If you are a blogger, you spend your day trying to write, catch up on trends, connect with your audience, and manage a thousand other things. It’s a reality for most of us, and also the biggest reason most blogs don’t survive their second anniversary.
FOMO is the popular acronym for the 'fear of missing out’. It’s real and is also known as the ‘shiny object syndrome'. Studies about depression and anxiety resulting from problematic social media use took place because there was a crisis.
Symptoms of FOMO no one tells you
- Have you ever felt you wanted the cool slider on your blog
- Wanted to write about the law, bitcoins, health, medicine, new beauty products because everyone was doing it
- Have you felt bad about not doing as much as other social media influencers
- Do you feel you are not going anywhere with your blog all the time
- This tweet, or Instagram post, is the one that will break the internet
- The cool new laptop will make a difference in your writing
- You can't concentrate without checking out the new app
- You break out in a sweat, seeing what a lot of followers your blogging friend has
- You are losing sleep when you are not on every social channel
How FOMO is killing your writing/blogging mojo
#1: You are never satisfied with how your blog looks.
You change your theme every day because it's not as beautiful as you want! Themes, plugins, settings, it's a load of fun, right? You waste so much time, you don't post for a week.
#2: Brain clutter
Too much thought clutter in your mind, is what FOMO does. Clutter kills creativity, and making your writing time cluttered with unnecessary tech makes your left brain take over. But to write and create, you would want your right brain to be number one. And nothing kills writing like starting to shave the yak!
#3: FOMO misleads your brain
You love the likes, follows, but don't know whether it's real or a mirage. Many social channels tinker with engagement statistics. Focusing on the wrong stats leads to wrong decisions about your writing. You think, "Why to write if she can do it without writing?"
#4: Attention, perception, and processing is lowered with multitasking
With every extra thing you do simultaneously, it reduces your brain's ability to do it well. You also downgrade the quality. That's the same thing you are doing with your writing when you have too much going on. In fact, the brain is unable to handle two mentally taxing tasks simultaneously. Skipping excessive social media improves mental well-being significantly and social connectedness.
#5: FOMO will give you crippling self-doubt
What if I fall behind? What will people say if I say no to this challenge, contest, blog hop? What if I don't join this group? You are skimming because you want to reach the next shiny object before it goes away. The quality and quantity of writing both suffer.
Beat FOMO the smart way
Know the numbers that matter.
- Think calmly why you want to use this social media platform? Will it help you get work? More subscribers? Sell more books? Give you more exposure? Will it give you an advantage? How?
- Check your email list.
- Check your Global Alexa numbers.
- Check the blog posts are pages that are getting traffic. What's working for them? Do more of that.
- Are you selling your books, your service through your online presence? Monitor the return on investment from time spent on social sites with traffic back to blog, engagement, subscriber numbers, and or money in the bank.
Once you free up your time from mindless number crunching, you have more time to write!
Work online without letting FOMO kill your writing mojo.
- Pick friends with care. Avoid the company that gives you the worst FOMO attacks.
- Work on yoga and mindfulness. Go for a walk, a run or go garden, or cook up a dish if you want to invest in the newest course. Then check whether you finished the last one before buying this one. Have an accountability partner before you buy the next course.
- Turn off notification when you write. SM notifications are culprits behind triggering FOMO. It's like social media trauma. Set an automatic timer when you use social media. Avoid scrolling social feeds before your work is done.
- Go social media free on the weekend. Don't think of it as detox. Think of it as refilling. Fill your mind with family time, creative work, and nature and watch your mood improve and productivity skyrocket.
- Slow down and focus! Have slots, respect your own brain boundaries, and do one thing at a time. Do it well. Go to the next. When the colors of the rainbow are all visible, they are beautiful. But if you mix all shades together without order, what color do you think comes up? That's what happens to your writing when you put all the extra stuff on your writing plate.
Art and creativity need white space in your brain. Ideas need to rest, glow, and catch your attention. An idea-bud can be lost in the thought clutter before you set your eyes on it. So, let your writing bloom. Set the FOMO free.
The trick to overcoming FOMO is simple. As Seth Godin says, 'see the opportunity cost of not doing it." So the next time you go after the shiny thing ask yourself this: what’s the opportunity cost of not grabbing it?
Comments
I do change the looks of my site quite often whenever I try to come back to active blogging(again). Is it FOMO? Now I'm doubting!
Very well written, Amrita. We can't run behind numbers all the time. Our Blog is our comfort space. FOMO shouldn't kill our writing mojo!