My thoughts as a time management strategist
Clubhouse has taken our industry by storm. It seems like all anyone is talking about is getting an invite, using it, what rooms they’re on, or why they’re actively avoiding getting on.
If you’ve been living under a rock, and haven’t heard of Clubhouse – it’s the new social media app that is live audio only. You can be the host of a room, or you can hop in as a listener and be a fly on the wall to hear others talk. And if you have a question or something you’d like to say while you listen, you can raise your hand and be pulled up on stage to have an actual conversation.
Today I wanted to share some of my thoughts and feelings about the app from the perspective of time management. I’m sharing pros and cons as I see them currently, and then some tips around managing your time well while using the app.
Would you rather listen? Check out the podcast episode here!
Time Management and Clubhouse?
So before I dive in to the pros and the cons of clubhouses, as well as time management and Clubhouse, I just want to take a moment and give you a little tough love. I mean this with all love and respect, and I hope that you’ll hear me and you’ll hear my heart with this, but I see so many people saying:
“I’m not going to get on clubhouse. It’s just another thing to do. I’m tired of dealing with all these different apps.”
This is just part of our industry. We see these messages over and over again about how it’s so important to have our own website and have our own email list because social media can die any day. Well, new social media is, can pop up at any day to these new apps. It’s just part of what we’re doing and we’re never going to be able to just be complacent and inflexible with our marketing plans. Marketing is always evolving. You look at what marketing looked like in the eighties compared to now it’s completely different and it’s going to keep evolving.
This is all the more reason to batch your content. I talk about this all the time, but this right here is exactly why batching is so important because I batch my content and I’m not constantly in create mode.
When Clubhouse got really big and popular, and I finally got an invite, I was able to hop on without the overwhelm because I had the mental space and capacity to do so. So this right here is a perfect example of why we should be batching our content so that we can play around with new things and figure them out.
The other side of that though, is that you do not have to be on any app period. If you don’t have the time or the mental capacity – Great. Just do your thing. Do what you’re doing. There is nothing wrong with only being on Instagram. Or only being on Facebook or only being on LinkedIn, as long as you are showing up, and that’s where your audience is.
Don’t let FOMO stress you out. Don’t get on it just because you feel like you have to. But right now, it’s a great time to get on it because there’s no best practices. There’s no best strategy. There’s no best bio everyone’s playing around with it. Even those that seem like they know where they’re doing.
So if you do have the time and the mental capacity, I think it is a great thing to hop on and just play around with.
I just wanted to touch on that. We’re in an ever-changing industry. It just is what it is. Marketing is always going to be changing and if you’re too tired to deal with it, It might be time to re-evaluate what you’ve got on your plate, but now I want to move into the pros and the cons, as I see them, for Clubhouse.
Pros of Getting on Clubhouse
- It’s great for networking, marketing, and expanding your reach.
So the first pro is that it’s great for networking and meeting new people and expanding your reach, obviously, because everyone is so excited about it. People are spending a lot of time on it and they’re hopping in from room to room to room.
Personally, I’ve seen an increase in Instagram followers because it connects straight to your Instagram, which is really great. I’ve also heard of others getting new clients from it. People are seeing a lot of growth from being on clubhouse and from being an early right.
- There’s a low barrier between you and other educators/influencers.
A lot of big names out there that are essentially doing free coaching and there’s such a low, low barrier between everyone on clubhouse right now. And what I mean by that is sometimes you can go on Instagram and you follow someone with, I don’t know, hundreds of thousands of followers, and most likely you’re going to kind of get lost in the shuffle.
They’re probably not even going to see that you followed them, let alone go look at your profile and falling back. They’re protecting their energy and their time. But on clubhouse, everyone’s just kind of following each other. Everyone is just trying to connect, trying to figure out what the best way to use clubhouse is because we’re all exploring.
- You can actually interact and ask direct questions while someone is teaching.
You’re able to say I’m listening and I want to put my hand up and I want to ask you a direct question versus with a podcast, you can listen to me, but I can’t interact back with you because I’m prerecording it and I’m putting it up and it’s going straight to your phone for you to listen to at your convenience. Whereas with clubhouse it’s live. If you get called up to the stage, you’re going to have an actual conversation with the others on stage.
Cons of Getting On Clubhouse
- Rooms are time consuming, and far from bite-sized.
If you pop into a room and you’ve got someone talking and they’re kind of going down a rabbit trail and you don’t get pulled in, it’s really hard to get focused and it can be difficult to really glean good stuff from it.
Whereas, with a podcast, you’ve given all of the information you need quickly and easily.
At the beginning, some people’s goals with hosting rooms was to keep it going for as long as possible! I don’t know about you, but I don’t have time for that.
- Lack of connection on the Clubhouse app itself
There’s really no way to connect truly one-on-one you can’t send messages, you can’t do any of that stuff. You have the ability to link directly to your Instagram and Twitters accounts, which is a nice touch and you can certainly chat over there. BUT. There’s just something about being able to connect with someone on the app you connected on originally.
- Lack of feedback from audience.
If you’re running a solo room it can be kind of strange because there’s zero feedback from the audience. Whereas on Instagram, if you do a live or something, those watching can leave comments and reactions. You get feedback and interaction.
Just like if you were speaking in person, you look for people, nodding their heads. You want to make sure that your audience is getting it and it’s clicking. With Clubhouse, the only way to interact is if someone raises their hand to come on stage. But if everyone just wants to be a fly on the wall, that makes it really hard to know if what you’re saying is landing, or if you need to elaborate on something.
- Inclusivity issues and concerns
And then, of course, there are the inclusivity concerns, right? There’s no transcriptions. You can’t download to replay later. No one can read lips because it’s just audio. This is certainly a huge issue, and I think part of the reason that others are predicting that Clubhouse won’t last in the long run.
Time Management Tips for Using Clubhouse
- Don’t try and multi-task in order to get more Clubhouse time in
Don’t try to have it running in the background as you are working because multitasking is not a thing – you’re task switching, and it’s harming your productivity.
- Turn off your notifications
One of the features of clubhouses that people can ping you and basically say, Hey, I think you’d like this room. Well, what a lot of people are doing is. even if you’re not active (and it shows who’s active and who’s not) they ping you in the hopes that a notification will pop up on your phone and you’ll hop in. Turn your notifications off so that you don’t get distracted and hop on when you should be doing other things. Don’t get sucked in just because a notification popped up.
- Set aside time specifically for getting on
Even better, if you can swap your Clubhouse listening time for time you’d be listening to a podcast already. Maybe on your daily walk, while you’re in carline, while you fold laundry, cooking dinner ….
- Don’t worry about strategy just yet
Instead of telling yourself that you need to do a certain amount of rooms a week, be really flexible with yourself. Do your main work, stick to your normal patterns and routines. And then if you’ve got some extra time, do an impromptu room here and there.
Right now, there are no rules, no best practices, and it’s a free for all. Enjoy that part of getting to be an early adaptor and don’t worry so much about strategy just yet.
I hope you enjoyed my take on time management and Clubhouse as a time management strategist, and I’d love to know your thoughts on Clubhouse as well. Be sure to leave them in the comments below!
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