How does the saying go?  “Failure to plan is a plan to fail.”  If it weren’t for my planning, I’d spend the day spinning my wheels, bouncing off walls, and pulling my hair out.  It’s a rare day that I don’t have a checklist of some sort close at hand.  Here’s one I put together to help me develop discipline and resist the addictions of social media.

1. Turn on computer
2. Turn on coffee maker
3. Launch Outlook: open Calendar, check Task List, scan new e-mails
4. Launch Desktop Apps: TweetDeck/Digsby, scan for urgent or important information (I said “scan,” not “stay.”)
5. Open browser – Launch: Facebook (FB), Twitter, LinkedIn (I said “launch,” not “linger.”)
6. If coffee is ready yet, fix myself a cup

And that’s it!  Now that I have this routine, I don’t get sucked in by what seems like an unrelenting urge to converse with “the community.”  It is key for me to review my priorities before being tempted by anything else. You’ll notice that early in the routine I open my calendar and check my task list.  That sets the pace for the rest of the day.  That doesn’t mean I still won’t end up chasing rabbits, but I’ll only allow myself to do that if I know I’m not neglecting some other commitment.

Steps 1, 2 & 3, have been a way of life for me for a long time.  But now that social media has had such a huge impact on how I do business, steps 1, 2 & 3 are more important than ever.  Step 4 – using a Desktop App – was what took some getting used to, but ultimately is what helps me keep things under control.  Having updates and new posts from Facebook and Twitter listed in one convenient place helps me to know what’s waiting for me (greatly easing my curiosity), without actually having to get into those accounts — and get distracted while I’m there.  The reason I even launch FB, Twitter and LinkedIn in Step 5 is because I use all three for research and monitoring my business. Being logged in on them and having them ready to access is simply a matter of convenience.  Because I’ve already previewed the new information via the Desktop App, I’m not tempted to start perusing without purpose and a plan.

You can find more great advice in this article that was run by Mashable on How to Simplify your Social Media Routine.

More detail about each of the tools I use can be found here . . .
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Eager, but apprehensive about putting my blog online, I forwarded a link to a trusted friend.  I asked him to be gentle but honest, and let me know what he thought.  I let him know that the blog still needed lots of work and there were missing pieces, but I was hoping it looked good enough to debut. 

After reviewing it (it took him about four minutes, given its fledgling stage) he called me with his constructive criticism.  He was helpful, and I was mostly relieved that he wasn’t on the other end of the phone laughing hysterically; or worse, warning me not to go public with this stuff. 

He commented, though, on the number of web pages I had bookmarked.  “What do you mean?” I asked.  “I’ve only got three or four of them on my blog.”  But, he began reading off the titles of some of my favorite sites, one after another, after another.  He wasn’t kidding.  He could see every single one of “my favorites.”  I felt myself go pale at the thought of what I had just done.  Kind of like one of those bad dreams where you’re walking through the mall and suddenly realize you forgot to put clothes on!

The sense of panic passed quickly, though, when I realized that the worst damage I could have done was reveal to the world that I’m somewhat of a geek.  Although I have more than 200 bookmarked websites, they all fall in one of three categories:  skiing, social media and healthcare.  Nothing I should be embarrassed about.  Whew – bullet dodged!

This experience made me realize two things.  1)  There’s so much to learn about using social media, and you can’t wait until you know it ALL for fear of making a mistake . . . or you’ll NEVER get to start using it.  2)  Using social media can feel like you’re exposing yourself to risks such as judgment, embarrassment, and maybe even incrimination.  For these two reasons, I can understand why people might resist getting involved with social media.

This has added to my motivation to develop tools and models that will help people get quickly up to speed on social media while minimizing the fears and risks that come with the territory.  I have been keeping a daily journal of my social media work: my progress and discoveries, my missteps and setbacks, the jewels and nuggets that I come across.  I’ve got the makings of a primer of sorts; a guide that could be used to reduce the learning curve in becoming a social media maven.

