Twitter - Great tool or waste of time?

To me at least, Twitter is just another internet-based waste of time. I suppose there are ways you can use it that are useful but I've yet to find them. "Twerminology" is creeping into our lexicon, and it's been around long enough that it's likely more than a flash in the pan.

The last thing I need is more distraction!
 
Twitter is good for reaching out to companies you wouldn't otherwise be able to contact through email or phone, listening to celebrities prattle on about themselves and listening to non-celebrities prattle on about themselves as if they were celebrities whom people wanted to be updated about.

As far as making your own tweets? It's only worth it if you're a celebrity, or are trying to bill yourself as a self-help guru. Twitter loves self-help / marketing gurus.
 
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Definitely not waste of time these websites became the life line of person .they will keep connected with rest of the world so, it is not waste of time.
 
Like anything...it helps to know the purpose

With anything like this, people need to clarify purpose. Why are you doing Twitter? Or Facebook? Or Email? Or having that department meeting? If you're not clear about purpose, it will seem like a scattered waste of time.
 
kelstarrising;76633 said:
With anything like this, people need to clarify purpose. Why are you doing Twitter? Or Facebook? Or Email? Or having that department meeting? If you're not clear about purpose, it will seem like a scattered waste of time.

Very much agreed. Twitter has some uses, but they aren't the reasons many (if not most) people are on twitter.
 
Just removed myself from twitter

I was there on twitter since April. Tried to see what value it can offer me and what purpose could it serve me, and finally concluded that it does none (to me, at least as of now). I removed myself from twitter (and also orkut for same reasons) just this Saturday.
 
need it for my job, but it's distracting me

It's important for me to be on Twitter for my job and retweet interesting info so that when I on occasion retweet relevant things for my clients, I'm actually communicating to a decent group of followers. I also follow people who follow me, out of courtesy, although then I have to wade through a malestrom of info.
My problem is that when checking my twitter account I constantly get distracted by other interesting people, articles, etc. and then am off down a rabbit hole of unproductivity. I do need to be exposed to these ideas and articles as it gives me ideas for things to do with my clients, etc, but I get so easily distracted by the latest shiny object that I seem to go all day without billing anyone.

This happens with websites too - I'll go to look up a fact for a press release I'm writing, see another article that might be useful for another client, then down the rabbit hole I go. I return, completely forgetting what I've been working on. Repeat about 100 times and that's my day. Any ideas for someone with the attention span of a gnat to effectively manage Twitter (and for that matter, Facebook and websites)?
 
It would require a habit change. And GTD facilitates this by giving you the ability to capture. Whenever you come across any link that may be interesting, you can bookmark it (I have a bookmark folder called INBOX for such purposes which I process during my daily processing) and decide what to do with it later. Many times what initially seemed interesting turns out to be somewhat irrelevant (although interesting!), and the second thought allows you to simply delete the bookmarks. For others you can add scanning or reading actions.

Now the real problem is to be aware that one is being dragged away by the links and break the habit. One way I have found helpful is to visualize, say for a few seconds once or twice a day, how you will do it. Visualize for example, that you have seen an interesting link, but you are dragging it to the inbox rather than clicking on it, saying to yourself that right now you are doing something different.

In addition, considering the three types of work namely predefined, as-it-appears, and defining-your-work, twitter is better considered as the third one and include it in processing. Definitely not as-it-appears. Somehow it's in the nature of the internet to distract us all, perhaps because of the sheer volume and connectedness of information.

I got the above visualization idea after listening to the "Making Change Stick" audio from GTDConnect when I used my trial membership. This audio has changed many things for me.

Regards,
Abhay
 
Interesting Viewpoint in MacWorld

Matt Deatherage has an interesting commentary on Twitter in the latest MacWorld magazine. Not avail on-line that I can find unfortunately. Basically he uses twitter but for very specific stuff with a very select set of followers. His twitter stream is private and he limits who he allows to follow him so that the stream continues to have value to him.

Very interesting viewpoint, I highly recommend looking at the article if you can find a copy of the mag.
 
We're doing a "Productive Use of Social Media" webinar

We will be doing a Webinar in March on GTD Connect called "Productive Use of Social Media" that will look into this whole issue further.

We will be posting registration for it this week on the home page of Connect.

For those of you that are not GTD Connect members, you can still register as a free trial member (as long as you are a trial or regular member when the Webinar occurs.)

You can also join Connect for just a month for $48, then cancel before the next renewal. We don't make canceling difficult, honestly. It's as simple as sending us an email (connect@davidco.com) or calling us (805-646-8432) one business day before your renewal billing date to cancel.

https://secure.davidco.com/connect/

Cheers,
Kelly
 
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