If you haven’t heard by now, Twitter now has Lists that lets you put Twitter users into groups. It doesn’t matter if you’re following someone or not, you can add anyone into a list or two or three. Here’s an introduction and a how to use Twitter Lists at Web Worker Daily.

Twitter users have their own rules for who they follow and not follow. Some follow those who fall into a specific field, career and whatnot. Guy LeCharles Gonzalez follows those with some connection to publishing. It’s not elitist if someone doesn’t follow you back. They use Twitter in a different way than you and I do. Nothing against you. Really. I promise.

I follow thousands of people. It’s crazy, I know. But my work varies. Know that I do not follow every high quality tweeter who follows me. Some folks just talk about things I’m not interested in. Most of the people I follow fall into one of the following areas:

• Work as writers, editors, publishers and related.
• Tweet about casual games. After all, I run The Game Zen and write for Gamezebo.
• Experts in social media and PR. This area changes daily and I want to keep up.
• Experts in marketing especially business-to-business (B2B). For my work with InternetVIZ.
• Make me laugh. I find lots of gems in Tweets to fill me with energy and smiles.
• Those from the Dallas / Fort Worth area. Gotta stay on top of what’s happening in my neighborhood.
• People who write about things related to disabilities and accessibility. Might find something worth sharing in my CI blog.
• Gadgets, technology and web design. I cover this area often and have met a lot of folks in this field.
• People who discuss general business. This one is broad, but they just don’t fall into any of the above categories.

I know it’s crazy that I have a bit of a list and a huge Twitter stream. Social networking is high on my list of things to do for my business. Writers could manage the people they follow and their lists in the following ways:

• Create a writers list. This will be your water cooler, support system and colleagues in the same boat.
• Create separate lists for editors, publishers, agents and gigs. I lump all of these into one because I have broader interest. Or you can make one list. It depends on your needs. If writers and these folks are the type of people you follow and nothing else — then use lists to narrow them down further.
• Create a favorite people and clients list. Yes, you can make it private if you prefer not to share. This way you don’t miss a single tweet. This would most likely be a short list.
• Follow other people’s lists. Why start from scratch? We’re not the only ones creating lists, so we can follow other people’s lists. I follow Simon Mackie’s list of Web Worker Daily writers.
• Create an experts on X topic list. What’s your beat? Football? Finance? Fashion? Make a list for your frequently covered topics for instant access when you’re working on an article. No more trying to remember the people you read for the topic.
• Create a list for learning. Plenty of Twitter IDs focus on tweeting writing, grammar and other tips.
• Create a list for current events, conferences and projects. Hey, there’s lots happening on Twitter right now due to NaNoWriMo.

To see my lists, go to @merylkevans and look in the right sidebar. Click the list to see who appears in it. You can also “Follow the list,” which adds my list to yours so you won’t have to manage it. Just remember, you can’t edit other people’s lists.

Here’s a closed-captioned screencast on how to create lists.

Some developers behind applications that make it easier to manage your Twitter business are already working on adding the list feature. I look forward to seeing what they do.

I love these lists especially since I’m a freak when it comes to organization. Of course, you can find me @merylkevans; hope I make the good list!

You might like to read more Twitter articles.

How do you use the list feature?

Inspired by the foolishness and mayhem we see on Clean House, my husband and I spent much of the past weekend cleaning house. We cleaned out the kids’ closets and dressers — removing outgrown clothes, those they don’t want anymore and shoes without a partner (yep, my daughter had several of these). Then, I tackled the game room (oh, man… especially when you have hundreds of Hot Wheels, Pokemon cards, Yu-Gi-Oh cards and Bakugan between two boys).

Dumping Stored Magazines

I remembered I kept every issue of every magazine my writing work appeared in. I also found Writer’s Digest Magazine as far back as from 2000.

I threw away all of the old Writer’s Digest (I still read the magazine, just no reason to keep old ones in storage) and kept only a few of the magazines where I had a feature — not just a column. I probably dumped two-thirds of the magazines in my storage box.

Reading Magazines

I love to read magazines. They take 10 to 30 minutes per issue (except for Reader’s Digest). Rather than keeping the issues with inspiring articles, I trash them as soon as I finish. HOWEVER… I cut out…

1. Anything I want to look up… an author, a book, a web site.
2. Anything I want to do later such as “Word Power” from Reader’s Digest, which sharpens my vocabulary.
3. Anything I want to try later… a tip, a recipe, etc.

Instead of having thick piles of entire issues, I have thin piles of ripped pages. Those that take little time, I put on my office desk so I can handle them when I am back in the office. I review the rest of the pile on a monthly basis, or around there.

Like handling the mail, read your magazine and toss while holding on to anything you want to look up or follow up on. If you keep it, count on never seeing it again until you decide to clean house as those over five-year-old issues showed.

