Rants
Questions
Soapbox
Best Practices
Apply today for a FREE subscription to CIO Magazine!
Tue, Jan 13, 2009 18:22 EST
|
Posted by: C.G. Lynch in Best Practices Topic: Personal ManagementBlog: Web 2.0 Advisor
Current Rating: |
While social networking tools such as Facebook and Twitter have already shown their ability to improve the way we work, live and interact with one another, like any piece of technology, we can waste an exceptional amount of time if we're not careful.
I'm hesitant to go on record admitting it, mostly because I believe the productivity argument against social tools is used by short-sighted business leaders who ban social networks and Web 2.0 tools at work. Overall, I believe social networking tools help productivity more than they hurt it, but there are signs that some of us need some balance.
The (over)use of social tools is more an issue of personal time-management that transcends the technology itself.
What got me on this topic? I read that an insightful Forrester analyst, Jeremiah Owyang, took 20 days off from Twitter (click here to read his blog on the matter). He had been averaging 30 tweets a day (a tweet is a short message, 140 characters or less, posted to the micro blogging service). He certainly had an excuse -- he consults with clients on social media and utilizing these tools for marketing and technology initiatives. He needs to be on Twitter and engage with it.
But he "realized that we’re not as dependent on these tools as you may think. I can’t step away from Twitter forever, as my clients are there, and this is a tool that I cover as an analyst, but I encourage you to try stepping away, refresh your mind, and come back more focused, I sure did."
Social networking and Web 2.0 tools help us connect with people who have the same expertise and interests. These tools keep us out of e-mail hell, while helping us collaborate in transparent, open workspaces (think wikis, for instance). We can discover information serendipitously when someone shares something with us we weren't expecting. So for the time we do waste, I believe it's made up many times over.
But we still need to be disciplined about it.
Before the holidays, I was writing a long feature piece about the superconnected members of LinkedIn. I like to do my writing in the morning while I'm fresh (with coffee). I opened up the document at 10 a.m., but figured I'd first quickly answer some tweets, IM some colleagues about ongoing projects and confirm some new friends on Facebook. Did I say quickly? Well, the next time I looked at the clock it was noon and I hadn't written more than a paragraph.
I immediately shut off my Twitter updates, Facebook e-mail notifications (“Jane wants to be your friend on Facebook”) and (of course) my instant messenger. In a mere half-hour, I finally had the first page of my story done, but I did have to work late that night to compensate.
So was I wasting time that whole morning? Yes and no. Without those tools, I might have not had the same experts and colleagues at my disposal who offer me some of the best insights on technology, media, journalism and life -- all things that make me a productive and (I hope) intellectually curious individual.
But to do the basic thing that sustains me (write), I had to block it all out.
If you've run into social tool fatigue, as Owyang and I both have, I'd be curious to hear your strategy for dealing with it.
I find that when I've had an over-exposure of Facebook and LinkedIn (since I've just begun using Twitter and haven't really Twitted out yet), it's best for me to just get to work. I generally get up from my desk, and go to the NOC, or grab a cup of tea.
Another thing I do is simply disconnect. Not turn off the computer, mind you, but rather shut down my browser and open up Word, Outlook, or Visio and begin to work on some other project that I need to get done anyway.
One thing the social networking sites do provide is the ability to disconnect from the mundane of your daily grind and allow your mind to wander a little bit. While this might be seen as "unproductive", I find that it often helps me be more productive because I usually gain some insight on something I'm trying to accomplish by reading about it from other people in my network, or I find a spark of inspiration. It's sort of become my process for getting things done.
So, while I think Twitter, FaceBook, LinkedIn, Digg, Flickr, and other such sites can be time wasters. If you're a grown up, you should know you've had too much and just get back to work. Speaking of which...
Gary Drumm
http://www.garydrumm.com
I'm so afraid of the addictive pull of another social network (I stay fairly busy on LinkedIn), that I haven't set foot on Twitter. That's not entirely true. I did sign on, but went no further.
Somehow I have a number of people following me on Twitter. I have never tweeted, but my blog posts have been tweeted about.
On the other hand, I do blog about the value of Twitter on a regular basis, because I know the benefits to my c-level clients are many. I'm sure the benfits to me would be many too.
Like Gary who commented, my business is writing, and I do my best work in the morning. When I have let myself get distracted by emails and invitations, too much of the juice I need to work dribbles away. I just know that if I went near Twitter, I'd get sucked into the action and really be in trouble.
I have found that noodling around on LinkedIn can spark ideas and provide fodder for some great blog posts. I bet Twitter would do the same.
That being said, I'm still holding back from Twitter.
Here's a twitter news search product developed on BOSS:
http://zooie.wordpress.com/
It's pretty good. Uses twitter to enhanced authoritative fresh content. I found using twitter by itself to be quite unusable. I think these synergies show the addictive value of their service.
I think it is healthy to understand what social media tools I find useful and use them specifically for that purpose. I am with you on the 'writing in the morning thing' and it is my own lack of diligence when I get drawn in by my blog reader, my facebook account or even just my email. Focus and diligence are probably more highly valued character traits in a functioning business person than ever before.
Robb Boyd
www.cisco.com/go/interact