Now that I've fully recovered from SXSW, it's high time I start cleaning up.  The schwag mountain spilled over and caused some damage but I got it under control.  So now it's time to spring clean my workflow and social media usage.  I subscribe to this, follow that, or just end up trying to fill up big holes in my life with tiny sand distractions that it gets way too overwhelming, as I'm sure others can identify.  Once I realize that, then I know it's time to pare down my workflow and regroup.  It's not a perfect system, but when it comes time for a change I'm ready to make it.  So how am I doing this?  Glad you asked.

First off, Twitter, it's time I change my relationship with you.  You see, I enjoy trying to follow as many tweeps as I can to match some of the other D-Grade web celebs follow counts, but it's just not working out.  What happens is a undending stream of garbage and links to articles I already read.  True, you've had lists for a while but I'm sorry I didn't pay attention to you earlier.  That's okay.  I think the change will be made for the better for both of us.  That way, when we have conversations with each other, it can be meaningful.  Here's what's I'm doing.

The dribble will be cut out.  I'm going to use a couple of handy tools like JustUnfollow and Mr. Tweet to cut out the bad and bring in the good.  Most of the time when I tweet, I get no retweets, replies, or direct messages.  Now, part of that is my fault, but another part is the list of followers I have don't match my core values.  So while Tim Bray might stay, Verified Alf is outta here.  Also, if a tweep blasts out multiple links in spurts, I'm unfollowing them and I may even block them.  I will be ruthless so if you get unfollowed don't take it personally.  If you get blocked, then please take it personally.  Especially if you are an SEO Expert or social media marketer.

Because I fell so behind using lists, I will play some catch up to make them more important.  This will be built on the fly and will break out to a set of maybe 10 or 15.  That's about all I can handle.  Then I can check up on certain lists and be able to interject and interact with greater precision.

All of this in the name of meaningful usage.  Most people when they talk about Twitter, they get some kind of value of messaging people.  I don't nearly get as much bounce back as they do.  Even my girlfriend who recently converted is getting better usage than me.  So, I will cut down and build some lists that I can follow easier which will enable me to tweet more effectively.  Included in that effectiveness will be more personalized messages from my link tweets.

On to Google Reader.  Whatever gets missed in Twitter ends up in the RSS catcher.  So whenever I read blogs or hear suggestions of sites from others, I end up subscribing to more and more RSS feeds.  Fortunately with Reader's Trends section, I can see what I use on a more frequent basis and cut back on the feeds that I barely touch.  This again hits at matching my feeds to my core values.  It's easy to lose focus when I spread myself around so I need to keep myself in focus and in check.  It happens to all of us so it's always great to go back every once in a while and clean things up.

Next up, the desktop.  My laptop rocks the house.  It's a beefy Sony Vaio that already paid for itself many times over.  I can run so many things at once, it's a multitasker's dream.  The problem is that I usually have Pidgin and Tweetdeck up going and flowing.  It's incredibly easy to glance left or right on my screen to see what's coming and get distracted.  So what I will be doing is turning them off.  For some it's easy, but I have always had my instant messenger open in more than one location at all times since college.  That's 10 years.  So it will be a huge change.  I'm thinking that when it's time for a break, the starting and stopping of these programs will be a great physical switch.

It's amazingly easy to get distracted and let projects clutter up your mental space.  At least once a year, we need to clean it all up.  Much like our physical space, the junk in your mental space will make it harder to move around quickly and get projects done.  I encourage people to try these methods out to help clean up all mental junk.

If you haven't noticed in your Google Inbox recently, there is a new feature that popped up in there.  It's called Google Buzz.  What is it?  It essentially takes the best of real time update technologies and integrates in with most of Google's core group of software.  I'm not going to break down the ins and outs of Buzz.  But what I will do is talk about two features that I find the most attractive.  One's bringing an old favorite Google App of mine back to the forefront, the other is just stroking my ego.

So let's start with my ego first!  Awhile ago I talked about the '@' symbol and how it's become the mainstream mode to reply to or address other people or systems in communication.  Flash forward to today.  If you notice above, the comments show the '@' symbol used to address another Buzz user.  Even better, once you type the '@' symbol and another letter, a dynamic list of your Buzz friends and Gmail Contacts pop up for you to choose from.  If you are a developer building a new app, especially one that hinges on social interactions, you will have to include this feature to be successful.

Okay, the next feature that changes the game is the simple integration across all of Google's Apps and Buzz.  My Google Profile has been filled out for a couple of years and for last year I've been wondering why.  Buzz now pushed the Google Profile to the forefront.  More importantly for me, however, is the massive integration with Google Reader.  If you've been around here recently, you know my love for Google Reader.  I have friends in Gmail that use Gooogle Reader, but they never show up in Google Reader correctly when they share stories.  Buzz not only takes care of that, but also brings in Buzz users in to the Google Reader application.  This makes picking up shared items that my peers curate much, much easier.

Now, Google Buzz is not without its drawbacks.  Everyone's been complaining about privacy, but I'm starting to get bothered by the massive drag it brings to my Gmail.  I'm an Inbox Zero cult follower and seeing new Buzz pumped in at an amazing rate is starting grate my nerves.  I hope they follow through on pushing it out as a separate app.  The folks at Google are already iterating changes, so if they are going to make a change, it will be fast.  That said, Buzz is a great addition to my set of apps from Google I use.  Not because of the app itself, but because it makes my other apps better.

I've been using Google Reader as my news aggregator for some time now.  Now some people might say that feed readers are dead along with RSS, but I beg to differ.  It's the best way for me to catch up on news using a uniform interface for easy scanning.  If I want to go in depth, I can read the whole article there or open in a new tab.  I had a hard time sharing any articles I find worthy of telling others about.  The same thought leaders of today who say RSS is dead are the same ones who exclaim that Twitter is the king of up to second news.  Until the middle of last year, there was no way for me to share links in a fast and easy way plus post it to my Twitter followers.  Now I can with Google Reader's 'Send To' feature.

The 'Send To' feature announced last August enables Google Reader users to send articles to any kind of service, including Twitter.  Programs like Tweetdeck, Seesmic, and Twitterrific had options to post interesting links and shrink them to fit Twitter's 140 character limit.  I always thought that was cool, but it wasn't enough for me to leave my Google Reader ecosystem.  With the 'Send To' feature, I now can share links to my personal Google Reader feed then send it to Twitter as a shrunk link in Bit.ly.  I'm getting the best of both worlds.

Please check out Lifehacker's guide to the 'Send To' feature as they do a better job than I would on how to get the most out of this cool feature.  If anyone out there currently doesn't use a feed reader, I suggest you do so.  Not just for this indirect Twitter integration, but it is a great way to catch up any piece of content that utilizes RSS feeds.  Your favorite companys, blogs, friends websites, etc. can all be centralized in one main information scanning application.  You could even subscribe to podcasts and listen to them in Google Reader.  So give a whirl and start sending stuff back out into the Twitter echo chamber.