social media

The fray of the day

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The best camera you have is the one you have with you.

The best notebook you have is the one you have with you.

When I have an idea, I jot it down in my phone via Apple notes. Pen and paper are more classic, but capturing a thought on my phone is so much more convenient because I always have my phone with me.

Working from home during COVID-19 means I’m at my desk and in front of my computer for a large part of the day. The upside of being close to my mac is that memorializing ideas is so easy when I have a keyboard at my fingertips.

The downside with walk & talk meetings or impromptu chats in an office, was that I didn’t immediately write down what had happened or what I needed to do next. Stuff slipped through the cracks. Ideas got lost in the fray of the day.

Writing something down gets an idea out of my head and makes it real. That’s a huge first step to getting it resolved, publishing it, or codifying it.

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Moving fast doesn’t have to come at the expense of quality or long term progress

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Moving fast doesn’t have to come at the expense of quality or long term progress.

Make small moves and correct mistakes quickly.
Avoid irreversible decisions, so when you change your mind, you don’t have to start from scratch.

The quicker you learn and adapt to reality, the better.

Check your ego and listen to feedback. But you only get that feedback if you put yourself out there. Thinking about doing something while you are in the shower is different from being out there in the dirt.

When you are starting out, act as a field mouse foraging for food while the owl is hunting. Stay alert, be nimble, and use your size and speed to your advantage. Stack up the small wins and then take cover. Repeat and build momentum over time: the more forward momentum you have, the more significant the outcomes.

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

Filter your feed

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If you are overwhelmed by the Twitter outrage machine or the Facebook Feed, then I have a few tips.

Filter your feed. An unfiltered feed is overwhelming and will dunk and drown you with noise and information. Building a personalized and positive flow of information on Twitter is a little bit of scratch and peck – it can take years to curate the people you follow. Be patient. Explore new users. If there’s someone you admire, do some digging to see if she has a Twitter feed.

Don’t use the number of followers person has as a sign of quality. Popularity doesn’t equate to quality.

I’ve found that some people don’t tweet a lot, but they are prolific retweeters of fantastic content. Following quality content creators and quality content retweeters. They sometimes aren’t the same people.

Unfollow negative people. If reading someone’s tweets consistently makes you feel shitty then drop them.

Learn how to mute keywords from the feed. You won’t miss out on breaking news. The important news will always find you whether via word of mouth or a quick phone call.

Remove the Twitter app from your home screen. Out of sight and out of mind. You’ll check the feed less, and when you do check in, you’ll appreciate the moment.

Follow positive people and people you can learn from. Good community members on Twitter favorite and retweet other people. They contribute to the community and have constructive conversations. One way traffic and zero interactions with no favorites, retweets and replies is a red flag.

Report the trolls. If everyone does their bit, then Twitter gets better overall. Be a good Twitter citizen.

Don’t engage with trolls or bullies. Learn to mute and block.

Goodbye negativity, hello uplifting news feed.