Social media and the influence of achieving our goals

Dear...

The way we communicate and socialize has significantly changed as a result of new technology. We are now chatting on Facebook with people we have never met and we share pictures of ourselves with strangers on Instagram.

A person who uses internet as a means of leisure spends at least 100 minutes per day on the internet and that is a really conservative estimate. That doesn't sound like a lot,  but total it out over a whole year and you would sit for 25 days straight behind your computer. That is almost a month per year! Now the real question here is: what did we do in the past with all those days we spend now on the internet? 

Here is some data: 

• Almost half of the time we spend on the internet has a negative influence on our productivity, either directly (27% of  the time is coming from work) or indirectly (22% is coming from  sleep, education and thinking)
• One third of the time we spend on the internet has a negative influence on normal social activities (offline), including travel, going to parties and do other household stuff
• Fortunately we also watch less "traditional television" although this one is hard to measure, perhaps we traded TV in for YouTube and Vimeo. 

Please don't misunderstand me I think the internet and social media are great inventions. I use FB both professional and socially. Now here is where it gets serious.  It seems that one of the growing reasons why we don't achieve what we want to achieve is because of 'time leakage' to social media. There is a time for everything and if you are truly goal oriented, set limits for yourself when and how often you look at social media. If you study, turn it off completely; if you sleep, turn it off completely; if you socialize (offline), turn it off completely; if you drive a car, turn it off completely; ... I guess you get it by now. BTW, if you think you are not that bad... just ask around or think about what the first thing is you do when you wake up or the last thing  you do before you go to bed.... I rest my case. 

jeandorff@googlemail.com
facebook.com/jean.dorff
http://www.pinterest.com/jeandorff/inspiration/

"Be inspired and you shall inspire." ~ JD

No means No

Dear...

I was one of those people that had a hard time to say no. I was a complete sucker if someone called me or was at the door to offer me something to buy. Best case scenario I wasted time listening to a sales story, worst case scenario I ended up buying something I didn't need. Now before you all start to call me or drive to my house to sell me something, note that I speak in the past tense. I learned my lesson after ending up op with too many useless subscriptions and stuff I really could do without.
I also found out that I was not the only one having a hard time to say no. People struggle with this in all kind of areas. You might be one of them. Maybe you buy things just because they are on sale or perhaps fried food is your soft spot. Perhaps you have a hard time to say no to your children when they ask for something or you just cannot throw away stuff and you end up renting extra storage space. Maybe you waste time being unproductive and procrastinate your time away. If you have one or more areas where no saying is challenging you, know then that you are not alone.
For me learning to say no and stop buying useless stuff had a huge impact on my overall spending. It was not a matter of not having the money, it was a matter of not having clear what was really important using my money for. Once saying no wasn't a problem anymore, my goals came in clear sight. Now, I politely but firm say no and hang up the phone or close the door when a salesperson brings me another good deal.
I want you to think about it from this perspective. We can spend our resources only once. Whether it is money, time, space, your body or energy. Once we really know and understand what is important in our life we will spend our resources only on things that truly do matter. Saying no to meaningless things no matter how good they seem will be easy from that point forward! So focus on what is important for you and your family. Learn to say no and make sure you mean it.
Steve Jobs said: "It's only by saying "no" that you can concentrate on what is important.


Contact me if you struggle in this area and I will share with you how you can change this too.

"Be inspired and you shall inspire." ~ JD
jeandorff@mac.com