Getting Ready for 2010

I'm back from a week in Jamaica where I made some time to sit in a swing outside my room and give some thought to 2010. I read a great book while away: The Art of Racing in the Rain and highly recommend it to you. The back cover of the book contains a wonderful description. "A heart-wrenching but deeply funny and ultimately uplifting story of family, love loyalty, and hope - a captivating look at the wonders and absurdities of human life ... as only a dog could tell it.  Having recently put down our 16 year-old Golden Retriever Dusty, I wasn't sure about reading this book, but I'm so glad I did.

I haven't completed the obligatory list of my resolutions, but I am committed to making more time to write in 2010. I haven't figured out how to do this yet, but I am committed.  I even went so far as to start a list of topics I'd like to write about in the coming weeks.  I'm sure my list will include the annual resolutions to eat more healthily, exercise regularly, treat my wife and kids well, work hard, and give to the charities that are important to me. I got a Kindle for my birthday last week and hope to make more time to read in 2010. I hope to learn new things, travel, and spend time with my family and friends.  More on all this later.  For now, I'm trying to adjust to the 60 degree difference in temperature (90 to 30).

Social Networking Can Be A Time Drain | Manage Your Time

Recently, I have been cajoled, harassed, and embarrassed into participating in the “Social Networking” craze. I have a MySpace page. I’m on Facebook. I am participating in Plaxo, Linkedin, and Twitter. Putting aside the time I should have spent to set up my “page” on each of these sites (the bare minimum to participate is what I opted for), the question now is, how do I find the time every day to visit each of these sites and actively participate in the things they have to offer?

At this point in time I am only visiting these sites in the evening, after work. I find that once engaged, I can be going from site to site for hours. These sites are addicting and time consuming. Which brings me to a few other questions: 1. Does a person have to be on all these different sites to stay connected or is one better than the rest? 2. What value do these sites really add to my already-too-busy life?

From a time management perspective I think the best way to handle these sites is to send your status updates when it doesn’t interfere with real work that you are getting paid to do. I sent one the other day while sitting in a parking lot waiting for a funeral procession to go by. As for “browsing” the site to see what other people are up too, all I can offer is that you set aside a specific amount of time to do this. Once that time is up, STOP. Otherwise, these sites can be very addicting and you won’t be able to get anything else done.

Please leave a comment on your experience with these social networking sites so we can all learn from your experiences.