How Taking A Technology Time Out Helped My Business

I found myself checking my Instagram in my sleep. That was the moment I knew that something had to change. I run a craft business and like most online entrepreneurs I have a worldwide customer base. Also like many new entrepreneurs I hold down a full time job and am raising a family. I have to fit in work where I can but in doing so, I wasn’t giving any of them my full attention and all parts of my life were suffering.

I had become obsessed with my metrics, needing to respond to comments as soon as they were made and ensuring I posted something somewhere every single day. That was on top of the hundreds of unread emails which were causing a certain level of stress. Without realising it, I was working in one way or another quite literally around the clock.

Then I was forced into taking a technology time-out. We were on a short family break in Wales where there was no phone reception and no internet. After the initial anxiety of not being able to constantly check my stats subsided I realised that this imposed break was a good thing. It broke the habit of refreshing my emails and checking for notifications.

I had three days without phone, email or social media. I returned relaxed, focussed and more productive than I have ever been. Plus, I had also made some sales. I realised that the way I worked needed to change, for my mental health and for the health of my family.

Before I turned on my laptop on that first day back I made a plan as to how I could work better so I wasn’t working all the time. First on the list was to impose a rule that if my children were at home then they got my full attention and my technology went and sat in a time-out. The business didn’t collapse between the hours of 3pm and 7pm weekdays without my sitting there responding to tweets.

Then I scheduled my social media time into each day. I split the week up to focus on one of 5 social networking tools each day, leaving my weekends to be weekends. I spent a couple of evenings writing blog posts and set them up to run over the upcoming month. And while I still have to work some evenings, I make sure I don’t work all the evenings. I take at least two off during the week and I don’t do anything on a weekend.

I should have known better from the start; the focus of my business is the slow craft of knitting and I promote how good knitting is for your mental health. To sit and knit on an evening is still doing something to better my business as well as reduce my stress and anxiety.

One month into stepping back and taking regular technology time-outs and my productivity has increased with my sales doing the same as a result. Yes, sometimes I don’t answer emails straight away and don’t catch every comment on social media but the business is still thriving and now I am too.