Social Media madness

The e-course which lasted 6 weeks is finally over and although I have picked up bits and pieces and have a general idea of the use of social media platforms in marketing, I am still stuck in getting the technical issues right, not to mention the overwhelming amount of info to digest and apply in real life. 

My inbox is full to the brim, getting on average 100 emails a day since the course started. It seems to me that the instant and constant connectivity has become a time sucking and soul crushing burden when you are invited to like, tweet, repost, pin and plus...the process is wearing me down big time. Do people honestly read that many posts in a day? How many sites do we traverse? How many profile is enough?

The best technological advance I can relate to is the birth of the digital camera. Social media platforms are useful but the cons outweigh the pros in my case. The ceaseless influx of email notifications and connection is stealing my precious time and energy which can be readily applied on my writing and artwork. I feel like a hamster on wheel, unable to get off  even though I feel sick and dizzy.

I refuse to be controlled by the virtual reality when I choose to spend more technology free days embracing life.

How are you? Busy.

In response to everyday greetings like 'How are you?" or "How is life going?", "Busy." seems to be the norm and highly valued, as if not being busy is equivalent to being a loser, someone living a life below standard, with all the negative connotations which are both explicitly and implicitly entertained.

It is an illusion. There is no glorification of busyness. Life is not about cramping everything on your to-do list and checking them at the end of the day with a smile on your face. Busyness means nothing when you are not being productive, when you are not working on tasks / projects that mean to you, when you are just killing time doing other things to look busy, all the while procrastinating on things that might seem intimidating. It is a limiting factor to our potential.

I am a workaholic but I only enjoy being busy when I am doing something that I love. Yes, there are household duties to be done and errands to be run but ultimately it is up to me to decide how busy I want. I find my planner the most valuable tool for schedule and appointment. I even schedule in my down time and try to live up to it. I recommend revisiting your priorities every now and then to determine how much time is dedicated to meaningful pursuits and contributions. 

As I am owning less these days, I feel myself more rested and at peace with what I already have. I tend to have more time and space (both physically and mentally) to allow breaks and space in my otherwise busy day. Saying 'no' to less important commitments undoubtedly leads to more 'yes' to tasks that delight you.

I hired a virtual assistant for my website at the very beginning when I knew nothing about CMS. Delegating is necessary when you are overwhelmed and stressed out. Eliminate what is making you inefficient and focus on your strengths instead. I am also limiting myself to checking emails to once a day in the evening.  Taking sabbaticals is on top of my priority list as I am always inspired and stimulated by my experience overseas. 

To end the piece, I wish to bring up the major culprit to our busyness, being addicted to information consumption. I am no tech wizard but can't help myself being drawn to the process of acquiring info. I am so used to going through my day trying to collect as much as I can as if my life depends on it but how much of it is relevant, or worthy of my time? My inbox is constantly overflowing with new info, new notifications, new discussion threads, most of them are inapplicable or pure time consuming.

Stop the influx with a limitation. Take your time to digest the info you are taking in and sift out the trivial. Your brain can only process so much on a given day and it is our call to decide how much we are prepared to be busy.

online overload!!!

It's been a freaking crazy week; well I have no-one to blame but myself. To recap what I have done, here is the list:

• took up a new student who needs some private English tutoring
• driving myself mad -week 5 into the e-course on social media marketing with so much to learn and so much to do for assignment
• wrote my weekly e-newsletter SLLM which didn't turn up in inboxes in pretty html mode...
• asked for help at Mailchimp to solve the problem
• going through email subscriptions which are worthy of my time
• practise connecting using Twitter, FB, Linked In and Pinterest
• making contact with people who might be interested in working in collaboration
• sent out job application 
• approached some NGO for volunteering work
• read 3 crime novels a week
• wrote this blog post and a snippet on art journaling
• attended a couple of job interviews
• filed a whole stack of paper sitting on the floor

That's quite a lot to accomplish in a week! I can't help but contemplate about my lifestyle only to find that I were an info junkie!!! I want to be challenged, moved, engaged, outraged by what I read. Meanwhile I feel simply overwhelmed knowing that the path of info abstinence will be neither straight or smooth. And guess what? I don't even have a smartphone to play with!!! 24/7 connectivity is definitely not my cup of tea!

I am deep in info overload. My peeps suffer big time. Social media platforms are extremely usefuland almost indispensible these days so I am using Hootsuite to consolidate my accounts. I am minimising my subscription both on and offline, trying to skim blogs instead of reading the whole post. It is indeed draining to be in the sea of connection.I need to start weeding out after I complete the e-course for the sake of my sanity. I need to find the good sources and the right quantities. I need to reduce my consumption and right-size what I am taking in. 

I want to be freed from being constantly connected; even if that means being anti-social. I need to show some self-restraint with a timer. I need to focus more on producing writing instead of making others' my priority.  Another addiction to fight off...and a tough one too.

road accident...!

I had a road accident yesterday. I was crossing the road on my way home from the supermarket and I just lost balance on my platforms and fell sideway; grocery flew out of my bags and the next thing I knew, someone was helping me up and carrying my belongings to the other side of the road. I was in so much pain that I stopped outside 7-11, checking my bones and wounds. My hand was bleeding, so as my knee. A large piece of skin came off my finger and the rest of my body was covered in purple. Lots of bruises. Unsightly even to someone who grew up with pain.

I feel handicapped as I can't use my hands in a normal way. I am not sure if there are cracked bones but my body is screaming out pain, loud and clear. I wondered what would have happened if the lights went green while I was sitting in the middle of the road, one of the busiest 24/7. I could have been ran over.

The older I get the more accident-prone I become. This is just another harsh reality of life which I must meet face on. Wounds and injuries take forever to heal (if at all) and my body parts are gradually falling apart. I have never liked my body and I am quite happy to be removed from it when my time is up. It's just flesh and bones to me which is degenerating by the second. All things come to an end and I know I won't miss it.