Writing for a Magazine

I have a couple of issues of magazines I’d like to query. I study the magazine before I pitch the editor. But rather than having a dozen issues, I hold on to the last couple of issues. When a new one comes in, the oldest one goes out. I think five issues is more than enough.

Set a limit on the number of issues you’ll keep, and then just throw out the oldest one when the new one arrives.

Managing Subscriptions

I don’t subscribe to as many magazine as I have in the past especially with the books I need to read. I have a couple subscriptions I pay for and a couple I receive free. But mind you, I don’t subscribe to every magazine I can get free. The topic still matters and I don’t want to receive something for the sake of free-ness.

Aside from TV Guide Magazine, no more weekly magazines for me. That’s too much.

How do you manage your magazines? Or have you given them up?

I mentioned that my son’s medical program would interfere with my business because it required a big time investment on my part along with other things. Add to that managing the usual stuff like the other kids, work (or lack thereof), household responsibilities, on and on.

After two weeks of the program, I reached a breaking point. Like, the car ran out of gas plus it needed a serious washing as it looked battered and worn despite its young age. Thank goodness, my clients understood my availability. But that didn’t keep me from feeling bad about not working full-time.

So I had to make adjustments to my work and life so I could feel less guilty, prevent stress overload, and serve my clients as best as I could during this time. Here’s what worked for me:

• Email clients: I let them know of the situation and explained I needed to make priority adjustments. All of them understood.
• Take care of quick hits ASAP: One client sends me five minute editing tasks. So when she sends one in, I do it right there as it’s as fast as reading an email. Plus, it feels great to have one thing done.
• Exercise: I stick to my tennis drill and match schedule. I had to find a sub for one match, but made the rest of them. Thank goodness I have a sweet dog. She forces me to take a walk mid-day. If I don’t, then I’ll spend more time cleaning up after her than walking her.
• Listen to music: I’ve been listening to more music in the past month than I have in the past year. As a deaf person, I don’t have a passion for music like most folks do. But I’ve put in more hours on the road than usual and my car comes with an adapter that plugs right into my iPod. Furthermore, I discovered a iTunes lyrics feature that revived my enjoyment of music. The hard part… discovering new songs.
• Stay on track with the family: Although family is the reason I’m spending more time away from the office than usual, we still have our usual daily activities and goings-on. Gotta keep moving with those as they keep things consistent. Despite the unusual schedule, I managed to work on a jigsaw puzzle and played a couple of board games with my family.
• Cut out tasks where possible. I cut back on blogging and visiting blogs (I know… I hate missing out on community), but these will always be there. The web site won’t come crashing and my blog buddies don’t take attendance. I also limit my non-profit organization officer duties to urgent and time sensitive things. The rest can wait as I have all year.

Just thinking of the week ahead (last week before school starts) overwhelms me. Meetings, registration, several gatherings, meet the teacher, and on and on. I check my calendar to see what’s on the agenda for the next day. But then I pull back and focus on here and now while preparing for whatever comes early tomorrow.

How do you pull through stressful times?

I went to a conference in Austin this past weekend for leaders of an education organization. I lucked out that the first speaker made an important point for all of us to remember.

A teacher goes to a conference and picks up great ideas to take back to her classroom. She gets home and puts all her notes into the filing cabinet. When do you think those notes see light of day? When she retires…

It doesn’t take much to pick up lots of new ideas and learn many new things in an effective conference. But c’mon? Who can remember all of this? Practice it? Put it to use? The president and I discuss the various ideas we picked up and realize we’re thinking too big and it feels like we face a giant to do list.

I can hear all the David Allen fans shouting. Instead, we agree that we need to pick three or four doable things and start with those. The notes won’t go away as we’ll use them to help us with those three or four things while reminding us of others. If we get those first items done, then back to the notes for more ideas and get the next round done.

In one of the sessions, the speaker kept walking past the front rows and I couldn’t lip read through her head. It wasn’t her fault as I never had a chance to give her a heads up. So I watched the presentation, which had just the right amount of notes for me and started working on an article.

I’ve submitted the article to the president. So that’s one idea done. Next idea is to submit an article in the local newspaper’s neighborhood Web site. Already, I’ve sent an email to the person I want to feature and it won’t take much to pull it together once I hear back.

I work as a historian for one of the boards I’m on. Ideally, it’d be lovely to pull together a page for the scrapbook covering the conference today. We haven’t decided on what approach or supplies we’re going to use yet as the committee is still forming.

At least, I’ve got a picture from the event. Just need to grab an accordion folder, print the picture, write a short caption on a sticky note and put it in the accordion folder sorted by month. When we decide, then all we need to do is pull out the photos and captions for the event and that’s one page.

