Working in social media and managing any brand account can feel fun and exciting when you have a steady dose of adrenaline rush or creative bursts to help you ride the wave of work that comes your way.
It’s fun when people are engaging with the content you’re developing or when you’re part of dynamic, cross-functional meetings where many ideas are floating around.
There comes a time when all of the adrenaline rush that comes along with content creation, strategizing and management of channels or campaigns start to pile up and weigh you down.
It can start to feel unsustainable and like you’re drowning in meetings and deliverables.
There are a couple of ways you can effectively manage this stress and avoid social media burnout. You want to be able to identify daily micro habits you can implement before it’s too late.
What is social media burnout?
Social media burnout can make you feel physically, emotionally or mentally exhausted.
If you’re constantly churning out content and have to time to decompress, you may feel overwhelmed because you feel that you’re unable to keep up with the demands of your workload. You might find yourself working longer hours to keep up the pace with your workload, which can lead to burnout.
You might also feel drained from reading and consuming so much information on social media platforms.
Spending too much on social media can affect how you feel, which can affect your energy and your ability to do your job. If you’re experiencing any of these social media burnout symptoms, I have some practical tips for you to implement throughout the day.
Preventing social media burnout through daily micro habits:
You want to be well-rested and ready to tackle any crisis event that may arise. In order to avoid social media burnout, you’ll want to implement daily micro habits that help you incorporate breaks and productive working sessions so that you feel a balance of output and input.
Incorporating these micro habits throughout the day can help you have an upbeat energy to be able to brainstorm ideas and contribute to campaign or planning sessions with your team.
Taking care of yourself is important because it reminds you and your team that mental and physical care is important for the overall wellness of the group. Staying hydrated and eating colorful, whole foods and taking breaks during the day are small ways you can boost your energy throughout the day while also enabling others to do the same and avoid burnout.
In this article, I want to share some practical ways you can avoid social media burnout.
1. Practice Pomodoros:
You want to get your work done and you want to make room for breaks—the Pomodoro Technique helps you achieve both. You start off my working for 25 minutes and then taking a quick 15 minute break. You repeat this four times and then take a longer break. Let me tell you, when I execute this with full intention—it works. I know what you’re thinking, “Sure, this sounds nice in theory, but I can’t get everything done in 25 minutes.”
Here’s how to make it work for you:
- Break down your tasks into actionable items (i.e. outline, write, edit, publish).
- Mute notifications, desktop notifications, silence your phone or put it away.
- Open a time-tracking tool like Toggl or use other Pomodoro timers online.
- Begin your task and start your timer for 25 minutes.
- The result? You’ll notice that when you eliminate distractions, you can actually accomplish a lot when you zero in your focus on one task and stop multi-tasking. I’ve been surprised to discover that I can sort, filter and clean out my morning inbox in 15 focused minutes.
This week, try implementing the Pomodoro Technique on some of your tasks for an important project. Practice eliminating distractions and zero in on your task. You’ll feel a sense of control and focus with your time-management skills.
Related: How to Manage Your Tasks and Projects Using Asana
2. Walking Breaks:
If you’re not making time to incorporate walking breaks throughout your day, you’re missing out. I know it’s hard to slip away when you’re jumping from meeting to meeting and deliverables. Please dedicate 10 minutes to take a walk around your neighborhood two times a day.
Taking a walk will help improve your mood, help you organize your thoughts and can even help you solve problems. It may seem hard to do, but try to go on a walk without using your phone. If you bring it, listen to calming or upbeat music or do a walking meditation. Breathe and get some fresh air.
Related: Morning Rituals of an Effective Social Media Professional
3. Break a Sweat:
Move your body and exercise. Relieve yourself of any tension, doubt, fear, frustration or anything else. Exercising can improve your concentration, motivation, or memory; it can also boost endorphins into your system, which improves your mood. Find an exercise regimen that works for you and make it part of your daily lifestyle.
Avoid Social Media Burnout With These 12 Micro Habits Share on X4. Change your Environment:
Protect your environment. A chaotic and messy space fuels the same energy. Everyone’s space is unique, so I think you should just aim to keep things tidy. What makes your environment optimal for you? This might include plants, natural light, candles, coffee—whatever helps inspire a good environment for you—make it happen.
