I’ve never had a LinkedIn, Twitter or Facebook account, I don’t read newspapers or watch TV, and I’m very careful who I give my details to.

I have my personal blog and always try to respond to anything that comes from that. I’m a member of a couple of forums and will attempt to respond to members of those too. I tend to let my answerphone pick up messages rather than feel obligated to drop everything and speak to whoever might be calling. My mobile has been permanently switched off for months.

This might seem a bit draconian, but for me it’s the only way to control others from eating away at my time and encroaching on my space. I’ve had two episodes of work-related chronic fatigue in the last five years and information overload was part of the problem. Most of the information that flies at us every day is utter rubbish anyway and you’re no worse off not knowing about it.

I now genuinely have no fear of missing out on anything other than living my life.

Absolutely agree with you on the role of procrastination in indulging in distractions. I’m very familiar with that one personally! And yes, there is a need for those of us to be “out there” meeting people where they are. I think what I’m questioning is how discerning we can be in which networking opportunities we decide to participate in.

For me this is a bit like deciding to niche. It might seem counter- intuitive at first to be limiting who we promote ourselves to. In reality, niching can be very effective in focussing our efforts and offering a quality product or service. It’s always felt far more satisfying to me too, to be working in a clearly defined field, especially in those moments when I’ve felt very much in alignment with my business purpose.

The grain of truth in the fears in also something that resonates. What does that tell me I wonder? That there *is* a need to be knowledgeable, to keep up, to keep an eye on my effectiveness and efficiency? …but maybe not to the extent that my fears would have me believe. So, my grrrr at the distractions is maybe a wakeup call to check my balance?

I think you’re right, and I very much like your motorway analogy. I’d add a couple of things:

First, another motivation for indulging in these distractions is when you’re procrastinating over something else – also fear-based usually.

Secondly, I think there’s a real need for those of us working freelance or running small businesses to be “out there” in social networking terms, at least to some extent. Our customers are reading Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, blogs and other sites. So we should be where they are.

For example, I haven’t been on Facebook very long, and I really don’t like it very much. A lot of the communication is crass. But I always get a much higher readership when I link there to a blog post I’ve written. That’s not important at the moment, because my blog is still personal, not business, but it will be in the future.

I suppose I’m saying that there’s a grain of truth in the fears you mention.

You’re also right though when you advise limitations, whatever they are. Particular times of the day, no longer than 20 minutes or whatever.