Every conference I attend, every workshop I partake in, and every webinar I watch, I am reminded that social media is important for the business. However, more and more, studies are showing a direct correlation between social media use and depression, horrible sleep patterns, and anxiety.

The constant connection to my supporters and readers was actually draining. In the midst of my anxiety spiral, I had to come up with solutions on how to deal with anxiety, run a business and be active on social media.

Here are some simple things I did to create a system of healthy social media use.

Create A Social Media Engagement List: Instead of worrying if I liked enough accounts, and the right accounts, I now have a list of 20-30 accounts I have to comment on. The list has a mix of different accounts for every day of the week. I change up the list to beat the Instagram algorithm. It’s better than a pod because I am not commenting on the same people every day, which defeats the purpose of Instagram.

Social Media Interns Commenting: I have two interns. A part of their internship is to comment on people’s accounts for one or two days a week. They enjoy this part of their internship. I give them a list of approved comments they can use, but encourage them to be authentic, and come up with their own sayings. This allows me to be off Instagram, but my business is still active.

Schedule Posts Ahead Of Time: I am not a “live in the moment” type of person. Especially when it comes to my business. I have to think about things for a bit. With the help of my interns, we create posts ahead of time. This gives me peace knowing something is posted, and I don’t have to create something right then and there.

As a business owner, you may feel like you have to always be on. But we all need moments offline without our business suffering. Put your phone down, stop the double taps, and comments, and enjoy some me time.