How to Use Twitter Productively

While you may think Twitter is just a platform to gab with your pals, the truth is that you can still use this popular technology to be productive. And all for under 140 characters, at least!

Twitter is a social networking tool where users can update their status in 140-character messages commonly referred to as "tweets." Here are some tips for getting the most out of Twitter.

Things You'll Need

• Computer with Internet
• Twitter Account

Instructions

1. 

   Tweet your To-do List. There are a few services on Twitter that actually help you create and check off items on your To-do List. Check out "Remember the Milk" (http://www.rememberthemilk.com/services/twitter/) and Nozbe (http://www.nozbe.com/) by doing a search. Follow them and send them direct messages to add things to your To-do List or to check the items on your list. They'll tweet back so you can stay organized.

2. Remind yourself of things via Twitter. Are Post-It notes not doing it anymore and you want a more convenient way to set reminders for yourself? Since you're probably on Twitter during the day, why not use it to help you with reminders? Follow "Timer" on Twitter (http://twitter.com/timer). You can send it a direct message and a reminder time, and the service will ping you when it's time for your reminder.

3. Time your Tweets. By using TwitResponse (http://twitresponse.com/), you can set up times for your tweets to be sent. So, for example, if you want to send a bunch of tweets on your lunch break in order to stay more productive in the morning at work, you can do so.

4. 

   Take Twitter breaks. Close the window if you need to in order to get back to work-or whatever else you're doing. Sometimes not having the temptation to "tweet" (or post a message) will help you focus on other tasks at hand.

5. Organize your tweets. Use a platform such as http://www.tweetdeck.com to see at a glance, what's happening in your own little Twitterverse. You can also create groups using this application so you only have to see tweets from the people you want.

6. 

   Get selective. Want a great way to find out who is following you back so you can save time reading tweets of those who are genuinely interested in you? Check out http://friendorfollow.com. Just put in your username and it'll tell you who isn't following you back. Then you can decide if you want to remove people.

7. 

   Use Twitter as your calendar. While it may not replace a written planner, you can use Twitter as your calendar. Just use Google Calendar and go to Twittercal (http://twittercal.com/), then follow "gCal" (http://twitter.com/gcal) on Twitter. You can add events to your personal calendar by sending direct messages to gCal.