Do It Myself Blog – Glenda Watson Hyatt

Last year I followed Christine Kane’s lead in choosing one word to guide me through the year. Focus was my word for 2008. What I discovered about finding focus was interesting and quite helpful.

While 2008 was drawing to a close, I began thinking about my word for 2009. Should I stay focused to truly master it or should I move onto a new word?

I went about my daily stuff: checking my email, tweeting, responding to Facebook comments received via email, deleting email notifications of invitations to Kiss the Frog or Toss the Vampire and then declining them on Facebook. I remember screaming in my head, “This is bullshit! There has to be a better way.”

Being in these communities and using these tools is great. Friends, readers and even stalkers can reach me via the method they are most comfortable with: a Facebook comment or message, a tweet or DM on Twitter, a blog comment, or a good, old-fashioned email. Talk about accessibility!

I love being this connected and interacting with people from everywhere. However, there is only one of me; only one left thumb! I find it impossible to keep up, plus do the work that I actually do. I don’t like having 1376 emails in my inbox alone (of which 620 are unread), many of which deserve some kind of response; another 447 Twitter followers yet to follow and Facebook messages in my Bacn “emails I want but not right now” folder; and the list goes on.

There has to be a better way, I say!
A way to mash together
Facebook, Linkedln, Flickr,
YouTube, Viddler, and Twitter.
Please say its so!

This year I will search every
Megabyte, gigabyte, and terabyte
On blogs, wikis and tweets,
I’ll be emailing, DMing and PMing
My people, peeps, and tweeps
For wazoodles, widgets and gidgets
To follow, connect and friend
Friends, readers, robots too!

To be the best connector,
Inter-actor and communicator
With one left thumb
I will, I must streamline,
I say, in 2009!