Monday, September 8, 2008

35. Time Management

One of the questions about the web I’m asked most often is - how do you find the time to keep up with everything? So I thought I'd share some tips and ask you for some tips. Here are mine:

  • I don't try to keep up with everything. There is so much going on, I think it would be impossible to try to do it all and have a balanced life, so I accept that there will always be something I don’t know about.
  • I have a great network of people; when I find something new I share, when they find something new they share
  • I take what I like and throw the rest out. I’ll try most new services, set up an account, play with it for a while. If doesn’t click or do what I want, I stop using it.
  • I don't use every tool everyday. Twitter is often overwhelming to me, and it interrupts me when I’m really focusing, so some days I don’t check in at all. I know I miss some good things, but it’s part of that “can’t do everything” acceptance.
  • I’m organized - I use a feed reader and have over 10 folders. One titled daily - those are the blogs that have high priority, I don’t necessarily read them every day but if I have time they are the first ones that get read. This is a select folder and there are never more than 10 blogs in there. Other blogs are organized under subject. I try to read most of these once a week or so.
  • I don’t try to do everything at once. First I got a Myspace page, mastered that (it took a while let me tell you and I cursed Myspace more than once) then I moved on to the next thing.
  • I use gmail for my email list subscriptions, it groups emails together which makes is easy to follow conversations or delete the whole thread if I’m not interested. It also allows me to create custom labels (instead of folders) and sort incoming email by those and color code them!

Tools I use: a feed reader, blogs, email lists, FriendFeed, Facebook, Twitter, but use what works for you and you feel comfortable with.

What tips or tricks do you use for keeping up?

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

Bobbi: Wow, this is helpful! I've fallen behind in 2.1 just because I feel so overwhelmed by it all. One thing I've found is that, if I create an account w/ some service, then don't use it, I forget my login info/password. Here's my question: Is it a bad thing to make an account w/ someone (like, say, Second Life)and then never use it? I've done that w/ several services.

Bobbi Newman said...

@absinthekid - The short answer is no, not really

Anonymous said...

Thanks for sharing your ideas. I too have accepted that I just can't keep up with everything. I used gmail's calendar to keep track. I've made a different calendar for personal stuff, work stuff (which is now just the calendar on my work account), theater stuff, and have shared rights to Corey's calendars. They are all color-coded so I know which items are work, personal etc. For more work account I have decided to hide the desk schedule calendars until I need to look at them for a specific day/question this keeps me from having to many items showing up on one day and it being cluttered, which is especially important since I like the whole month view instead of daily or weekly.

Anonymous said...

I keep up by not creating accounts for things I know I won't use. I know that I won't read a blog everyday, so I don't even go near blogs...although I do occasionally read Robin's. So my tip or trick is that I don't get involved in much when it comes to the net. I like myspace and thats about it. And I like to use gmail for appointments etc, to be sent to my phone

sexybeast said...

I should have learned from Nikki and stayed away from blogs. I went near a blog and now I have a rash. I too know I won't use many things, so I don't even create them unless I am having a mania day then I will create thousands, forgetting all the passwords. Oh bother.

Anonymous said...

I too have learned that I can't keep up with everything. The few things that I have come across that I know I won't usein 2.1, I play around with for a while and then just drop it.

Eric said...

Take what I like, and throw out the rest. This certainly applies to me. If I'm not regularly using a service a month after I've been introduced to it, it's best to move on.

betterlate said...

I know I need to stay organized. I have stopped signing up for different things if I know that I will never use it. There are not enough hours in the day for everything I would like to do!

Anonymous said...

I often sign up for a service and then decide not to use it. I don't always know how useful it will be until I've had a chance to give it a go and see how it will work for me. I like the idea of managing my accounts with folders to make soem sense of what all I have to keep track of instead of one big mess!

I Don't Know How She Does It! said...

Well said Bobbi! I appreciate your candor about how you juggle the plethora of internet tools out there for all to use. I am grateful that you and Robin have introduced so many of them to me through this program, but realistically I will only use a handful of them and I won't feel guilty about it!

Anonymous said...

I too, avoid signing up for things I don't think I will use. I have signed up for accounts, only to forget about them. If it weren't for Facebook notifying me that someone sent me something or wrote on my wall, I would forget about that as well.

Anonymous said...

I've gotten selective in what I sign up. With some of these lessons and the intro they have I am still able to get the information like what author I might like to try next without signing into the site.

Anonymous said...

I really like how that you get overwhelmed sometimes too. It makes me feel better to know that I am not a complete icompetent tech user when I get in over my head with information.

Anonymous said...

I'm impressed, Bobbi, but then, you're a master tech user. I really appreciate learning about the various services and plan to use a few of them--especially when I finally get high-speed at home. I have to admit that I'm a bit of a political blog junkie. Have to restrain myself there.