Learning Patience

Instagram.

I love it, and I hate it. I’m sure many if not all of you share my love/hate relationship with Instagram and other social media platforms.

I’m not going to rail against social media as if it were a living thing with intentions of turning us into pets and eventually using us as batteries.

No, no. This is all our fault. We are the ones choosing to use the platforms. We can blame the creators for collecting our data, and we can hate on the algorithms for showing us the same ads over and over until we buy. But, where do we think the money comes from to keep the servers going that provide us with updates from people we used to know or celebrities we don’t know all? I ask you.

I use Instagram to make money. I’m not an influencer, but I do sell books and courses. Simply by being on Instagram, I’m advertising my books and courses to the masses. I’m not a heavy-handed poster, but I do post for fun and money.

Lately, however, I’m found myself sinking into the Search section on Instagram. I don’t even search for specific tags. I just get on there, click a post I like, and start scrolling.

One day, I did this mindless scroll for an hour. I am not proud of that.

Beyond the mindless scrolling, I have another issue. I feel pressure to post a picture the moment I take it. As if delaying my ‘daily mug’ posts until a specific day is going to ruin my account somehow.

I’m constantly wondering if I should spend hours making posts on Canva, so my grid is set up to sell more products. I wonder if I should just hire someone since I don’t really have time to babysit my few social media accounts.

Moments ago, I was one click away from spending over one hundred dollars on some Canva templates for Instagram.

Do I need them? Maybe, but not right this second. A couple of minutes of scrolling on Instagram lead me to searching for templates to make my Instagram look better. It was just a blink before hitting the Buy button that I thought to myself:

There is no guaranteed return on this investment. It can wait until you’ve tried something else.

So, try something else I shall.

What I Am Trying

I’m only going to post on Instagram once a week. Caveat - When I am promoting something, I can post more often if it is necessary.

I’m going to try this until the end of the year to see how things pan out.

What I Hope To Gain From This

I hope to gain more blog posts for one. Instead of fussing over a photo and posting with little to no captioning, I can take photos and write about them here.

I hope to gain a better sense of what’s important in my writing life. Promotion is important after the completed project. Yes, it is important to promote before you’re finished with your book, course or whatever, but not if promotion is cutting into creation time.

Experiment begins tomorrow.