Don’t let social media steal your free time

Social media can steal every single bit of your free time.

I see authors lament about not posting or what to post or how much time it takes to keep up with their social accounts on a daily basis at this point, and for good reason. It can be exhausting.

Authors want to write. Most of us didn’t sign up for the social media and newsletters and groups and everything else. For some of us, it’s a natural fit. We like to live out loud, and social media comes easy. But even if the content is easy to create, it takes time away from our writing time. None of us have enough of that, right?

For a lot of us, social media is a slog. It is painful and frustrating and we always feel like we should be doing more. When you’re trying to get words out, disrupting your flow or postponing your writing time to make a TikTok can be draining. 

I’ve worked in social for a really long time. One rule that has served me very well over the past decade is this:

Only post when you have something to say. 

This may not fit into all the rules you’ve heard about 1-3 times a day on TikTok or daily Reels and images on Instagram. But guess what: You can follow all the rules and still get no traction. Social media is unpredictable and frustrating and nothing is ever guaranteed. 

So, just don’t do the things that you hate. When you have an image or a video or something to say, then do it. If that is twice a day, awesome. If it’s once a week, that’s okay. If it’s once a month, oh well. 

Don’t kill yourself trying to succeed when, ultimately, you have very little control over the outcome. If your goal is to succeed as an author and sell books, then focusing your energy on writing a killer book is going to serve you much better than trying to be a social media star.

All of that to say, don’t do the things that drain you. Don’t do the things that steal your focus. It is 100% okay to keep your eye on the prize. A social media following can help, but not if you spend all of your time there instead of writing.

Choose the platforms you enjoy, do them as well as you can do them, and that is enough. 

About the Writer: Allie Gravitt is a mom of 3 and lives in metro Atlanta with a house full of animals and plants. Her debut poetry collection, prisonbreaks, and second collection Killing Ghosts are available now on Amazon. Follow Allie’s writing journey on TikTok and Instagram.

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