I sometimes have more than 20 Firefox tabs in the browser at the same time. Maybe a tab, a link I opened at 7 am makes sense at 6 pm in the afternoon when a client or a friend posts a question in a blog, or a news is released and you need information to back an article, or a decision. The image at the left of this post is a partial list of my rss feeds, which I plan to read fully, this afternoon.
Sometimes even browsers and tabs organize my work. There are so many interesting things on the web going on this days that organizing my own day prioritizing the topics and analyzes from the different social networks I belong to, has proven to be very useful.
For example today, Independence day in the USA has made me pop up my online contact data base and browse through the names and emails of all my dearest American friends and relatives and think about a special message for them on this day.
My LinkedIn profile is open and I can contact directly my previous bosses and partners, colleagues and friends.
My Facebook profile is also opened and I can see who's at home today and exchange ideas and chat for a while. (MSN, Twitter, Clipmarks as well)
At the same time I can browse the latest news in the Public Relations, Marketing and Business industries in Latin America and the USA through the rss feeds I read at Newsfox in which I receive the daily news of more than 30 media sources from Business Week, Fox News, The New York Times, WebStrategy by Jeremiah, IMedia, Hispanic Business and a dozen more.
In the last week I have joined 3 new social networks so I guess I will take some time at mid day to at least visit them, take a look at the latest discussions and see who's posting suggestions and interesting facts about our profession.
For me it has become a habit. It's my "Independence habit". I am independent from a single source of information and I am "Media Agnostic" as my friends at Latin3 Matias Perel, Sergio Barrientos and Chris Hermes define it.
To be "media agnostic" for me, means that I need MANY sources of information to "build up" my day. Strange phrase? It may sound weird but you need to be aware and follow up on diverse writers, bloggers, experts and industry influencers if you are following industry's tendencies and if you are working with clients with diverse interests and businesses.
Ok, and now I need to include in my agenda at least half a dozen calls, schedule lunch with a client and my daily dose of writing as well.
For all my great American friends, hope you have a beautiful Independence Day. And for all of you, try the "Independence" feeling of Social Networks and the online advantage.