My friend already demonstrates enormous talent, and accomplishes a great deal at school.  Realistically, I had to tell her that to address the accomplishment gap she feels, overall, she needs to be more intentional about her time outside of school - planning what to do with afternoons, evenings and weekends.

We talked about the overall areas that matter, and need some balance, in her life.  She has already developed a great menu of enjoyable and necessary activities around these five core areas:

• spiritual nurture,
• physical wellness,
• cultural,
• community, and
• academics.

We read part of Ivan Campuzano’s “What Time is It? Time To Reexamine Your Relationship To Time.”

[B]eyond its utility value, should we care about it in terms of how we choose to live our day to day lives? Should I waste my valuable time constantly worried about events in my distant future? Or should I use my time to live as intensely as possible in the now, and take the necessary actions that will set in motion the conditions of my future reality?

So what creates our psychological relationship and therefore attachment to time? The short answer is that our thoughts are what create our time. If you have ever reached a place of “no mind” where your thoughts cease, either through meditation or an intense experience, you will understand what it means to have a “timeless” mind. No thoughts, no time. As soon as thoughts enter, time enters.

With that in mind, I would like you to take the time to examine your common thought and internal dialogue. What does it say about your relationship to time and how that impacts your life? Are you constantly on the run and feel like you don’t have enough time? Do you feel anxious and stressed all the time? Is it really that you don’t have enough time, or can it be attributed to incessant or disorderly thinking?

Since my young friend already has plenty of good well-balanced ideas for her life, but doesn’t seem to have time to get on with those ideas, that last question is the key.  Learning to “live in the now” and work with a 15 minute day-planner is, I think, her best way to take control, accomplish more, and be happier.

Making a plan for each day is one thing.  The harder bit is to actually focus your mind to execute that plan.  That means trying to get each thing done just a bit faster than the time you’ve allotted to it, and moving on when the time is up.  And it means forgiving yourself when the day doesn’t quite work out according to plan.  As long as you’re doing the most important thing at each moment, and spending time in each of your core areas, you’ll be on the right track.  And so will I.

Ivan has written several excellent reflections on time, and personal growth. Check them out, when you can make time   E.g.

• each day, what if before you try to remember who you are, you remember what you want to be? 
• many come to think that their mind is something they cannot control — master your mind;
• one day at a time to a life of fulfillment, joy and contribution
• making the most of your daily time; and the counter-balance:
• Pura Vida, tranquilo amigo tome su tiempo

Perhaps you’ve missed the daily spiritual discipline of prayer and meditation - well, this classic book adds new reasons: the health of your heart and brain, as well as your spirit. Blessings to you, my friend!

To start with the basics: I like AACC’s New to Twitter, and Global Neighborhoods’ 7 Tips for new Twitter users. Then Jeremiah Owyang’s How I use Twitter should make sense.

Next stop - most folks need more than twittter, to tweet. A Firefox plugin called Echofon (aka Twitterfox) helped me jump in, with two different twitter id’s — one personal & one professional. Integrating it into the browser or iPhone brought Twitter persistently into my web experience, without another program to learn. Echofon keeps it simple and lightweight.

You see, the important question is “How do I discover tweets that matter to me?” Which is, of course, the question of searching or filtering the universe of tweets. The ReadWriteWeb introduces “7 Top Twitter Topic Trackers“, as of April 2009, and my early favorites from that list are

• Tweetizen - it’s not “search” so much as “joining a group based on a search”
• TwitScoop - a cool way to see trends & searches

Done right, any twitter search site or tool should offer at least the search power available on Twitter’s own advanced search page — which is a perfectly good place to start. It gives you a live feed for your search results, announcing new tweets as they come in. So to jump into the live conversation, you just need that live feed of the topic you want to join in, and a way to write your own tweets — which could be as simple as a second browser window, or a plugin like Echofon. Simplicity is good.

There are lots of other options for tools - see Birdsall’s Massive Twitter Sites & Tools Directory. I’ve been impressed with PeopleBrowsr, which is browser-based … i.e. no new software to maintain, and available on any computer I sit down at. Be aware that any of the power tools have a commensurate learning curve.

Wondering about those #hashtags you see in some tweets? They’re a way of marking keywords, topics or a conference event related to your post. They are entirely optional, so don’t sweat it, just reuse what seems useful. See Ben Parr’s how-to article for more.

You’ll soon build an appreciation for the many ways Twitter adds value, and lets you join in the conversation — whether it’s a gushing trend or an occasional insight — as Guy Kawasaki so ably details. Oh, and keep your job — apply some common sense — as Douglas MacMillan explains in Twitter Code of Conduct.

Have fun!

PS 2009.11.22:

The best collection of twitter articles I’ve found is on mashable.com. Browse through and you’re bound to find something helpful, including Twitter for Beginners, and their Twitter Guide Book.

So “Why would I want to do this Twitter thing?” The most valuable answers I’ve found are from Stephen Dinan, in “One Hour to Conscious Tweeting,” and “The Spiritual Importance of Twitter.” Follow Stephen on twitter to see how he puts that in action.

[Twitter’s] growth corresponds to the accelerating spread of a global consciousness, one in which our sense of boundaries no longer end at national boundaries and we are increasingly in touch with our sense of “oneness” with others.