A couple of months ago, I decided to decrease the amount of time I spent on social media. You can read that post here. This ties into my words for the year which are “simply and focus.”
I’m back with a quick update to let you know how it’s going. Now, just to reiterate, I’m not giving it all up, obviously since I’m still writing on my blog. But I did give up a lot. I paired my social media presence down to 3 places: the blog, instagram, and my facebook group. That’s still a lot for some, but it’s less than half the social media venues I used to keep up with.
In a word – it’s fabulous!
Here are pretty pictures of fabric I’m currently working with so it’s not all just words!
At first I was having withdrawals, which quickly subsided after I finally allowed myself more time to contemplate and think. I was in several business Facebook groups that I had joined for networking purposes. It was a little hard to give them up in the beginning because I missed the daily interactions.
However, by getting in to the habit of checking them every day, multiple times a day, it pulled me into a constant timesuck because I didn’t have the fortitude to get in and get out. Now that I only have one place to go on Facebook, it’s a quick check in the morning, a couple pop-ins throughout the day to reply to comments, and I can focus on GETTING THINGS DONE!
I love organizing these fat quarters from light to dark to see how they sparkle.
I also have so much less FOMO (Fear of Missing Out)!! When I don’t know what I don’t know, it’s so liberating to not constantly be comparing myself to what others are doing. I was worried that I’d miss out on opportunities to do great things, by not being “out there” as much, but let me tell you – the work has NOT slowed down. I’m currently working on my 4th book proposal, my 3rd Craftsy class and my 2nd fabric line, not to mention preparing for a slew of in-person workshops.
Now it’s kinda nice when I get an email from someone wanting to collaborate on something. Yes, email is still a great way to communicate! For me, it’s so much more effective than trying to keep up with direct messages on Instagram or Facebook that I sometimes don’t even know are there! I’m also not on a strict time schedule on my blog. Sometimes I’ll blog three times a week, sometimes just once and it feels great to have that flexibility.
Here’s a tip – label the pieces of fabric you are working with to stay organized. I use a “big board” to iron my fabrics and stay organized when piecing. It gives me a huge surface on top of my ironing board. Now I need to work on getting prettier furniture that matches in my sewing room…
By not being constantly sucked into social media, I have a more realistic time frame for how long it takes me to actually make a quilt. I think the constant barrage of New!New!New! on social media can give us unrealistic expectations of how much we need to accomplish or how fast we need to get it done. I prefer a slow and steady pace so that I can enjoy each step of the process, and by stepping back I’ve been able to enjoy more making without feeling like I have to crank out a new project or tutorial each week. I’m definitely a person who prefers quality over quantity.
And now, so as not to spend all day writing this post, I’ll sign off with huge hugs to you, my readers who make this all possible. By continuing to support me, you allow me to pursue my passion full time and I can’t thank you enough!! Now I’m off to continue working on the project I shared a few sneak peeks of above. More about that in a couple of months….
Christa Quilts 
I think you are doing a marvelous thing. Good for you for figuring out what works for you.
I’m so glad you made public your decisions about use of social media and thank you for writing now re. the impact of the decisions you made. Very interesting and liberating too. I was getting sucked into thinking I needed to be on lots of different ‘platforms’ but now feel happy to stay with the ones I find enriching and leave the rest alone! 🙂
Good morning,
I know that social media is a PIA, as I wrote to you and let you know I was vey proud of you, so I won’t keep you, except to tell you: I STILL ADMIRE YOU! Right when you gave it up, I opened and Instagram account, and boy oh boy, I hear what you are saying about being sucked in. I am now trying not to read it as often and THANK YOU for being so honest. It is hard to find that in this world. It’s coincidental that you wrote this, as I was looking at the fabric bundle I won from Vicki Holloway, Modern Marks, and telling myself, that all the UFO’s of the past years, have to get completely done, before I even begin any new projects.
I will keep you posted, and will continue to support you and can’t wait for what’s in store from you.
THANK YOU, THANK YOU,
Fatima
On Tue, Jan 30, 2018 at 10:01 PM, Christa Quilts wrote:
> Christa posted: “A couple of months ago, I decided to decrease the amount > of time I spent on social media. You can read that post here. This ties > into my words for the year which are “simply and focus.” I’m back with a > quick update to let you know how it’s going. Now, ” >
I NEED a big board… look at all that space!
Thanks for sponsoring One Monthly Goal!
I sure have eliminated a lot of social media from my life, but realize I need to do more eliminating. It is scary how easily it consumes much of the day!
Balance. Isn’t it wonderful.
LOVE the fabrics you’re working with. Your earlier post about paring down inspired me to revamp my own electronics use, refocusing on social internet interaction that actually motivated real work and putting off things that just wasted time. It has been a very productive period for me since then.
I’m right there with you, things are getting easier. Less stress too. And I don’t see where anyone has even missed me. And I’m a person that comments.
I love what you said here! So glad you’re proving yourself right that to step away is a good decision.
Sounds like a (good) plan. Enjoy.
My daughter (also recently) decided to par down her involvement in social media. She also mentioned being ‘sucked into’ the whole revolving circle. Since this whole ‘staying connected’ is fairly new, perhaps others will learn to limit themselves, too. Stay strong.
That is wonderful to know! I’m so happy for you. Most of my family are social media junkies and don’t understand why I won’t use Facebook, Twitter, etc. To me it’s information overload; I don’t need to everything that’s going on every minute of the day. It’s a time-waster that eats up hours that I prefer to be sewing and quilting (although cleaning and laundry frequently suffer! ;-} ).
LOVE those blues & greens you’re working with – they’re some of my favorites!!! Can’t wait to see what you’ll be making.
Keep on keepin’ on girl – you inspire us all.
Good for you! Welcome back to the real world.
Good for you ! I enjoy your posts, but also need my Creative Space !
I totally understand – I can snowball on Facebook and Pinterest for hours on end. It’s been sucking up all my time when I should be sewing/quilting.. ok back to it🤪
I just wanted to say, I love your color choices in your fabric. It’s all so pretty! Second, I totally get wanting to unplug from a lot if social media. I make myself stay away from Facebook until the end of the day for most days. I also have a blog I work on, I’m in three group on Facebook and that’s it. Any more and I spend too much time on the computer and no time quilting. Quilting is much better.