Since joining Steemit, I've followed the following "mantra":
Read more than you like, like more than you comment, comment more than you post
Which seems simple enough but is far more difficult that it sounds.
Why do I Follow this "Mantra"
Until you have enough Steem Power such that your curation rewards are significant, the chances are that your primary source of Steem income is rewards from your posts. So surely I should be spending more time posting than on any other activity?!
If you ignore all of the bid-bots and self-upvoting, a significant proportion of upvotes on Steemit are between people who have built up a rapport - It's far less common for somebody to just stumble across you for the first time and read your content (although it does happen). This is where the importance of the reading, liking and commenting comes in - It gives you the opportunity to share your thoughts on another author's work and for them to hopefully like you ("Great Post" doesn't cut it). It's also important to reply when somebody comments on your post (so long as it's a comment that has at least a little bit of effort put into it) - this is another opportunity to build that rapport.
If somebody likes you, they'll probably upvote you even when they're not as interested in what you write about
Stephen Covey has an analogy called "the emotional bank" where with each positive interaction, you are making a "deposit" and each negative interaction a "withdrawal" (in my experience, a withdrawal always seems to be more expensive than a deposit!)
For example, engaging in conversation would be considered a deposit whereas not replying to a comment could be considered a withdrawal.
How Long Does it Take?
In @denmarkguy's post that he shared yesterday (Blogging on Steemit: It Takes TIME to Create Nice Looking Posts!), he writes:
Most of my posts take a couple of hours or more to create, from the "idea" stage, through writing it out, editing it, selecting photos, formatting photos and text, proofreading, tagging and so forth.
This is what's required to produce the best content that I've come across on Steemit and represents a significant investment of effort. Especially as the general consensus advises that you post frequently, at least daily.
So that's a couple of hours of your day gone - you've produced your masterpiece and await the reward that you feel you deserve for your efforts and according to my mantra, you should be commenting, liking and reading more than you're posting! But that's 2 hours gone already - if I spend 2 hours on each of those other activities, that's more than 8 hours of my precious time...!
And herein lies the challenge with Steemit.
The Challenge of Time
Reading other people's content takes a lot of time - there's a lot of content available and much of it won't be of interest to you (which is another reason most upvotes are between users with a rapport). So you're not going to like everything that you read. But when you do find something that you like, give it an upvote 👍 It's not unusual for the person receiving the upvote to check out your profile and see if you're interesting to them too.
So I guess my 2 hours dedicated to liking is more like 2 seconds so that's only 6 hours of my time required.
But why stop at just upvoting something - you've taken the time to read it and if you like it, the chances are you have an opinion on it (but not always of course). So leave a comment and start a conversation - if you "get along", you'll quickly find you're following each other and liking everything each other do (some serious "depositing" going on).
So realistically, you're spending as much time reading, voting and commenting as you are posting - which is still a lot of time and how you manage that, is something you need to work out for yourself! (I don't have the answer)
Please Share Your Thoughts
I'd be interested in hearing your thoughts on my "mantra" and how you approach the time you spend on Steemit so please comment below - You never know, this could be the opening of a new "emotional bank account".