YOU Are Not A Waste of Time

Today was a weird, strange, productive, busy, day.

In some sense today was everything I needed it to be and the best day I've had in a long time.

Why? I didn't hire my sales guy. I didn't talk to my daughter (except by text message). I didn't send out a proposal. I didn't make any really big decisions. I didn't sign any deals. I started my work day at 7:00 AM, which is earlier than usual. I finished it at 7:30 PM, which is much later than usual.

So why was it a good day?

Because it was satisfying. I was super-busy and super focused.

As you may know, I held a Twitter-based Christmas quiz today. Well, today the magic thing that connects Twitter posts to Facebook was broken for most of the day. Then it was really slow the rest of the day. So I had people responding to 6 hour old quiz questions.

But I also had a high level of online interaction.

Aside from that, I talked to people on three continents today. That always makes me feel very "international." And I had long conversations with people about the vision and goals of both of my companies going into 2010.

I have a business coach who is part coach and part personal counselor. We had an hour-long chat today. So that got me pointed in the right direction.

We had a major development meeting at KPEnterprises around cloud computing strategies. No hard decisions, but some real clarity about options and some idea about budgets.

And just before finishing off the Twitter contest, I had a really great, relaxed conversation with a major player in our space about a super cool project we're going to launch next year. It was, as he said, a wide-ranging conversation about our industry.

Only one thing detracts from my day: a comment. Over a long interview/lunch with a sales candidate I mentioned the Twitter contest and how Facebook was giving me trouble. Another person at the table said he was so glad that he hasn't gotten into the Twitter/Facebook/social media thing. He speculated that he'd get hooked and waste all his time there.

Well that word waste really stood out to me.

With all these social media, I feel a kind of connection with a broad spectrum of people all over the country - and all over the world. Many (most) are in the I.T. business because that's where I hang out. But everyone has friends all over the place. And they have friends, etc. So I have plenty of connections with people who are far-flung and have nothing to do with computers. But they're still part of my network.

I have found myself inspired by a picture posted by a "stranger," touched by one comment, and angered by another. I have connected with people at different levels and I've felt a real sense of community in all of this.

Some people say that all these "Internet Friends" aren't real friends. That's just silly, in my opinion. In the last year I've connected with dozens of people who I used to know from high school, college, graduate school, former jobs, and old neighborhoods. In addition, I've made online connections with people I used to only know because we ran into each other at a conference once a year.

At work - at GLB and KPE - I had a great day because I went from one laser-focused activity to the next. I was "on" and "at capacity" every single hour. It was hugely productive because, even though I didn't sign any deals, I moved everything forward.

And online I had a great day because I connected with a lot of people and really enjoyed myself.

You can get carried away with anything, including social media. But in the right measure, online activity is NOT a waste of time. It is, in fact a great addition to my life.

You, my friends on this blog and Twitter and Facebook (etc.) are a wonderful part of my life. I appreciate you.

You are not a waste of time.

:-)

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