As Danburg Properties of Boca Raton prepares to celebrate Halloween with its office, warehouse and industrial tenants at today’s Tenant Appreciation Breakfast, another thought is conjured up. In celebration of Halloween, the folks at Google created an animated graphic on the Google.com landing page. A witch stirs a smoking cauldron as a skull, a bone, a flash and an apple float in the corners of the screen. Viewers are enticed to click on any two to create their own strange brew and take the game to the next level.

It’s not exactly Hamster Dance addicting – for those who remember the web site from a decade ago.

And for those who have visited Facebook today, your newsfeed likely is streaming with Halloween wishes, images, video clips – kinda scary and downright hilarious (some even too risque to share).

But the issue is not about Facebook, hamsters dancing or Google’s latest homepage graphic – cute as these may be.

The question is how much time will you invest (or, waste – actually) scrolling and flitting through these sites and images? Social media can be a wonderful tool for bringing friends together and helping businesses build customer engagement.

But think about how much time some spend on Facebook, or scrolling through a Twitter stream, or watching YouTube videos? Sure, some have turned to YouTube to hone their skills or use Twitter to stay atop industry news.

But social media can be a vacuum that sucks the unsuspecting user into a time-consuming vortex. Before you know it, part of the day’s been wasted away – with little to show for it.

Tired of the lure of social media – but not willing to give it up completely? Try these tips:

1. Impose a personal Social Media Embargo. Promise yourself to not launch your Facebook or Twitter page during business hours. And stick to it.

2. Focus and Learn to time shift. If you post to Facebook or Twitter for business, and therefore cannot avoid the sites during the day, first – stay focused on the task at hand when you do log in. Don’t go surfing for personal satisfaction. Second, time shift. Using Facebook’s own scheduling option, or services like Buffer.com or SocialOomph.com, you can schedule posts to go live at a later time – either later in the day or months out. You “appear” active, but don’t have to burden your day (even when others are burdening their day by surfing social media).

3. Be cognizant of your social media consumption. If you find yourself spending too much time on social media, online games or other time-wasters, be aware of the lost opportunities. Change your habits. Learn to say No.

Social media, games and other online goblins are out there hoping to steal your time. Just be sure you know they’re there – and are prepared to say no when they come calling.