Of course, I know that if I dig around enough I can probably find something similar already written and published, and could recommend it.  But I like the idea of sharing my personal experience, and backing it up with solutions that have worked for me.  I will organize my own story and make it available to whoever happens across my blog and wants to use it.  It will, of course, be MY approach, and I will not assume that it’s the best way for becoming an expert user of social media.  But hopefully it will be helpful to some degree to anyone who is trying to learn all they can about the fabulous opportunities and adventures that are coming to us through this still-new and quickly advancing form of communication.  (When I have the guide ready to post, I will put it on a page called The Learning Curve.)

Besides the two realizations about fear and risk, having my friend review my blog also taught me something else:  When you’re using del.icio.us – a fabulous social bookmarking program – you should mark the “do not share” box in the tagging dialogue box if you don’t want a particular bookmark visible on your blog.  It lets you share only your best stuff . . . without revealing everything you own.

While I’m a bit manic about social media at the moment, I’m also aware that many people don’t share my enthusiasm – particularly in my business circles.  When I hear the nay saying (and see the eye-rolling), I tend to keep my opinions to myself.  That’s because I truly do understand the opposition.  When it comes to social media, there are lots of reasons to be skeptical.  There are lots of reasons to be resistant. 

On the flipside, in the interest of survival as a member of modern society, I caution against completely ignoring the power of social media.  It is my opinion that within a very short time, ignoring it could turn into ignorance and isolation.

The biggest complaint I hear from those who want to stay away from the madness of social media trends is that there’s just too much information out there.  It’s like trying to drink from a fire hose.  And who has the time to sort through all of it?  So much of it is useless, not validated, and often downright wrong.  These are points I can’t easily argue.   

When it comes to digital resources, the options are endless, and some are better than others.  But how do you know?  Conversely, can you really afford not to know?  With the pace at which the social media trend is growing, one must consider the potential risk of turning a blind eye.

A look back can help us see forward

I look at the past to help me imagine the future.  Comparing the history of the computer with the growing trend of social media seems appropriate. 

In the early ‘70s, Disney World’s Tomorrowland had an exhibit called RCA’s Home of Future Living.  It included a mannequin that looked like a teenaged boy dressed in a space-age-looking outfit – a white button-less shirt, white pants tucked into white ankle boots, and a silver belt around his waist.  He stood in front of a computer.  I wish I could remember exactly how big the computer was, because I think it was probably the size of a microwave oven, which is kind of funny in retrospect.  I may have some of these details wrong, but you get the picture. In the ‘70s owning a computer seemed very futuristic.

Then, in 1975, Bill Gates announced his vision of putting a computer on every desk and in every home.  In 1990, 15% of American homes had a computer; by 1997 that statistic jumped to 35% – and that didn’t include businesses.  Within about 20 years the future was upon us in a way that even the most imaginative minds couldn’t conceive.  (Disney’s depiction put computers way out there with flying cars.)

Today, most of us don’t know more than a few people who don’t own a computer.  Anyone in business or in school hoping to keep up with their peers and achieve any level of success must at least have a laptop and an e-mail address.  Many go online for their banking, shopping, entertainment and keeping up with the news.  If the constant reference to websites, blogs and Twitter messages by prominent sources like the evening news, radio and TV advertisements, doctors, community leaders and churches is any indication, the expectation now is that every household is actively using social media.  Thanks to technology, the early ‘70s looked very different than the present “digital decade.”

Before the personal computer, “social media” consisted of letters and phone calls. Now, social media consists of sites like Facebook, MySpace, and Bebo; networking sites like LinkedIn and Plaxo. Blogs are everywhere, in every conceivable category, industry and topic of interest.  Dating sites named Match and e-Harmony are drawing throngs of lonely hearts. UTube is creating phenomena out of virtual unknowns. Twitter has caught nearly everyone’s attention.  The rapid proliferation of social media probably has many of us wondering where it’s taking us, and how we’re going to keep up.

I guess you can still try to ignore it.  But can you imagine where you’d be today if you had tried to ignore computers?  Rather than ignore it, think of social media as a natural blurring of the lines between technology and the human beings who use it.  (Human beings are after all social creatures.)  Having endured the initial disruption to our lives, we now embrace computers with enthusiasm.  They are here to stay.  Now social media is having a tremendous impact on our lives.  It will likely continue to shape human behavior.  You can try to ignore it, but that doesn’t change the fact:   Social media is here to stay.

