How Can A Freelancer Perform Deep Work?

00:00:00.000 | [MUSIC]

00:00:05.280 | Our first question comes from Irfana, who asks,

00:00:10.080 | "How can a freelancer perform deep work?

00:00:13.800 | The freelancer has to create his personal brand on LinkedIn.

00:00:17.920 | You know, suppose he's a social media manager,

00:00:19.520 | he needs to have a social media presence."

00:00:24.200 | Well, Irfana, I think this is an example

00:00:26.080 | of an important phenomenon to discuss briefly,

00:00:28.960 | which is single drop social media use.

00:00:33.960 | And what I mean by single drop social media use

00:00:35.920 | is the mindset that if there is any social media use

00:00:40.920 | that is necessary in your life,

00:00:43.520 | so something professionally or what have you,

00:00:45.880 | there's, you know, job applicants

00:00:47.920 | and you have to check for questions on Facebook

00:00:51.400 | or something like that,

00:00:52.360 | that if there is any, a single drop of social media use

00:00:54.800 | in the pool that is your activity time,

00:00:56.680 | then you have to just unrestrictedly use social media

00:00:59.600 | from there on out.

00:01:01.120 | And that's what I'm sensing in this question,

00:01:03.800 | that as a freelancer,

00:01:04.880 | there's some stuff you might want to do on LinkedIn.

00:01:06.680 | Maybe you have a LinkedIn Pulse-style newsletter

00:01:10.440 | and/or you have to keep up on inquiries from people

00:01:14.760 | or keep up with your network.

00:01:15.720 | I don't know exactly what it is,

00:01:17.280 | but in your mind that small amount of mandated use means,

00:01:20.880 | I guess I just have to be on social media all the time.

00:01:24.200 | And that's not the case.

00:01:25.560 | In fact, this would be the challenge I would give you.

00:01:28.480 | Let us say I said,

00:01:30.200 | here's the new law under a penalty of $100,000 fine.

00:01:34.260 | You are only allowed to be logged into LinkedIn

00:01:37.480 | for 20 minutes once a week.

00:01:40.500 | I bet you would be fine.

00:01:43.880 | I bet you would be fine.

00:01:45.160 | What would happen if that was the law?

00:01:47.020 | Well, first of all, if you were posting content on LinkedIn,

00:01:49.600 | you would just write it elsewhere.

00:01:51.880 | And during that 20 minutes, you would post,

00:01:54.040 | you would make it weekly.

00:01:56.320 | If there were requests coming in

00:01:58.680 | or you wanted to do some networking,

00:02:00.120 | just during that 20 minutes,

00:02:01.320 | you would answer the request

00:02:02.720 | and you would maybe do some pokes.

00:02:05.160 | Maybe you would update your profile to somehow say,

00:02:08.040 | I do LinkedIn messages on Fridays

00:02:09.920 | or whatever day you do it.

00:02:11.100 | Maybe you'd miss a couple things

00:02:12.400 | or a couple of people would be annoyed

00:02:13.660 | that you were slow getting back into them,

00:02:15.020 | but who cares, right?

00:02:16.000 | This is a numbers game.

00:02:17.140 | It's just over time being on there

00:02:18.640 | may be surfaces the occasional opportunity.

00:02:21.100 | So you would be absolutely fine in 20 minutes once a week,

00:02:24.920 | which is a negligible footprint.

00:02:26.600 | This is the type of exercise I want people to do

00:02:28.840 | when they think about unavoidable social media use.

00:02:32.840 | What if I was only doing this

00:02:34.200 | for a very small amount of time, quite infrequently?

00:02:38.520 | Could I really make that work?

00:02:39.840 | Would I get most of the value?

00:02:41.240 | And I think in most cases, the answer would be yes.

00:02:45.360 | So do not allow the single drop

00:02:47.800 | of social media requirement in your life

00:02:50.300 | be the instigating force that gets you

00:02:54.440 | to then endlessly lose yourself into those distractions.

00:02:58.120 | (upbeat music)

00:03:00.700 | [Music]

How Can A Freelancer Perform Deep Work?

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