30 Days Off of Social Media — How It’s Going

It’s been a little over a month since I stopped posting and scrolling on social. I’m on there just a few times a day, checking on my writing community and one other community that I’m a part of. And that’s it.

Really though, 30 days is a sliver of time. I’ve paused social for 30 days in the past, so it doesn’t feel all that long. If you missed the most recent article on why I signed out: Here are 16 reasons why I left.

Since 2022 is the year of not fucking around (also a great life motto), I’m grateful for the focus I’ve had so far since the year kicked off and am already feeling so much momentum.

To help keep me focused during my social media sabbatical, there are a few things I committed to doing and not doing.

What I’m NOT doing: 

• Using every spare quiet minute or break in the day to scroll

• Creating social graphics

• Writing captions

• Editing and posting

• Responding to comments

• Checking out profiles of people who follow me

Here are some of the things I AM doing:

• Morning pages way more often, coming back to this practice after hardly doing it in December

• Book editing at least 4-5 times a week

• Going deeper into sharing lessons like this one with you on my blog

• Eating lunch in the sun

• Continuing to serve 1:1 copywriting clients, kicking off my first copywriting course, and having great conversations with clients and writing community members 

• Following the 12-week plan I created at the start of the year and making progress toward my Q1 goals (download my template free here)

• Painting! It’s been so long and it felt so good to create

It’s amazing to experience all the juicy things I could fill my day up with after discovering all this newfound spare time each day. All of the things I AM doing leave me with more space to fill my cup with the things that bring me value, and most importantly, joy.

When it comes to the impact of staying off social, you might wonder:

“This can’t be good for my business!”

“I’ll probably lose a ton of followers!”

“How will I stay connected with my [insert random person here]? I won’t be relevant anymore!”

The truth is, the impact can turn out to be the opposite than you think, not only for you personally but for your business. 

Here are the results I’ve seen so far:

• 13 new subscribers in the past week (which is huge for me as growth has always been slow and organic)

• My email open rate has spiked from ~18% to 33%

• I welcomed 5 clients to the beta round of my website copywriting course by sending a few emails (no social posts or ads)

• I’m still serving the same number of private copywriting and coaching clients on retainer

Just because I quit social doesn’t mean you have to. 

Most things on social are designed to suck you into a black hole — so much is dark or a distraction from the important work I’m here to do. If taking a break is something that you decide to do, I invite you to note how you feel during that time – at minimum, I can bet it will clear a ton of headspace and leave you generally feeling more positive,

It’s only been a month. And I’ve taken chunks of 30 days off from social media in the past, so I wasn’t expecting anything earth-shaking. What I have seen each time, though, is the benefit to my business and my well-being — it just feels good. I’ll keep you up to date on what's working and what I’m seeing as I continue to recenter my focus on myself, family, my clients, and my community.

Stepping away from social media isn’t new for me. 

Here are 8 lessons from when I signed off for a month in 2019 (here’s how I announced it). I took time off again in 2020 to finish my book.

And if you want to take planned social media breaks, here are some great reasons why.

Marketing my business outside of social media isn’t something new either.

I’ve done it since day 1 — only now, I’m concentrating my efforts on it even more. I’m enjoying the experimentation and fully, wholeheartedly trust that shifting my focus inward to what I want to create will only serve to make 2022 even more amazing.

February 2022 update:

I returned to social media after a complete reframe. And today, I love it as a tool (remember, it’s just that — a tool) for connection and spreading light. It’s what you make it. I did turn my webcam off, though.