Finding the balance

As one can easily see from the dating of this and the next most recent post, I’ve been taking a break from personal blogging. It’s been a chance to step back and reflect on how I spend my time and how much is dedicated to may family, as well as what kind of role model I am to my kids when I am at home. So instead of following this or that discussion or exploring the newest applications in social networking, I’ve been playing with my kids, discussing school, watch the telly with them and ksyping with my far-away son.

It’s also given me a chance to miss certain people, tools, discussions and mental challenges I had previously filled a lot of my time with. So now I’m slowly entering back into the social network of nings, twitter, blogs etc.

Interestingly enough, one of the first blog posts to hit my screen was Angela Maiers‘ post ‘Drowning in Social Media‘ (incedently picked up in twitter).

Angela presents a system called BREATHE which should help people regain footage, with its main rule in 3s: commit yourself to three friends, three tools, three actions.

This has given me food for thought, though I’m certainly not going to blindly follow her suggestions. Instead I’m going to take small steps back while trying to keep to a couple of other ground rules.

Sorry, I have no sexy acronym for what I plan on doing, but one idea is certainly taken from a site whose link is long lost to me.

Rule one: only check your e-mails 2 times a day.
This I find a real tough one, and in the original version you are only to check once a day. I’ll try for once in the morning and once in the evening – and immediately take care of any mails you have at this time, answering, deleting or filing away for future reference to the appropriate spot.

Rule 2: Work before play – no twitter, no nings, no distractions before the work has been done.

Rule 3: be selective. Now this really does go to where Angela is at. How many blogs can I really follow? Do I really care about the content/writer on them? Which groups am I truly profiting from or contributing to? Why am I in the group? How can I maintain quality?

Rule 4: set aside time to reflect and contribute – NOT when the family is around. When the family is around, I can’t concentrate and won’t contribute. I also don’t want them to only see me on the computer. I want them to close the laptop when they are talking to me, and I should give them the same respect.

Now that I’ve actually put done the rules, I do hope they will be easier to follow and that I can find my own balance between two worlds.

It’s good to be back!