B.Lab

Groggy and uncertain like a new baby in 2009, I sit here at the in-law’s in Osaka in an overcrowded apartment wondering what to say about the coming year’s resolutions. I think the most important thing to resolve to do for me on a personal level is to just focus. Maybe PASSIONATE FOCUS is a better way of saying it. With so many things I’d like to do in my waking hours – work, family, study, social media, second life art, read, cycle, grow a community, and sleep sometimes – focusing is really my biggest challenge (and it probably always will be). I like to start new things and there are so many new things to start. But I still gotta finish ‘em (as my previous boss Terry White always liked to say)!

Social media itself, particularly Twitter recently, also takes enormous discipline to do in a focused but real way. How much is too much? Which sites do I use and how do I divide my time (right now it’s 1. twitter, 2. facebook, 3. my ning community, 4. my blog, 5. friendfeed, 6. others’ blogs in that order). To see how others prioritized social media I posted this poll on my blog a few days ago. Twitter seems to be the winner!

As my friend Petronilla calls “radical exclusion” in her recent post, social media takes up a lot of time and energy and begs the question of what happens if we tune out to have our private times – will our followers/contacts understand this seemingly unsocial action?

There’s the obvious focus problem of when to tune out the professional life and give my kids the love they deserve (what I probably should be doing right now.) There’s the finance and other MBA classes that give me a pain in the neck and if I didn’t procrastinate could be more meaningful. And probably the best way to focus is to bicycle ride to work more since that rush of oxygen and solo time gives me the space to think.

I am sure we all have similar issues around how we manage our time and prioritize what is important for us. Throw social media into the mix and it becomes even more challenging. I wish you a wonderful and passionately focused new year!

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