Microblogging: as daily haiku

Do you ever lose perspective on your days, as the hours blend into the minutes, and the parade of tasks and mini-crises consume your attention and distract you from morning until night? At day’s end, have you forgotten to step back and see the greater joy, wonder or purpose in your life? If so, here's a geeky idea, a personal lifehack, that might restore a little perspective.

You know Twitter, right? It’s the social network that ties people together in a pervasive conversation about whatever is happening at a given moment. Sort of like Instant Message. Sort of like Blogs. But in 140 characters or less. From Blackberries and Cell phones to desktop apps and the web. Twitter is the manifestation of a cool new trend of microcontent.
-Aaron Brazell

Take just a minute everyday and try micro-blogging, using a free service like Twitter. Posting a micro-blog takes mere seconds, and you can do it from almost anywhere, using the web, instant messenger or your mobile phone. Posting is inherently quick, because each post is limited to 140 characters*, compelling you to be succinct. This forced brevity is the charm of micro-blogging, a little like writing haiku. But don’t take my word for it; sign up for Twitter -- it only takes a minute -- and check it out yourself.

Then, once a day try posting something simple and positive or beautiful or unusual about your day. Find something true to say, in 140 characters or less, something that you'd be willing to spend 5 seconds reading yourself (if a friend of yours had written it). This is just one of the ways I use Twitter, to pause for just a minute and deliberately shape my perspective on my own day -- especially when the day seems mundane or repetitive.

There's something interesting in every life, every day. Find it.

* This limit may be slightly different with other micro-

blogging services.

25 July 2007