The conference included evaluation forms for every session. I repeatedly wrote, “Please post materials on organization Web site.” We can’t all be in every session that interests us. I also requested a wiki or some forum where we could post our notes. Interestingly, the conference was at Austin Convention Center — the home of SXSW.

You can count on the attendees of SXSW Interactive to share their notes. They probably do the best job of it, making it challenging for all of us to figure out what to read and do. I captured all of my session notes on my laptop (easier to type notes than write notes since I don’t have to look down to type) and I want to share them.

Well, I’ve been home for about five hours and already I have an article, a blog entry, an email, and short to do list. A busy week awaits me, but I hope I will sneak in another thing or two to take what I learned further. What do you do after returning from a great conference full of fun and energy?

I took my first break in ages — that didn’t include an illness or a holiday — for a few days last week for spring break. We went to San Marcos and San Antonio and visited Wonderworld, Sea World, and the Riverwalk. Wonderworld contains a dry cave created by an earthquak on the Balcones Fault Zone over 35 million years ago. The web site’s tour information only documents part of its fascinating history.

Though we took a laptop and our smartphones, I rarely checked e-mail (!!!) and returned to over 1000 messages. Of course, spam made up the bulk of the messages. So I downloaded my email and went to work elsewhere while the email client filtered the garbage. Much better.

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Unfortunately, Google Mail went bonkers. Once in a while, GMail sends spam into the inbox instead of the spam and trash folders. It decided to do that while I wasn’t checking e-mail. This created more clean up work.

Several clients went on an emailing binge (it happens, and that’s OK). Rather than making the client wait for me to wade through the messages to get up to speed on the conversations — I sent the client a quick e-mail saying I’ve returned and would address the messages as I work through them. I suggested that if something needs top priority — to let me know.

The steps for catching up quickly…

1. Download e-mail in your primary e-mail client. Let its experienced filters do the cleaning up. Skip any temptation to use the cell phone or another non-primary e-mail client to catch up on email or else you’re stuck looking at a lot of unfiltered stuff and it takes longer to do this than on your primary e-mail client.
2. Scan e-mail quickly filing or deleting newsletters and regular e-mails you only read when you’re caught up or work is slower than usual. Newsletters I subscribe to fall into two categories: Always read/scan (shortest list) and sometimes read/scan (these either get filed or deleted). When returning from a break, I don’t read or scan the “sometimes.”
3. Reply to quick e-mails. Some e-mails may just involve answering a few questions or doing a quick task. Do them and then file/delete the e-mail. This further cleans the e-mail clutter and makes you feel better because your inbox shrinks.
4. Complete bite-sized tasks for each project or client. On the first day back at work, I did bite-sized work for my regular clients rather than only complete work for one or two clients. It’s a way to get something done and touch base with all of them without feeling overwhelmed. Plus, checking off the tasks as completed gives you a sense of accomplishment. I also skipped blogging.
5. Skip administrative work. No balancing the checkbook or doing other business maintenance activities. Those can wait until you settle back in your routine unless you returned on tax day.
6. Skip personal tasks. I have a birthday party to plan, but I skipped personal stuff on the first day back at work (this could be a problem for those who wait until the last minute).
7. Limit meetings and appointments. I had a prior commitment on the first day back that couldn’t couldn’t be avoided, but I sacrificed a non-profit organization meeting today.

Though I still have plenty of work to do, I feel better knowing I’ve touched base with my regular clients and cleaned my inbox.

I have a few clients in which the engagements are open-ended. This means helping them with their ongoing content work. As a result, it’s easy to let something drag on without completing it.

For example, a client may ask me to revise the Help documentation and write entries for blogs. Rather than just letting it sit, I prioritize them for the sake of motivating me.

Furthermore, freelancing offers a way for many of us to lead balanced and happy lives. Spend more time with kids, hobbies, volunteer work, whathaveyou.

1. Split Project into Small Tasks
Help documentation can easily take weeks. So I work with the client to split the Help into sections. Completing bite-sized tasks works faster than working on a giant project without any breakdowns. For blogging — set up an agreement with the client on the number of posts per week.

2. Set Rules for Your Own Activities
Having trouble updating your blog because of client work? Struggling to make marketing a regular activity? I used to blog five days a week, which became too much in recent months.

So I shoot for two to three a week. It’s not like readers don’t have other things to read. Two or three posts a week won’t hurt because the blog stays updated without overwhelming readers. Remember, blogging also counts as a marketing tool.

Marketing activities — one way to do it is set aside 10 to 30 minutes a day or some other time that works for you. I’m lucky to have a full plate, but I know things can disappear or take a long time before they materialize. So by the time I set up something with a new client, another project will have ended.

3. Allow One Hour of Non-Work Time Per Day
Exercise? Volunteering? Other things you wish you had more time for since you already eat lunch while you work? It’s OK to take one hour per day (with OCCASIONAL exceptions) to do something away from work. So what if something takes two hours (I have three doctor’s appointments this week — I guess I’ll do some work this weekend)? You’ll make it up the next day by taking a shorter break.

