You felt it, that immediate sensation that occurred when you became engaged with social media for the first time. The excitement of being able to communicate, with a wide network of family members, friends, business colleagues and other associates, easily with social media quickly became a time robbing nightmare. The problem is that too many people spend so much of their time navigating through different social brands that they forget to focus on their primary tasks they need to be accomplishing.

The workplace has caught on to the lack of focus some employees tend to exhibit in regards to work versus social media. Many companies have placed blocks on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and other social networks, effectively eliminating the possibility of an employee updating his status or tweeting about a cool video they found on YouTube. Considering the fact the company is paying that individual to work rather than comment on a Friend’s post, this practice is certainly not extreme.

What about the individual that works for himself or someone who works for others on a freelance basis? Shouldn’t that individual be allowed to have multiple channels open while working for others? Certainly but time becomes an issue.

Social media creates a diversion for people and can be dangerous when an individual allows themselves to continuously be distracted by their networking activity. Every time you choose to post a comment, retweet a post from someone you follow or share a post from a friend on your wall, you are wasting valuable time. It certainly can be fun but it can also cause regret when you have to press hard to finish your profitable tasks.

The more focused you are on your work the less distracting social media will be for you. If you have the self-control to ignore social media while working, great, if not make sure to manage your time so the task that earns you income gets the attention it needs!