Thursday, March 6, 2014

Thoughtless Thinking Social Media Tips

   Lately, I have been the epitome of “the hurrier I go, the behinder I get!”  I have been trying to work on my time management between writing my next book, blogging, and maintaining a presence on Social Media.  I have two words to describe my attempt, Epic Fail!  After Tuesday night’s BlogPaws chat, I was relieved to know that I am not the only one trying to juggle balls while keeping the plates spinning on a pole.
   As always, I picked up some great “chat” tips and ideas.  One is that an editorial calendar or at least a general calendar is a must-have for me.  I can write down my blog posts, review dates, different chats or web events that are upcoming, and stop trying to remember everything.  It takes up too much of my vintage brain’s remaining hard drive.
   Next and this is the hardest one for me; stop commenting on every blog that I visit.  Blog hopping is as addictive as Pinterest.  I tell myself to simply read a blog or look at a picture and hop along.  I never listen because I visit and feel compelled to comment or say “hello.”  If you aren’t following my Pinterest boards, please do.  I have 33 boards with 2,819 pins!  I have several boards for dogs, books, quotes, and some hilarious things that make me laugh.  Anyway, you can see the problem.  I’m always going to visit one more blog or pin just one more pin and before I know it, I spent half of the day!
  The third thing I am trying to improve on is my training time with Bentley & Pierre.  Bentley knows how to do basics commands.  The problem is that he doesn’t feel inclined to perform on command.  He believes that he should get a free ride on performing tricks due to his adorableness and being the inspiration behind my writing career.  I was all-good until I saw Dachshund Nola turning on and off the light switch!  Then, I see Emma from My Life asa GBGV, the gorgeous Greyhounds on Tales and Tails and Greyhounds Can Sit looking adorable holding a perfect pose for the camera.  In no time at all, I have hopped over to see Sugar the Golden Retriever unrolling a Yoga mat!  I look at my precious Bentley dissolved into a
puddle of snoring Basset and think I simply must do better.
  How am I going to turn my thus-far Epic Failure into an Epic Win?  This is my plan and I am going to try really, really hard to adhere to the time restraints.
 1.     Stop staying up all night.  Since we’ve retired, our bedtime is the middle of the night.  Earlier to bed, earlier to rise, yada yada.
 2.    Check my editorial calendar (after I make it), go through e-mail, check SM sites for updates, Retweets, likes, etc. the first thing in the morning with coffee.  I’m going to have to pencil in a good 2 hours for this.
3.    Visit my blog-hopping but restraining from commenting on every post.  Maybe a share on Google+, Twitter, or Pinterest will be faster than commenting.  Okay, I will still leave a few comments…heeheehee!  I may limit this to 30 minutes three times a day.
4.    Write my blog for the next day.  I’m proud to say I am writing this post at 1:00 p.m.  This is approximately 12 hours earlier than I usually write it.  Do I feel a win on the horizon?  If my thoughts are flowing, this takes about 2 hours.
5.    Spend time with the boys reintroducing tricks, grooming, playing, and talking about their dog stuff.  We are also requiring them to do a trick for a treat.  They usually just demand a snack.  Bentley has a treat mat, which is actually the mat for our kitchen sink.  He will go sit on it and stare at his treat jar on the counter.  If offered a treat, he runs over to sit on the mat.  This is a work in progress.  Pierre’s mom has taught him quite a few tricks so with him it’s just learning to mind Gramma.  Bentley knows a few basic tricks but as I stated before, he doesn’t feel the need.  We are working on his enthusiasm although he does perform a pretty awesome death scene.  I have to dedicate an hour each day to their work.
***If you are counting along with me on my time spent, I have only used up 6 1/2 hours.  If I wake up early, I could accomplish the majority of this list by early afternoon.
6.    That leaves me the rest of the day to work on my new book.  Time evaporates when I’m in my story.  I cannot put a time restraint on this because one hour dissolves into four.
7.    Oohh heck!  I forgot to add in time to exercise.  Okay, add at least 30 minutes for the exercise room.  Maybe I can visit blogs while I’m on the treadmill.  Skipper built a table mount for a laptop so you can surf and walk at the same time.
8.    So, the way I have it figured is if I don’t eat or clean our house, there should be no trouble fitting everything into my day.  Hmmm, if I don’t eat maybe I don’t need to exercise.  No, I have to exercise because the conference is coming quickly.  That’s my motivation now!
As you can see my time management needs managing.  I just have to start with a calendar.
   The other things that I learned on the BlogPaws chat were from @Blogpaws concerning Tweets.  I still consider myself relatively new to Twitter.  There are many tricks and rules that I am learning.  I found these to be great and in case you missed them, I wanted to share.  If you start a tweet with a mention, @mk_clinton, the tweet is seen by @mk_clinton.  When you start a tweet with words before the @ mention, all of your followers can see the tweet.  Adding a period before the @ mention will allow your followers and the followers of the @ mention to see the tweet.  What I gathered from this is that if you want your tweet seen by more people; add something similar to “Hey.  @mk_clinton, it’s nice to tweet you!’  This way you’re tweet is seen by your followers and the @ mention followers.  Do you know any other tricks to get your tweets out to more people?  Feel free to pass them along in comments!
  You can join the BlogPaws Chat three times each month on Tuesday nights from 8:00 ~ 10:00 p.m. EST.  It is a great fast-paced chat with a main topic, lots of sub-topics, and prizes!  Just hashtag #BlogPaws Chat to get in the conversation.  I always make new friends, followers, and find out about new blogs.
  When I look over my plan, it seems very simple to follow.  It brings to mind the quote
by H. Jackson Brown Jr.  “Don’t say you don’t have enough time.  You have exactly the same number of hours per day that were given to Helen Keller, Pasteur, Michelangelo, Mother Teresa, Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson, and Albert Einstein.”  I’ll bet they all had editorial calendars!
  That is what’s on my mind for this edition of Thoughtless Thursday!  How do you manage your time?  Are there any ideas that you can pass along?  Maybe you know some other time saving tricks for Social Media.  Please leave your thoughts in a comment below.  Then, hop over to visit my other blogging buddies.  Times-a-wasting!



