Motivation.  Why is it so difficult to find some days?  Today, for example, I don’t have anything planned; I’ve actually scheduled today as a biz-e-chicks day.  I guess that means I do have something planned, if you want to be picky about it.  You biz-e-chicks know what I mean, though.  A day when you don’t have on your calendar that you need to make 10 phone calls, send three invoices and respond to a folder full of e-mails is a day that is “unplanned.”  But, still, motivation seems to be out of reach.

To recap: plenty to do, plenty of time, zero motivation.  I’ve tried my sit-down-at-the- computer-and-just-start-typing trick which typically solves the problem.  Unfortunately, this time the only things being typed were “craigslist.org,” “ebay.com,” and “seejanework.com.”  So, what’s next?  It’s time to resort to drastic measures and choose a weapon from my motivation arsenal.

Weapon 1 – Make a list.  I don’t know about you, but if I have a note in front of me that breaks down what I need to do into smaller, manageable tasks, things don’t seem so difficult.  So, I am now putting small bullet points below my generic “Work on biz-e-chicks” entry in my calendar.  One reads, “Choose blog topics.”  Another reads, “Write three blog entries by 6 p.m.”  Great! I’m feeling better already.

Weapon 2 – Start working on something small.  Some people may disagree and say that this is just a way to procrastinate doing the most important things.  However, I have some small items on my list that really need to be accomplished today, like “Call Summer and see if she has any blog topics she wants me to write about,” and “Write e-mails to three chicks to see if they would like to be guest bloggers.”  These things will only take me about five minutes to do, true.  But, once I finish them I’ll have that warm, fuzzy feeling of accomplishment.  Even better, the momentum that I’m building up from completing the tiny tasks will carry me through the rest of the items on my list.

Weapon 3 – Focus, girl, focus!  By now I’m on a roll and will implement the 50-minute focus technique that I read about recently.  Basically, you take a 50-minute block of time and pick one thing – ONE THING – to stay focused on; work on that thing only.  It sounds easy, but it’s actually more difficult than you might think.

And, that’s it!  By now, with my task list written down, a few small things completed and a major thing in progress, I’m out of the no-motivation zone.  My three techniques may not work for everyone, but they are steps in the right direction.  And, at least now you have some other weapons in your arsenal to use when hunting down motivation that’s gone MIA.

So, I’m twittering.  This gives Summer endless delight, as it’s something I said I would not do.  (I also said this about Facebook and did not stick to that either, so she expected me to succumb to the peer pressure sooner or later.)

Yes, fine, I do see the value in Twitter now.  Most of the people I follow have meaningful things to “say” and good advice/tips/experiences to share … kind of like biz-e-chicks.  Others, though, don’t have a clue, which led me to explore some Twitter rules of etiquette online.  Here are some helpful hints on being a good Twitterer:

1.  It may be very fascinating to you that you’re running to the store for milk, but most people don’t care.  Remember that people are spending a portion of their day (no matter how tiny) reading your updates and interacting with you, so respect their valuable time.

2.  If you’re using Twitter as a business mouthpiece, don’t tweet after (or even while) you’ve been drinking.  Posting “I am so drunk. I shouldn’t have done all those Jaeger shots.” is not going to help you land clients and will most likely take away some of your business.

3.  Don’t tweet nonstop.  I’ve come across some people who are tweeting every 15 minutes to half hour.  Not only is all of the information they post not useful or even interesting, it makes you wonder what the heck is up with these people.  Do they not work?  Are they so into themselves that they think everything that comes into their mind is so fascinating that they must share it with the world?  This sets my creep factor on high alert.

4.  Do you notice how the little box up top says “What are you doing?”  Do you notice how many people fail to answer this question?  I never thought about this, but it’s true!  Try to answer that question.  This is actually a great exercise to keep yourself on track during the day and find out how you’re really spending your time.

5.  Be brief.  This should go without saying – since you’re limited to 140 characters – but some people continue their posts through multiple tweets.  It can be annoying and time-consuming to try to track someone’s thought through a lengthy list of tweets.

Alright, that’s all I have after my few days on Twitter.  I’m sure there will be more as I become more entrenched in Twitterville – ugh, did I really just write that!  Stop laughing, Summer.