Treating social networking like it's done on office time

If you want to corral and tame voracious social networking, the best thing to do is to treat time online the same way as if you were in a virtual office, say UK writers Kate Marillat and Ros Barber who write on their blog that they say they share with many freelancers (and many salaried people, too) the problem of being distracted for much longer than they intend or can afford; one interesting link leads to another, a half-hour evaporates and they "freefall into fanciful social networking".

You wouldn’t spend all day chatting to a work colleague in the same way you talk to a friend over a glass of wine. The conversation does not need to be constant and should be entered in when you:

1. have something meaningful (or funny) to say
2. it’s work related and
3. it will help the other person in some way with their own tasks.

This simple tip has helped me manoeuver away from spending hours on Twitter, following links and running out of time for my other projects.

 [H/T to Suzanne Boles via TFEW]