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We’re always looking for tools. Things that will help us expand our networks and obviously increase our bottom lines. There are many tools out there but none in my opinion has the same propensity for waste as it does productivity as Twitter.

Twitter has expanded my network of good friends and increased the exposure of my blog forum / directory in a major way. For that I am extremely grateful and glad I found the network. I also find on any given day the people I’m chatting with routinely are totally different and of a larger scope then I could of ever imagined before I became officially addicted to Twitter. Can’t say I’m shocked I was already addicted to the internet so now twitter is just the next step.

The problem with twitter is that it’s constantly changing / evolving. That’s good but also bad for the productivity of it’s users. Something new is always happening and being shared. This “source” of news and entertainment is also incredibly hard to walk away from; it’s even harder to try and moderate. Have you said I’ll check my stream and found yourself an hour or so later hitting refresh compulsively. Even once you finally “rip yourself away” you get an email when someone sends you a direct message (sadly it’s usually an offer for some free gift ) or a new friend request pops up and you’re back where you started!Image via Wikipedia

I think in order to get the “most” out of twitter it’s not to use it the “most” but to time it out like cigarettes. Yes I just compared to two. With cigarettes if you have to many in too short a time they totally lose their appeal, flavor and purpose. It feels like I’m just smoking air. Same with twitter. If you use twitter for 2 hours a day and it’s all in one shot you’re not getting the most of it. Just lot’s of hot air! What you want to do is space out your usage like you would a cigarette. (That is if you’re unfortunate enough to be a smoker).

By spacing out twitter usage to say ~20 minutes 6 times a day ~ 1-2 hours apart you’ll not only be “filled in and satisfied” but you’ll also have new relevant tweets to go through; new friends to meet and probably something new on your mind worth sharing. If you look at it all in that one 2 hour block there will probably be a lot of stale time where you hit refresh or wait for a reply that just isn’t coming yet.

I was just playing on twitter and realized I was experiencing diminishing returns for the time I was spending. This wasted time could / should be used to maintain some of my current projects and write like I’m doing now. The old saying “everything in moderation” rings especially true for twitter. Use it; love it, let it change your life both online and offline but realize it’s just a tool with a purpose. Don’t become overly obsessed or preoccupied with it.

This post just took about 5-10 minutes or so. How many bloggeries have you potentially wasted on twitter when you should log off but just continually putter around as there is always something new that could occupy your interest?

Keep working from home; especially for yourself!

Rob

Monday is a special day in the week. It’s the first day and technically anything is possible. (Same could be say for each day). As the week continues productivity has to be measured and if you haven’t completed some work the pressure starts to set in. Regardless if you planned 5 things to do or 50. If you look at them in percentages if you’re only accomplishing 20-40% of your tasks there will be some anxiety remaining. It doesn’t have to be like this.

I find it very easy to make grandiose plans of what will happen during the week. A “perfect world” set of things to do and accomplish. Sadly life doesn’t always work out as planned and things beyond our control occur which require our time. It’s also easy to make a list that is overzealous and come up incredibly short. I know I have done that on more than one occasion.

The secret to having a fun, productive week is setting realistic goals. My to-do lists used to be long. Now they are incredibly short. After sometime of trying to bite off more then I could chew I found I was choking. Nothing close to what I had imagined was getting done. There had to be some kind of remedy !?!

The remedy is setting a realistic todo list. Rome wasn’t built overnight and neither will your business. It’s a slow process of pragmatic steps. It’s easy to do / appear to do lots without getting the results you desire. If you want to get results you need to take a look at what is important; prioritize and then implement.

Here is my secret for getting things done and keeping my sanity.

I set one goal for each day. Have one major goal for each day and if that gets done quickly have enough secondary ones. Ones that if they get accomplished; great. If not they can always be done at sometime because they are not time-bound.

If you accomplish one goal per day that will help you build your businesses towards its desired end you’ll quickly make tracks properly. Things take time and thought. Trying to do too much with too little time is about as productive as doing nothing because you get so caught up that nothing seems to get done.

Another reason why I like to make only one must do per day is that it takes the stress away from your business and makes it fun again. Stress is a killer and sadly most stress is self induced.

Work hard everyday but be mindful of what you realistically can accomplish. If you’re working solo and do outsourcing. Don’t expect it overnight. The man / woman working alone from home doesn’t have the same resources as someone with a full office of specialized staff; so don’t assume things will get done instantly. The flip side is you don’t have any of the overhead associated with it…

Set realistic goals that are achievable and your to-do list will move along smoothly. You’ll feel better, less stressed and ultimately accomplish more.

Why not give it a try? Starting today!?

Keep working from home,

Rob

Summary for incredibly impatient: Use BudUrl service to shrink URLs and you can track it adding /s to end.

http://budurl.com/qlhu/s

As web addresses continue to get longer and longer it is important to shrink / shorten URLs before sharing them on various social media type sites. That being said it’s also important to track the clicks if you can.

http://www.tinyurl.com

The above is arguably the most popular URL shortening service. There are so many shortening services that I won’t even attempt to list them all. Tiny URL allows you to shorten a URL so it’s easy to share; nothing less nothing more.

http://www.budurl.com

BudUrl is very similar to Tiny Url in regards to shrinking / shortening a longer URL to make it easier to share. There is one additional feature of particular interest; you can track the clicks it receives!

Shrunk URL:

http://budurl.com/qlhu

Shrunk URL Stats:

http://budurl.com/qlhu/s

Let’s say the url made is http://budurl.com/qlhu. If you add a /s to the end it will show you the number of clicks the shortened url has received. This is extremely valuable to know if your efforts in different spheres are paying off or not. Shrink URLs often on social media sites so you can save characters and track the response.

Keep working for yourself,

Rob