5. Social Media on Desktop:
If you have a habit of mindlessly scrolling social media on your phone and getting distracted on it, try checking your social media on your desktop. This way you can switch to more intentional engagement; rather than getting distracted while browsing on mobile.
Related: 7 Key Habits of Great Content Creators
6. Set Limits:
If you work in social media marketing or manage a brand account online, this may seem a little hard to do, but try to set some boundaries around how much time you spend on your phone. It can cause dry eyes, eye strain, headaches, affect your mood or sleep. Give yourself some time to disconnect and decompress. Practice setting time limits and taking breaks away from your phone to avoid social media if it affects your mental health.
7. Turn off Notifications:
Say no more. I get it. “Turn off notifications for my phone? Impossible.”
This one is challenging if you work in social media management, but I encourage you to try it for a week.
How to realistically disable notifications when you work in social media:
- Disable push social media notifications on your phone and only allow text, calls or appointments to appear on your phone.
- On desktop, mute the email pop-up that appears when you have a new email. Try muting or disabling the alert sound to help improve your focus.
- For instant messages, modify your settings so that you’re only notified when you’re mentioned or tagged in a specific message.
I’ve implemented every one of these steps over time and it’s going well. I notice that I’m more focused and less anxious. Disabling social media notifications might cause you to feel anxiety at first, but you can always check it during a designated time frame to intentionally read and respond to comments.
Avoid Social Media Burnout With These 12 Micro Habits Share on X8. Schedule Content in Advance:
One way you can reclaim your time and avoid social media burnout is by scheduling your content in advance. Batch create your content or repurpose your content so that you can avoid having to start from scratch all the time. Developing a content posting framework that you can repeat on a weekly or monthly basis can help you streamline your content marketing and scheduling efforts.
Make it a habit to schedule your content on Friday for the following week. This way, your Monday starts off with ease knowing you have at least a couple of posts scheduled ahead of time.
Related: Content Planning Methods to Streamline Your Marketing
Content Calendar Template
This calendar has the foundational elements built into it that will help you be more strategic with the content and marketing activities you’re focusing on.
9. Get Enough Sleep:
Give yourself the time to get adequate sleep. You want to be a functional member of your team who can focus, edit and generate and implement creative ideas. If you’re not well rested, you may see some errors in your work. Stay sharp and energetic by going to bed at a reasonable hour and getting 7-8 hours of sleep or more.
10. Balance Your Input and Output:
Balance the input of new information from articles, podcasts, videos, books, etc. Trust your intuitive and creative process. Too much input of information may cause you to feel uneasy or stressed. Be mindful of how much you consume versus how much you create. When there’s an imbalance of the two, your emotions and focus may feel challenged. If you read something and feel inspired, write it down, analyze it or share it with others.
Related: 6 Ways to Improve Your Content Creation Workflow
11. Re-Affirm Your Boundaries Daily:
Do you want to be nice or do you want to be effective? Saying “yes” to all requests leads you to working all the time because you said yes to so many things that you’re unable to finish them in a reasonable time during normal working hours. It’s OK to ask for help and have people work with your availability without sabotaging your professional relationships.
Here are some ways you can re-affirm your boundaries throughout the day:
- Set a designated time to check your email instead of reading and responding as they come in. You can check your email for 15 minutes in the morning and move them into chat or a quick call during the day. Check your email either before lunch or after lunch—not during your lunch break. Then respond to emails at the end of the day.
- Block off time on your schedule to get important tasks done. Implement the Pomodoro Technique into your calendar. Try blocking off 30 minutes to 90 minutes to complete important tasks.
- Review appointments or meetings on your calendar and evaluate if you truly need to attend. You can delegate it to someone else or arrange a separate 1:1 session with the meeting’s organizer for specific deliverables.
- If needed, schedule working sessions with others so they are part of the collaborative process and understand what’s needed to complete a project or request with you.
12. Practice a Hobby:
Find a hobby outside of your career interests. It could be calligraphy, journaling, painting, photography, dance, etc., something that helps you get away from your work. You’ll find that a few minutes of “me” time a couple of days of week helps you maintain a sense of sanity and a positive attitude.
What about you? What are some ways you protect your time, prioritize your health or mental wellness in order to avoid social media burnout?
