I was talking with my friend the other day about how frustrated she was by social media. She knows it’s important and has seen first-hand how a good social media strategy can drive sales, but her overwhelm has kept her from posting on Instagram for months.

“You are letting the perfect be the enemy of the good,” I told her, before adding, “I think the first thing you need to do is build up your social media muscles.”

You see, creating on social media is a habit, just like anything else.

In his book Atomic Habits, James Clear talks about the strategy of the Two-Minute Rule which states, “When you start a new habit, it should take less than two minutes to do.”  He goes on to explain that nearly any habit can be scaled down to a two-minute version:
 

“Run a marathon” becomes “put on running shoes”

“Read before bed every night” becomes “Read one page”

“Do the dishes after dinner” becomes “wash one dish”

Since you are only obligated to do that thing for two minutes, it doesn’t seem so overwhelming to start, and once you’ve started, it becomes much easier to continue doing it.  This principle can easily be applied to building your social media habit.

“Post to Instagram Feed 3 Days/Week” becomes “Write a two sentence post on Monday”

“Post four slides to Instagram Stories Daily” becomes “Post one slide to Instagram Stories”

“Go LIVE for 30 minutes, once per week” becomes “Go LIVE for 2 minutes”

You can’t make a habit better if the habit doesn’t yet exist, so take baby-steps.  This consistency will help build up that muscle, which will keep you motivated and kick your overwhelm.
 

I’ve used this strategy to start this email list--something that was overwhelming to me.  I started by emailing you once per month, then in March, I moved to emailing you twice per month.  My eventual goal is to email you useful social media tips every week, but I’m still building up this habit.