By Colorado Review Associate Editor Lauren Gullion

Earlier this week, I wrote here to make my case in defense of Twitter as a viable tool for authors and other literary types. As we move into the weekend, I thought I’d offer up some tips on how we can engage in the social media game without draining too many of our precious minutes—because, let’s be honest, our free time is best spent writing or reading great new literature.

During this last week, my Twitter feed dropped off this gem of a how-to: In this blog post, social media guru Alexandra Samuel breaks down her clever efficiency tricks. As a writer, what I love most about her tips is the idea to cue up your blog postings and tweets over the weekend prior and set them to auto-post. That way, as you get on with your week and your daily writing or reading the good stuff (literature), there’s no need to pull out just to get yourself represented on your social media outlets. I liken this to paying my bills all at once or making a big pot of soup for the week—get the practicalities out of the way so you can keep on dreaming up a good story or chapter, as you please.

Time is gold, especially in our world. And so our approach to social media should be proactive in its use (and protection) of time. Robert Pagliarini is a finance guy but he gets it. In fact, he specializes in maximizing what he calls the “other 8 hours,” as in the 8 hours when we’re not sleeping or working. If we take into account an hour or two of writing each day, most writers have only the “other 6 hours,” thus Pagliarini’s advice might be all the more vital. In this post, Pagliarini focuses on efficient Facebooking, which might sound like an oxymoron, but check it out and see if there’s a trick or two you can use for keeping a tighter hold on your precious time.