NOWSOURCING

With Twitter going up and down so much today, I thought I’d weigh in my $0.02 here in a slightly more than 140 character statement.

Twitter is awesome, let’s get that straight. But sometimes, it really draws you in and takes you away from getting things done.

So, how do you keep Twitter at bay? Here are a 5 things that I do to preserve sanity:

Greet your followers. I reply (@) to just about every non-bot that follows me. This is a great way to reach your audience while keeping active on Twitter at the same time.

Pick a time. As with anything in your day, perhaps finding some “alone time” with you and Twitter might be the way to go.

Find time even when you don’t have time. It’s all about life streaming or whatever nonsense buzzword of the day. Your blog readers want to know what you’re thinking and feeling. Express yourself. Even if you don’t have time, you aren’t brain dead so just say a few things.

Integrate Twitter in your workspace. User adoption is usually a tough thing for companies to break in to. Getting an app like Twitter to be easy to access as part of your daily routine is the key to success for them. So if you like to text, use SMS messaging. Firefox fan? Good, use Twitterfox. Thwirl is a great desktop app made on the Adobe Air platform.

Pick your poison. If you’re going to be on instant messaging and Twitter, the number of inbounds can be alarming. Sometimes it’s easier to just have Twitter act as your instant messaging platform since you can direct message with others there.

It is my hope that this mental health checkup will allow you to lead productive lives again, good citizens. Best of luck to you.