Why you should kill the use of many communication tools

Few years ago world did not have twitter or facebook. Now these ‘connection’ tools have consumed our ‘attention’ so much, we forget why these tools exist. In business these tools are there to ‘connect’ with our prospects and clients by adding value.

Instead, our attention and time is spent on tools to use these tools. i.e. tweetdeck to use twitter, and now twitter in facebook and a whole load of garbage, which is neither adding value to your prospect nor your life.

A colleague reminded me of the following…

In search of Nail,
the Horseshoe was lost,

In search of a Horseshoe,
The Steed was lost,

In search of a Steed,
the Message was lost,

Because the message was not delivered,
The War was Lost…..

Consider what you give your attention to each day. It’s a precious resource, & determines the shape of your life.

Here is a excerpt from an article by  Leo Babauta on how to reclaim your attention:

• Limit your friends. Not real-life friends, but social network and blogging and forum friends. Not that these can’t be good relationships, but having too many makes them meaningless. And each friend will take up a little bit of your attention — when you read their updates, click on their links, reply to their messages, look at their photos, and so on. The more you have, the more attention they’ll require. Limit them to just the essential.
• Limit your feeds. Blog subscriptions, newsletters, other updates and news subscriptions and so on. Limit them to a handful of essentials, and let the rest go. The more you have, the more attention they require.
• Limit your communication time. Going into your email inbox? Just give yourself 10 minutes to read, reply, delete, and get out. Going to do Twitter? Give yourself 5 minutes. Seriously, set up a timer. Don’t let these things take up all your attention.
• Give up on news. It’s a never-ending cycle. And if you’ve paid attention to the news as long as I have (I’m a former journalist), you know it’s all the same, year after year. Unless your job depends on it, the news is usually a waste of your attention. Let go of the need to stay updated. Even if your job does depend on it, keep it limited.
• Be brief. Write brief emails, tweets, updates, blog posts. With some exceptions, of course. But make brief your de facto. Read more.
• Give your attention to the important. This is the crucial part: choose what you give your attention to, and do this choosing carefully. What is important to you? Writing? Photography? Design? Coding? Creating a new business that helps others? Your kids? Figure this out, and give this the majority of your attention.
• Become conscious of your distractions. Once you’ve decided to focus your attention on the important, become more aware of distractions as they come up. Make note of them, and as you get the urge to be distracted, learn to pause, breathe, and return to the important.
• Surround yourself with the positive. If you want your life to be positive, let the positive have your attention. This applies to blogs, people, projects, and more.