4. Schedule Work Time around Regular Activities
You could even calculate your work for the week WHILE considering the time you spend on exercise or another regular activity. For instance, I play on a tennis team that practices and plays matches during the week day (Saturday league won’t work due to kids’ weekend games).

Tennis triples as exercise, social interaction, and hobby (my love for playing sports). After all, isn’t freelancing about flexibility? It allows me to enjoy a well-balanced life. Sure, you’ll have some weeks where you only work 30 hours and others where you work 60. I believe it evens out in the long-run.

5. Make a Habit out of Regular Tasks
When it comes to a certain time of year, do you crave a specific food? I noticed that mint-flavored things usually appear everywhere in the winter and go away by spring. Is there an unwritten rule that we can’t eat mint-flavored food other times of the year? No, but we tend to associate them with winter and cold.

A regular schedule for tasks and activities helps you keep going at it. You can’t help but start the day reading e-mails, writing a blog entry, or however you want to start your day. On days I blog, it’s the first work thing I do. The first thing I do every morning is drink a cuppa Joe, read the newspaper (the print kind), and do the Sudoku puzzle in the newspaper.

It’s easy to overwhelm yourself with so many things and ideas that nothing materializes. For example, a writer might think about article ideas for different magazines, project ideas, and Web site / networking pages content ideas. Thinking about all of these will likely produce nothing except one overwhelmed freelancer.

This became a problem when I drafted two posts (one being the 70+ PowerPoint presentation post) and I kept running into articles from experts who implement many ideas. This inspired me to think about something I could create. Then I realized I was brainstorming about too many things at once. The result: Stifled energy and creativity. Nothing got done.

Freelancers typically have current assignments plus projects or tasks they want to do or try. Sometimes thinking about both can lead to getting little to nothing done. Instead try these steps:

1. Keep a “to do” list for currently assigned projects and clients.

This list contains things you must do. Identify these as required tasks. Instead of looking at the long list of things to do and inviting overwhelm back into the picture — pick two or three to do for the day.

2. Add “want to do” projects to the “to do” list.

Label these differently than the required to do items for clients and projects. On a day when you can do shorter tasks from your client/project task list — make this your task for the day. Don’t let your mind wander and seek out other ideas and projects. Do only this activity.

You could set a schedule for allowing yourself to work on these want projects. Once a week. Once every two weeks.

3. Stop mind wandering by adding new ideas to the “want to do” list

Instead of getting trapped thinking about more things you’d like to do or try, add it to the list and let go. This puts your idea in concrete terms so you can let it go. Return to whatever you’re doing or work on the next to do item.

• The Best Kept Secret of Great Business Presentations: No PowerPoint templates allowed here.
• 100+ ways to organize your life. Step one: Read the article and pick one or two things to start with so you don’t feel overwhelmed.
• 70+ Lifehacks of 2007. I regularly visit this site — great content.
• Geeky Weddings, the video
• Miranda July, author of No One Belongs Here More Than You, came up with a novel and creative approach to her book’s Web site. [Link: Kottke]
• Also from Kottke, a restaurant review from 1859. More on New York Times’ archives.

IttyBiz offers six excellent tips for finding four hours in your day. Successful freelancers must balance their time as not working = not earning money. This is especially true for those who have lives outside of freelancing and value sleep. The Internet unquestionably provides valuable resources for helping our business, but it easily steals your productivity time if a site or Web-based application gets their hooks in you and won’t let go.

It happens to me on occasion especially when the creativity levels are low and uncooperative. But I also take care in avoiding sites and applications that will lure me in if I dare venture there. Twitter and Second Life are two examples. When I first heard about them, I took a quick look to learn about them to keep up with what’s hot.

Before checking them — I put up a warning flag in my brain because I knew they stole productivity time based on what I had heard. It’s OK not to participate in the latest greatest of everything online. I had to learn this in the mid-’90s when I used to buy the latest techie stuff. By then, new products came out and in droves. It would’ve put my bank account in danger.

Good sites and content give you an idea of what you could get into if you click a link or check a recommendation. If you decide that you just want to satisfy your curiosity and spend only a few minutes on a site before visiting, it’ll be easier to pull away rather than let it trap you.

• The Hot Button Theory: Maximizing Media Response to Your News Releases.
• 5 tips for giving feedback on creative work.
• 50 sites for book lovers.
• 8 Easy Ways to Remove Tough Stains [I need all the help I can get!]
• The Art of Writing: 10 Tips from the Masters
• Wanna be book authors: Submit a book proposal and work with a real writer. AND help your favorite nonprofit organization.
• Four types of tasks that should not be on your to do list.
• Media Request — What to do now that you have media nibbling on the line.