(image credit: paulobrandao)

Snow storms can be a good thing.  Remember when you were a kid, and the first thing you did when you got out of bed? Sure you do.  Think back.  You got out of bed, looked outside, listened to the radio / tv, and checked for closings.  You then rooted for the weatherman to pronounce the verdict of CLOSED, and you had your perfect winter wonderland to explore.

So, what’s changed? We’re older now, many of us with families of our own and the responsibilities to prove it.  We need to earn our keep, and in the fast paced world of social media, we often don’t think twice at 12+ hour workdays.

And then, we have a snowday.  The Mayor of Louisville had declared a state of emergency due to a huge winter storm, and the heavy ice from the storm resulted in lots of downed power lines.  For me, this meant no Internet for a day.  Pretty soon, I began feeling the effects of social media withdrawal.  I know I wasn’t alone in this feeling, as I stepped in to my local coffee shop, I’ve never seen the caffeinated, wi-fi laden venue so full of laptop armed people 🙂

But wait a minute..aren’t snowdays supposed to be fun? Here are some tips to help you through your social media snowday:

Family time. This was a great day for me to be with my family.  Sure, I still had a few iPhone and coffee shop moments, but nothing brings a family closer when the power goes out.

Focus. I don’t know about you, but the sheer about of texts, im’s, emails, dm’s and every other abbreviation imaginable I receive every day is enough to short out even the most dedicated individual’s focus.  Downtime away from the Internet can help you bang out that blog post you’ve been dying to write, get that proposal ready to go without interruption, and take care of your taxes (hey, it is the season, folks).

Strategic Time Blocks. Building on the previous point of focus, if you know that you are only going to have power / Internet for a short while (i.e. on your next visit to the coffee shop), keep these hotspot visits focused.  Perhaps you can prep a number of emails/responses so they will be ready to be sent.

Go fully mobile. If you just can’t stay away, you can always go buy an air card for your laptop.  Still, if you aren’t a road warrior, it may not be worth the monthly fee for you.  You can also get a lot done through your mobile device, but for me, there is nothing like a full-sized keyboard. 😉

Help others. Maybe you are one of the lucky ones with power and internet in when many others aren’t.  Spread some good feelings through Twitter and your other social networks to help others get a quick place to recharge.  Panera and Whole Foods have been good examples, having free wi-fi and coffee during outages.

How did you spend YOUR snowday? Louisvillians? Midwesterners? Lend me your thoughts.