Herding cats, easier than getting organized

Herding Cats, organizing yourself…



Social Media Marketing 101 is the title of this blog, and obviously enough, the main topic. Someone once said: “If you want something done, give it to someone busy”. I want to find he who said that and choke him or her, since it seems that everybody wants to give me something to do.

Don’t take me wrong, while being depended upon is a royal pain in you know where, it just means that you are good at what you do, and that you are needed; but there is a limit.

If we continue accepting task, after task, we will never have a life, we will grow resentment, and soon, our lives will be so unmanageable, that we might want to scream. Social media has significantly contributed to the increase in our work load.

So, here is to mental sanity:


1. STOP. Make a list of everything that you do on a daily basis, I suggest you use a spreadsheet.



2. In column number 2, in one word write down why (i.e. “recreation“, “family”, “friendship“, “work“, “school“, “social media”, “no clue“) and yes, I know that no clue is two words. TIP: consider the fact that if you have no clue of why you are doing what you are doing, is time to knock it off and drop that from our schedule.

3. Sort the list by those words that you used to describe your tasks. Put all that fall within the heading of “work” together, same with “recreation”, “friendship”, etc.

4. Now that you have several lists, assign each task from every class a priority: A, B, or C. You either have to do it now or today, it can wait until tomorrow, or, who cares if it gets done.

5. Every day, you should establish a specific time frame for “Work”, time for your “family“, “study or school”, “part time job” could be growing a business, or expanding your network (social media), and some “recreation”. Balance your life. Make sure that you do those tasks on each category marked “A”. If there is time, do “B”, and if there is still time, then and only then, do “C”. Do not let one category interfere with the time of the other, specially, if the one bleeding and preventing you from achieving your goals is either “friends”, “social media”, etc.



Remember that you need to work for a living, and that your family needs you. But lets keep perspective. A needy relative, that can take care of himself or herself if push comes to shove, needs to learn just that, that you are not their personal slave, that will empower them to become self reliant. That is a good thing. “Give someone a fish, and you fed them dinner, teach a man to fish, and you fed them for the rest of their life”.

Social media can be an unruly master, or a 500 lbs gorilla how many of those plants are you going to send on FaceBook? How many groups are you going to belong to? The “underwater basket weaving club” can do without your presence, so feel free to press “IGNORE” on silly things like that. I do not need to know when you go to the bathroom through Twitter, or “when you got drunk or had sex last” on FaceBook, or MySpace.

Remember: Social Media is being used by 21st Century corporations to check you out when you apply for a job, so, the pictures of you drunk like a skunk, are not cute, or, the pictures of yourself or your girlfriend seating in the bathroom doing number two, are not only embarrassing, but disgusting. So, you are no longer in a fraternity or a sorority, you are an adult; and if you belong to one, remember that those days are only a phase, and you will be forced to deal with whatever dumb things you did.

By facing these simple tasks, you will tame that big monkey that prevents you from being productive.

What other ways of taming the 500 lbs gorilla can you think of? Share them in our comments section.

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