If you’ve not noticed my little business pivot, I’m now officially helping business owners with brain gremlins to sort their social media. With that in mind, I’m taking a leap back into blogging as little old me, rather than over at Social Media for Humans, with some tips on planning and executing your strategy when you have executive dysfunction.
For those who don’t already know, WebMD defines executive function as:
“skills [that] help you get things done. Executive function helps you; manage time, pay attention, switch focus, plan and organise, remember details, avoid saying or doing the wrong thing, do things based on your experience, multitask.”
They are all things that are super useful when it comes to social media but executive dysfunction is also a common feature of borderline personality disorder so they are all things I struggle with. Fortunately I have found a whole host of tips, tools and workarounds that enable me to manage my own social media, and those of clients, and that guidance clients have also found useful.
All in one content planners.
Having everything all in one place is absolutely key for me and a theme through all these tips. When it comes to content planning that looks like captions, media assets, hashtags, theme ideas, notes and inspiration in one document.
I was thrilled to discover the Heart and Soul Digital content planner when it first launched and have used it every year for every client and myself since. That doesn’t mean it will work for you but it might be a place to start if you prefer a premade solution than a make your own.
Scheduling.
I will never stop shouting about how amazing scheduling is! For clients, I schedule a month in advance so I know that content is created and going out, leaving me the brain space to be reactive when things happen in the world or their industry.
For my own socials I’m currently about a week ahead on scheduling because it turns out launching a second business actually takes up quite a lot of time and energy!
Scheduling is awesome because it means you don’t have to think about creating content or remember to post the amazing post you spent an hour working on. My scheduling routine is a simple cut and paste of captions and hashtags from my content calendar, uploading of images, and hitting of “schedule” while I bop along to my favourite playlist.
My scheduling tool of choice is currently Publer (affiliate link) but you can schedule your Facebook and Instagram posts for free through Creator Studio and Tweets directly in Twitter.
Batching jobs.
To avoid the issues of switching focus, batching jobs is a must. Create all your images or other media assets on one day, write all your captions another day, do your hashtag research yet another day.
I’m a big fan of putting these tasks into my calendar, and they all show up on my dated to do list, so I know what’s ahead of me. You can also try theming your days; creative, admin, peopling, etc, to minimise task switching and help with actually getting stuff done.
Structure and flexibility.
Having “deadline,” “complete by” and “start by” dates on my tasks in my to do list has been a game changer for me as it makes prioritising so much easier. It also means that I have some flexibility in the tasks I do each day and can just work through the things I’m able to and that are important or urgent.
I have my Notion daily page set up to only show me tasks with a deadline, complete by or start by date of within 2 days so I can’t see my massive running list of things and get distracted by, or stressed out about, future jobs that need doing.
You do you.
As with everything mental health, social media or otherwise, it’s about finding what works for you. That’s what the Social Media for Humans Club is all about, that’s what my social media guidance is all about, and that’s what I am all about.
I’d love to hear what you’ve found tips and tools wise helps you with executive dysfunction – come and find me on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn and let me know.