Unfollow, Unsubscribe, Unfriend

Keeping up with today's social media sites eats a big chunk of my time. I love how social media connects me to family and friends I miss and it connects me to the world. However, it is not my priority.  

Time is not the only thing it eats up, it influences my values and outlook. I definitely have to be cautious. I need to guard my time and values.

Social media sites have these three features I am not afraid to use:

Unfollow

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If you're on Twitter, this is a popular word. I am not using Tweetdeck or some other tool which would help me organize my account. I feel my presence in Twitter is still not too hard to manage. I keep the number of people I follow to those who I personally know (family and friends), those who would help me with my spiritual walk, the news, celebrities (show business, politics, fashion, sports).

There would always be a difference in opinion. I welcome and respect different viewpoints. But the things I definitely cannot tolerate are foul words, negativity, too much gossip, shallowness, and attacks to my beliefs. I would immediately unfollow.

Pinterest has the same button and I would use this so as not to get overwhelmed with too many ideas.

The interesting part, there are people whose blog and boards I follow but not their Twitter account. Let's just say I do not need to know details of their every day lives.

Unsubscribe

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I subscribe to more than a hundred blogs in my RSS reader. New posts daily can be as many as 150 entries. I wold quickly skim through the titles, mark those I want to read and send those that would be useful in the future to Evernote. When a blog owner has not posted in a quarter, I'd immediately unsubscribe. It allows me to subscribe to other blogs where I would learn. 

Facebook used to have the "Hide" button for feeds or updates I would rather not see. It has been replaced with the "Unsubscribe" button. And yes, I use this. Facebook can get very personal. My connections in Facebook are those I personally know or mutual friends or distant relatives. The first thing I unsubscribe from are game updates. Next would be those who use foul language or would be fighting someone or those who are just simply negative. Uhm...I definitely do not need to know about these things. If it is against my beliefs and values, I would rather not read it.

One other thing I unsubscribe from are junk e-mails!

Unfriend

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When it's someone I discovered I do not know at all, I unfriend the person. Then I had a realization that I can keep anyone who wants to be connected to me. I have things to share with them - my blog entries and the gospel. Somehow through my writing I could bless everyone who reads it. 

Life is much better when you're surrounded by positive people whom you can learn from. I definitely do not need bad vibes and I can eliminate them if I choose to. There is not enough time in a day and I want to make sure I am using my time wisely.

What are other things you do to increase your productivity?