Many people spend a ton of their day on the big three social media applications. I was the same way when I first started using Twitter and Facebook.  I would let the day slip away without even knowing where it went. As I gained more experience in the social media world, I have learned to budget my time much better. I try to only spend a certain amount of time on each of the big three per day.

As I wrote about a few weeks ago, I spend a majority of my time on LinkedIn, then Twitter and finally Facebook. I have talked with a number of other people in the past few weeks and many have good solutions for limiting their time on social media websites.

Top 3 solutions for budgeting time on social media websites:

1. Have a plan:  What are your to do’s for the day? Fit in your social media tools as a break, only after you accomplish the major tasks for the day. This has always worked well for me. Complete a major task and reward yourself!

2. Set a certain time for each tool:  I like using LinkedIn first thing in the morning and then again later in the afternoon. I really feel energized by networking first thing in the morning and then later in the afternoon to keep me going. I mix in Twitter throughout the day, but I do not spend more then 15 to 20 minutes per session.  I usually save Facebook for the end of the day or later at night.

3. Use an application:  I like Cool Timer as suggested by my friend Laurie (@laurie_stewart). It will really help you to see how much time your spending on social media tools. I have had friends that thought they only spent a few minutes on the sites and come to find out they were spending more then half their day on them.  Many people say that after using the Cool Timer application they have become much more productive as they have a better sense on how much time then spend on each site.

Those are my top 3 suggestions for having a better, more productive time using social media tools. Do have any suggestions that work well for you? Have you found something that works well for you? Please post them on here. We’d love to hear your feedback.

As I get closer to my vacation, it will be interesting for me to find out how much I will miss the social media tools over the break. We are going to Jamaica and internet access is about $20 a day, so it will be good for me to take a break and stay away. I’m pretty sure after the first or second day I’ll be fine, but I may have the shakes for the first few hours away. I’ll let you know how I did when we get back.