Are you in Time Debt?  

You may not have heard of that term, but you sure may be afflicted by it. Symptoms include:  sticky-notes littering your desk, piles of paper, unopened mail, 5,748 messages in your email inbox, unmet goals, and the lingering feeling that you’re just flat wasting time and you’re never going to catch up.  

Time Debt ultimately has dire consequences for your customers, your key relationships, and your physical and mental health.

We can’t live that way.  Humans just aren’t designed to be happy if we’re carrying debt of any kind.

THE CAUSE

What is a tweet?  What is an email?  What is a phone call or text message?

Some say, “A communication; a nugget of meaningful information; a sharing of valuable tidbits; a little slice of you and a little slice of me”.

Wrong!  An email, tweet, phone call, or text message all have the same ‘genetic coding’.  They are all asking for your time.

Think about it.  Pick any message in your inbox right now.  It is asking you to SPEND TIME (a) reading it, (b) understanding it, (c) executing its request, (d) forwarding it to the appropriate person, and (e) deleting it or filing it away.  

Let’s turn our attention to Twitter.  What is a Tweet?  In many cases, a tweet is a clever / desperate attempt to get your attention. “READ THIS!  I’M VALUABLE!  CLICK THIS LINK!,” it pleads.  And we follow how many people?  1,403?  That is a lot of requests for our time.  

If we are even borderline A.D.D. or easily distracted, Twitter may be the end of us.  While I admit to the value of the ‘info share’ that goes on, there is just way too much noise and clutter to be sifted through.  

We’ve got to deal with this tool really well.  We need a system. 

Here’s what you can do:

1. Dedicate a specific time in your workday for Twitter.  If this tool legitimately serves you and your vision, put it on your calendar as a sacred, recurring appointment like you would any other activity.  This includes allotting time for (a) communicating, (b) building relationships virtually, (c) exploring niches / education, and (d) putting forth your own unique content.  Remember, it’s OK to enjoy it!  Work oughtn’t be a drudgery all the time.  
2. Follow people judiciously.  At first, we just want to follow follow follow.  But this is like turning up the volume to 14; our speakers just can’t handle it and so the amount of noise gets distorted.  The bummer here is that the clear message we need can’t fight its way through the blaring mess.
3. Find and use the Un-follow Button.  Using the rationale from #2, remember the importance of de-cluttering.  ’Cash Follows Clarity!’
4. Go offline every once in a while.  This is based on a hunch.  The hunch is that the handful of relationships you begin to cultivate online should move along to the next step:  such as coffee, the telephone, etc.  If everything stays virtual, it will likely be an empty relationship which produces little fruit.  The good thing is that Twitter and other social media can be a good “friend filter” because you already know a lot about someone if you’ve followed their output for a period of time.  In that sense, you sort of know them before you meet them.  That’s what makes social media so compelling.

Related articles:  Trash Your To-Do List for Good!