Online Attention Deficit Disorder (OADD)
Admitted, I’m not the best when it comes to time management. There are so many things that interest me finding time to do them all is no easy task. There is work, of course, which I have to make time for, helping with the kids, and my religious obligations (daily prayer), but what about the other things, like exercise, kung fu, writing, blogging, all those things that pepper the interest column on any online profile? Finding time for those things is difficult. Here are three tips I use to get the most out of balancing my multiple life interests.
1. Setting minimum blog posts per month
Right now mine is at least two posts per month. That is the bare minimum for me to feel like I’ve done my blogging duty. Some tactics around hitting minimum posts per week or month are as follows:
- Pick a consistent time/day to do your posts
- Keep lists of posts you’d like to do on paper – as ideas pop into your head, jot them down for later drafting
- Start a ton of drafts on your blog, fleshing out the lists into outlines and chunks of writing
That last point has been a goldmine for me. I’ll sometimes spend an entire blogging session just making new drafts and putting three headers into the post. When I come back to my dashboard those drafts are waiting for me to flesh out and can be posted at any time. What will start to happen is I’ll have a collection of almost ready posts and won’t feel so overwhelmed about posting.
2. Mobile multi-tasking
I started this post on my iPhone (please excuse typos) while watching my daughter play in the garden. Getting things done on the go has been helpful to me. Here are three perfect on-the-go tasks you can do on an iPhone or other mobile device which can help you balance work-life-online:
- Managing Online Profiles – I love checking into Facebook and Linkedin with my mobile apps. Some of my most active days on these networks are when I’m on a bus or have a lot of lines to wait on. The interface lets me jump onto the site, comment on people’s posts, accept invites, etc.
- Checking email and RSS reader feeds for important or interesting information. Email can be a huge time suck both professionally and personally. Deleting messages that are unnecessary to respond to (about 90% of what you get is crap) can save you tons of time. Reviewing blogs or other sites you like to visit at home via your RSS program on your phone allows you to quickly browse information and bookmark things to look at in depth from a computer.
- Making To-Do Lists – for this I use apps like Toodledo, EverNote, or even just the native Notes function on iPhone. Of course I’m still a big fan of pen and paper so if you are old school carry around a little pad or folded piece of paper to jot down those lists. Sometimes low tech works better anyway.
3. Aggregate Don’t Duplicate
This applies to lots of things, and means that you can fold a lot of activities into each other and save time in thinking you need to dedicate to each of them individually. Here are three examples:
- Online Social Networking – there are well over 400 social networks out there and this doesn’t account for all of the niche networks for doctors and lawyers (like Martindale.com Connected). For the more popular networks, like Facebook and Linkedin, I have my status linked to Twitter (I also have this for blog posts). Whenever I update status in one network, Twitter will update it in the others. This helps tremendously with my engagement and piquing other member’s interests in what I am doing. See other strategies for managing your network above (mobile check in, dedicated posting times).
- Exercising on-the-go or in ten minute increments – one of the best things about moving to Jerusalem has been riding my bike. I use it to get everywhere and even pimped it out with a basket and baby seat. I am getting a ton of exercise while commuting. Another trick I use is exercising in ten minute bursts throughout the day. When I used to work in an office, I’d go to an empty conference room, run through a series of Kung fu or breathing exercises, and finish off with some push ups and sit ups. In my home office I can do this right in my workspace.
- Talking to Friends on the Phone While Shopping – the grocery store is one of the best places to get your phone calls done. Hook up a headset, push the cart, and shop away.
What your tips for balancing work, life, and online participation are. Do you set a schedule for yourself, make lists, or just wing it? What activities work best on the go? How important is this subject in your life?