Tag: twitter

Feeling completely overwhelmed in my work life led me to think about time, balance, needs, priorities. Reading what others think about the intersection of these things helps clear the mental clutter — or at least gives the illusion of it.

I settled recently on that there are too many content streams and that it was completely overwhelming me. Instead of trying to do more, read more, understand more (breadth), I’m switching to try and focus on the few things that are most important (depth).

I quit Twitter, not that I was particularly active on it, but I would check it every so often and feel like I had read through everything — or at the very least scan to see if i missed anything.

So it’s with some personal interest that I read Adam Brault’s article “I quit Twitter for a month and it completely changed my thinking about mostly everything.”

I used to believe that time was the most important thing I have, but I’ve come to believe differently. The single most valuable resource I have is uninterrupted thought.

That’s how everything I’ve ever felt was meaningful about my entire life came to be—either people I’ve come to know, things I’ve learned, or stuff I’ve created.

I’ve realized how Twitter has made me break up my thoughts into tiny, incomplete, pieces—lots of hanging ideas, lots of incomplete relationships, punctuated by all manner of hanging threads and half-forked paths. I am perfectly fine with unfinished work—in fact, I doubt I’ll ever be a better finisher than I am a starter. But I’ve found that my greatest joy, deepest peace, and most valuable contributions come from intentionally choosing where to let my focus rest.

I’ve felt more and more that either an exodus from Facebook — or a fantastically radical pruning of the folks I follow/friend — is in the offing too.