performing for a crowd. Be aware
of that impulse and let it guide your future
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