14 comments :

  1. Pierre loves to show off! If he has an audience (and you have enthusiasm and treats!!), he will do them just fine. ;) I miss y'all to the moon and back!!

    ps: you are FAR FAR more advanced on Twitter than I am! I totally learned something from this blog!!

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  2. We are always short on time as well. We try to write our posts in advance when possible which gives us a great sense of relief. As for reading and commenting, we have our favs that we always read and comment on, the others are random with comments or sharing, but we can't do it all. Thanks for mentioning me :) My sisters and I just learned real quick to stay no matter what Mom is doing with us and since Bailie and I love the camera it is easy. It really depends on the dog we think.

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  3. BOL! Melissa what a great post!!! I also usually comment on every blog I visit, and thats a TON of blogs a day! My email is always completely full of blogs I follow and comment on. And your right, it takes hours! And then when they are all read and complete, a bunch more pop up! But I think in my head, if I comment, they know I was at their blog, and I like people to know I have came!
    Time management is horrible for me! Something I really need to work on. I have always been anything but organized!
    Dog training is an another thing I need to work on to. They listen to all the basic commands I give them daily, but I also see dogs like Sugar the golden and Emma etc....posing and unrolling yoga mats and thats when I know I have some work to do as well!
    Great post today!!! And BTW I did not know that about twitter!!!!
    ღ husky hugz ღ frum our pack at love is being owned by a husky

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  4. Having TWO blogs (and a zillion other responsibilities) I couldn't live without my editorial calendars. We have a great discussion about them in the BlogPaws Community...go and check it out (I think it is under "Blog Talk"), I prefer to have my calendars on REAL hand held PAPER calendars, some use electronic versions.
    Actually I happen to agree that when you are visiting blogs in a blog hop, yes, you should comment. Blog Hops are designed to meet other bloggers, how will they know you visited if you don't leave a comment?
    I follow well over 200 blogs, but do I read each and every one of them every day? No. There isn't enough time for that. Basically, if their headline appeals to me, pertains to me,, or interests me I will read (and try to comment), if not, I move on.
    I am stressed to the max and never have time, but hey, it IS what it IS! lol
    Hang in there!

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  5. Hmmmm I never worry about time when it comes to blogging. Since its just for fun for me I just do it when I can get to it, some weeks I p ost daily and some not at all

    retro rover

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  7. Oh gosh, I feel the same exact way! I have the hardest time trying to balance with all these social media accounts. I feel like I've been neglecting my website now that I've been focusing so much on growing my instagram. Please let me know hen you figure out the trick to it all. It's hard also, bc being a pet blogger is actually a full time job on it's own!

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    1. Oh how thoughtless of me, forgot to say Happy Thoughtless Thursday :)

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  8. So true! I can't believe how busy retirement is. I do like commenting because I want the author to know I enjoyed the post...but like you it gets away from me sometimes. I also want to start an editorial calendar - only have been meaning to do it for two whole weeks - I need a calendar so I can write "make calendar" on it...anyway, this is all true and I can't even imaging trying to add Twitter also. I think I'd lose my mind.

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  9. Wonderful post! I started my own editorial calendar last week, haven't stuck to it yet. :)
    I have made it my personal goal to try and get all the post for the week started on Sunday that way I can just go edit and post during the week. Another thing I am working with is the scheduled post. Not sure if it is a time saver, but it seems to work for my internal stress load. I think I'll go G+ share your post now!

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  10. Thank you for the mention :) I'll let you into a secret, 99% of my photos are pure luck, a case of being in the right place at the right time! Plus I take a LOT of photos. Now that I'm trying to get some indoor 'fashion' studio type shots I'm wishing my dogs were trained!

    I can totally related to this post and wanting to be able to visit and comment on all the blogs you follow. I tend to get so overwhelmed by it all that I shut down and don't visit anybody :( Then I feel bad and that makes it worse! I rarely tweet anything except to share something I come across that I like and haven't seen on Facebook, and I didn't know that about how to start tweets off! I'm staying away from Instagram although I've got an account. Love Pinterest and can spend hours wandering around there. But heck, there just aren't enough hours in the day! I don't know how people manage to do everything involved with social media these days, still have a life and time with their dogs! My hat goes off to you :)

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  11. A great post, I too struggle and wonder how all my fellow bloggers do it by visiting and commenting on so many blogs and commenting on each of their own comments left on there blog. I fall behind on my comments on my blog. I thought it was just me so glad to hear it happens to others. Thank you for the tweet tips as I am new to it also and joined in on one chat and would like to do more. Have a great weekend.

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  12. I wish I had some sage advice to give, but all I can say is that I totally commiserate with you, and struggle with all of the same things. Thanks for the Twitter advice, I've been trying to do more on there because things on there seem to be seen more than Facebook. I find those chats so hard to follow and I'm one of those "early to bed" people so don't usually do them! Now, having left this comment I will tell you that I'm supposed to be working on paying bills and doing my budget right now! hee hee....I think, no, I know I definitely need to be more organized and not so easily distracted!
    Jan, Wag 'n Woof Pets

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