“It depends on how much we know about how to use these media effectively, intelligently, mindfully, and humanely.”

Here are a few of my tips on how to effectively use the internet as a servant for thriving:

– Time Limit: Decide on the amount of time you want (or need) to spend on line either searching for information, reading e-mail,  perusing your Face Book friends’ status or just surfing for fun. Set your phone alarm and when it rings, move on.

– Plan Your Time: Once you plan for the amount of time, set specific times that you will read and respond to e-mail during the day. You can find a lot of time by blocking off your time rather than letting it expand to fill an open area on your calendar. “Never Read E-mail in the Morning” by Julie Morgenstern is a helpful book full of productivity tips on how you work.

– Focus: Keep your objective in mind and stick to it. For example, if you need to find a replacement water filter for your refrigerator then stay focused on this and don’t be tempted to go look at all the other fun stuff that is available on the first site you search (i.e. Amazon, which is not where I found mine, I found a better deal at discountfilters.com).

– Stretch: Stop and stand up and stretch periodically and look outside at nature if possible. Better yet, do some of your online work sitting outside!

– Be Mindful: If feelings of overwhelm arise, notice them, feel your feet on the ground, breath out and in a couple times and then re-center yourself. Possibly shift into a feelings of gratitude for something else if you can’t shake the feelings of too-much-information-how-can-I-make-sense-of-it-all?!

You can thrive with any tool if you deliberately decide how it will best serve you and then you are disciplined in how you use it.

Consider sharing in a comment: How do you effectively use the internet to serve you (so that we can all learn)?

Note on the photos: This is my wonderful great-nephew who is already quite adept at using his Dad’s i-pad, at two years old! He thrives with the i-pad games and video streaming and still spends most of his time physically running, climbing, and jumping. He spent a lot of time running with my computer bag when I visited last week…

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Skype

This is by far the internet technology I am most grateful for today; I can not say enough positive things about the skype application.  It has allowed me to have video calls for free around the globe.   I have had consistently good connections almost every day.  The number of dropped calls or bad connections has been very minimal.  In addition, I have made a few calls to regular phones for only two cents per minute!  My AT&T plan has no service in this area of China and even if it did it would be two dollars per minute.  This is a big expense savings if you do international business and a great option to build stronger business relationships with video calls.  Or if you have friends and/or family then use this great technology to stay connected and watch the kids or grandchildren grow up.  

Internet Radio

I found myself going through withdrawal for my favorite radio station and then I realized that I could easily listen live via my laptop!  I have no TV station reception at all (some of the other faculty report they have CNN); thankfully I have not missed TV and kept up with the headlines via the internet too. 

Heat

Winter arrived earlier than usual this past week.  The snow fall was record-breaking; roads and airports were closed for days.  The temperatures are 30 degrees lower than the normal 50’s and typically there is only light snow in January.  Most of the Chinese in this rural area of China have no heat.  They put on more clothes.  I am thankful for the heat here in the faculty dorm although if I had control of the thermostat (which I do not), I would have it turned up a bit.

photo credit: re-ality

What technology you are most grateful for? Please post a comment.

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Lightning Flashes in Cloud Computing

My business coaching and consulting company did not actually collide with cloud computing, but the speech from Jaime did cause a few light flashes in my head about how this technology will help business leaders navigate to success.  Google applications are available to anyone for FREE; this puts small businesses on a similar playing field as big corporations. Data on Internet trends is available from Google Insight and specifically for your web sight through Google Analytics.  If your company’s name is not in the clouds then people will not find you as easily or at all.  70% of business-to-business (B2B) prospective Buyers start their search on the Internet.

Internet Technology – 18% of the World is On-line

Learning about cloud computing and the other interesting things Google is working on also fanned the flames of my love for technology.  I have a long-time love and curiosity for high tech stuff.   In high school I was good in math and science and actually enjoyed computer programming (yes, I was a geek).  My corporate career was spent in high technology engineering environments; I loved being part of a science based culture that created electronics to improve people’s lives.   

But, with Internet technology, it has been more of a slightly dysfunctional love-hate relationship: 

I love that I can obtain an amazing amount of information about anything very quickly.  I hate that I can easily lose hours of my time to unproductive surfing as I go off on tangents or get pulled into interesting tweets and blogs.

I love the almost daily discoveries of new and better ways of doing things.  I hate the sometimes overwhelming feeling that I can not keep up.

It is more love than hate and I continue to learn how to avoid making the Internet a terrible master and instead a wonderful servant.

Web Sites as Servants

I’ve listed just a few of the sites that I appreciate as great servants:
 
http://www.pandora.com   Customize your music; it will suggest similar music for you.

http://www.google.com/apps/intl/en/business/messaging.html   Google runs their multibillion dollar business on these same applications; they are FREE.  I love the real time collaboration capability of Google docs.

http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock    Useful if you travel or talk with people in different time zones around the world.

http://www.expedia.com/  I have found great deals for travel with expedia.

http://www.flickr.com   I love the creative commons photos that I use in my posts and presentations and of course for posting my own photos to share.

http://www.entrepreneurship.org   The Kaufman foundation has packed a lot of great information on this site for entrepreneurs.

http://www.nielsen.com   Consumer trends by industry and globally.

http://www.yellowpagesgoesgreen.org/stop-yellow-pages/  This site will send a notice to your local phone book publishers to stop those obsolete books from being delivered. 

 https://www.donotcall.gov/ Stop the phone solicitors and/or register a complaint.

What Internet tools or sites are great servants for making your business and/or life better?  How is your relationship with technology and/or the Internet?  What cloud computing stories can you share? Please comment!

photo credits: fotograf1v2, Cyndie@smilebig, Esther17

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