I look at the bookshelves in my office (and in my den, bedroom, hallway and guestroom) and I see title after title on subjects such as leadership, time management, emotional intelligence, and the like.  And while I have many books on each of these subjects, my collection doesn’t represent a tiny fraction of what’s available.  The point being:  there’s so much to know!

Even after reading these books – and in many cases highlighting them, outlining them, and recording excerpts from them in a database – I don’t always feel that I’ve done any justice to all of this “knowledge.”  Yes, I feel that I’ve become somewhat of a subject-matter expert (SME) on many of these topics, basically because I can talk a blue streak when they come up in conversation.  But it frustrates me when I think of how much of this stuff stays in my head, banging around, looking for an exit other than rolling off my tongue.

To be fair, I HAVE applied much of what I’ve learned from books to my own life.  I first became enamored with business books at about the time Tom Peters’ best-seller, Thriving on Chaos came out.  I picked it up at, of all places, a grocery store while I was on a road-trip in California.  Even though I was on a rock-climbing vacation, I found myself obsessed with this book and each night couldn’t wait to get back to my camp so I could put on my headlamp and curl up in my sleeping bag with “Chaos.”  From that point on I was hooked.  I didn’t so much apply the knowledge from that book as embody it. 

I finished “Chaos” on that trip and upon returning home went straight to the bookstore and picked up Peters’ other two books A Passion for Excellence and In Search of Excellence.  I devoured them.  From there I went on a steady diet of books by the likes of Kotter, Bennis and Covey.  They began to shape my decisions and fuel my energy.  Was it just coincidence that at about that time I landed a job at Towers Perrin, an international consulting company?  On the surface, yes, as I started there on a random, temporary administrative assignment.  But that assignment caused me to be “discovered” by a principal of the company, and the rest is history.  I’ve been in the consulting business in one form or another ever since.

As such, I continually strive to unlock the secret of transforming knowledge into action. Not just for myself, but for others as well.  Whether I’m working in a consulting role or as a coach, I’m almost always working with extremely knowledgeable people.  Yet, the reason I’ve been hired is because they’ve got some business challenge that has them up at nights.  When we get right down to it, though, we usually discover that it’s not a matter of them not knowing what to do.  In fact, the solution is often pretty straightforward.  Just knowing what to do, however, is not enough to get it done.  It’s the action that comes after the knowing (or learning) that creates the value.  But, generating the action is often a challenge.

This is not an original observation, of course.  In fact, one of my other favorite books, The Knowing Doing Gap, by Jeffrey Pfeffer and Robert I. Sutton, does a wonderful job of describing very valid reasons for why turning knowledge into action – as simple as it sounds – is anything but simple.  Just talking, for example, is not doing.  Thinking is required, but often overlooked.  Fear, poor judgment, competition.  Any and all of these explanations help us understand why reaching our goals is sometimes so difficult. 

Equipped with understanding, like being equipped with knowledge, is still not enough; but it’s a step in the right direction.  So, despite the fact that all that “knowledge” is between the covers of all those books, and reading those books helps to create some degree of understanding, the all-important action is still up to the individual . . . who must exercise self-discipline, fight the tendency to procrastinate, and find a source of motivation.   This is what separates the sheep from the goats, I suppose.

On one hand, the solution seems easy.  Easy to understand, anyway.  As Nike so concisely puts it, “Just Do It.”  On the other hand, not so much.  I think this is where it’s important to remember the oft-heard advice:  take baby steps; break it into manageable pieces; start small; don’t set your goals too high.  Even overachievers and superstars can understand the wisdom here.  Even they know that reaching too high, too fast, almost always leaves you empty handed; or, worse-off than you started.

There’s so much to know!  And knowing is not enough for most; knowledge that leads to action is what counts.  So what is the first step to putting all that knowledge banging around inside your head to good use?  Again, it sounds agonizingly simple, but I have seen it work time after time:  make a plan, write it down, look at it often.