Time Well Spent?
How much time do you spend marketing? How much time do you spend going through your email?
When I turn on my computer, usually around 8 am, I usually have over thirty emails to go through. Most are things I can just delete right away without even opening, some are digests of Yahoo! loops I follow and require time to read through. Quite frequently, through these loops I find marketing opportunities which I need to take advantage of right away before either I forget or the deadline passes.
By the time I realize what’s happened, it’s 10:30 and my body is telling me that it’s time to get up, walk around, get a cup of tea, or generally take a break. That’s two and a half hours of just reading email and following up on marketing opportunities. That doesn’t include going out and finding any new ones on my own (usually), or checking on the ones I’ve already set in motion, not to mention spending time on Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter. To do that will take another hour or so, and then suddenly, it’s lunch time!
Where did my morning go? Why haven’t I gotten any writing done? I look around and am just stunned by the passage of time. This happens to me too many days to count.
I’m spending way too much time marketing and keeping up with social media. And yet, I know that that is the way to get my name out there, to connect with readers and build my brand.
On the other hand, I also know that writing my next book and putting it up for sale (after it’s been properly edited and beta read) is the absolute best form of marketing. Clearly, I’ve got to get a handle on my time here.
I am capable of doing so. I’ve done it before. I just don’t answer my email – except for the most urgent personal messages. And I don’t read all of my Yahoo! loops. I don’t check social media. I just leave it alone. I would do better if I completely disconnected my computer from the internet altogether, but that’s a much bigger step than I’ve been able to make so far (I still need to at least see what emails are coming in, even if I’m not answering them). So, when I’ve got a book I need to get done, I can buckle down and get it done, but it takes commitment, drive, will-power and all that other good stuff of which writers are made.
So, how do you do it? How long do you spend on your email or marketing or both?
