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?

I’m an organized person and don’t operate well with clutter. That includes a cluttered room, cluttered desk, and a cluttered inbox. I believe that for as long as I’ve used e-mail, I’ve made an effort to keep my inbox as small as possible.

My process is similar to what experts say to do in keeping your snail mail pile small. As soon as you bring the mail in the house, do the following steps:

1. Trash anything that’s junk or read, but not worth keeping.
2. File anything that is worth keeping. Try to do it right away or put it in the room where it belongs for later filing when you get into that room. For example, I put health-related paperwork in the office. When I get to the office, I file it.
3. Act on anything needing action. While we may not need to pay the bill right then and there, bills can go into a file for time sensitive things. RSVP for party? Fill it out, or if you don’t know — file it under time sensitive. Pay bills? Pay them right there and put the date where the stamp goes — the date should be the day you need to mail it, not the day it’s due.

E-mail works the same way. It’s easy to scan and delete obvious junk that slipped through the filters as well as “Fwd:, Fwd:, Fwd:” messages and jokes. I read the good ones.

Anything in my inbox, I need to address as soon as I can or they’re a reminder of a current project I’m working on (I only keep ONE e-mail from the project and the rest filed under Current Work).
Newsletters and articles automatically go into the Newsletter folder. These I read whenever I need a reading break or information.

Regular e-mail from a non-profit organization goes into one of two folders for that non-profit. One is under Personal (my Inbox folder) and one is under Education for filing away. So those under Personal are the ones I need to act on, but I want to keep these separate from my regular Inbox folder. See below screen shot of my Personal folder and its subfolders.

Less time sensitive stuff needing action go into the Follow up (action and e-mail) or Respond (e-mail only) folder.

If I am waiting for something and need to follow up at some point, it goes into my Waiting folder. For example, I’m waiting for a judge’s response for a program I’m chairing. I check the waiting folder to remind myself to follow up with the judge when an agreed upon date passes.

Just checked my Waiting folder and deleted a handful of e-mails since the project is over or action taken. Ah, feels great.

I don’t like a cluttered desktop or Program List. Most of the time, I won’t let an application add icons to Quickstart (the >> between the taskbar and the icons on the left) or desktop, unless it’s a program I’ll access frequently. The most frequently applications get to live in Quickstart.

According to this Seattle Times article, Computer makers cut down on desktop clutter. Who needs to have an icon or program shortcut in multiple places?

Since I like things organized, this is how I set up my desktop, Quickstart and Program shortcuts in Start:

* **Keyboard button shortcuts**: Programs accessed daily (email, main browser, IM, Palm).

* **Quickstart and Start**: Frequently accessed programs not in keyboard shortcut (text editors, other browsers, business apps, Web design-related apps).

* **Desktop**:
– Infrequently accessed applications that I use from time to time (spyware checkers, video editor, Belarc Advisor).

– Applications I’m currently reviewing (I uninstall the application when I’m done).

– Applications I want or need to check out (otherwise I’ll never remember to search for them in the longer All Programs list).

* **All Programs**: Everything else.

Developers like to create their own folders and sometimes, a folder within a folder (this annoys me). So I get rid of sub-folders (usually it’s just one — makes no sense), and move the apps up into the main folder. I take the following:

\> Program Folder > Subfolder – Application – Uninstall

And change it to the following:

\> Program Folder – Application – Uninstall

I also have generic folders like Games, Communications (instant messenger apps), Media (media players and editors), Palm, and PocketPC. I move related apps into their folders and delete as many subfolders as I can. Thanks for indulging me — my apps look much better as I reorganized them while writing this entry.

I try to limit All Programs to three columns. Any more than that starts to spill over too far. At one point, the All Programs list crossed over to my second monitor. That was a sign to clean up.