Twitter has become an integral part of both work and play for millions of its users. It’s insanely useful and highly addictive. So addictive, in fact, that psychologists are starting to talk about it as a legitimate problem for some, in the same way they do  World of Warcraft and other online addictions. For smart, rational people like you the chances of becoming obsessed with Twitter (or anything else) are low – but it can be a distraction and hinder productivity. Attention deficit disorder has become epidemic in the 21st century, and Twitter is yet another diversion that feeds the plague.

A colleague recently asked me how to manage Twitter so that it remained useful, but was less of a distraction. “How do I use Twitter productively” is also one of the top questions I am asked when speaking about social networking. I’ll give you the list of recommendations I usually respond with – but note that these are more aimed at personal Twitter users and do not necessarily apply to using Twitter as a business, for example;

• Get real. You’re smart. And perfectly capable of coming up with the best ways of using Twitter so that it becomes your bitch instead of just another waste of time. Some of my suggestions will work for you and others won’t – but they’re all based on treating Twitter like a tool – not just for work, but socially too. Remember that you own the tool, not the other way around. Tool.
• Schedule and automate your tweets, but only when doing so will not be annoying to your followers. Hootsuite will allow you to schedule tweets to send at a later stage and the Twitter Tools plugin for WordPress can be used to automatically tweet when you update your blog. Scheduling is good; sending tons of tweets all at the same time will bug your followers. It makes more sense to spread them out. By batching your tweets at dedicated times you’ll also be less likely to drop by Twitter during the day. That said, don’t irritate your followers – DO NOT narcissistically send a tweet out with every mundane or arbitrary blog post you make and don’t schedule pointless minutiae. Some things will make sense to schedule and automate and others won’t.
• Integrate your Twitter and other social network accounts with a service like FriendFeed that allows you to monitor multiple social networks from the same place. Then instead of wasting time visiting Twitter, Facebook and other services via separate applications and websites you can track it all from one place and save time.
• Ignore. If you use a Twitter client that activates Growl or other notifications whenever there are new tweets in your feed, disable the pings and visual clutter, or set it to only notify you when someone mentions you or sends you a direct message. If you use a Twitter client on your phone only activate push and other notifications for direct messages. Get rid of the sounds and pop-ups so you can stay focused on what you’re doing. It’s probably just John saying “OMG LMFAO – @othermoron  ur 2 awesum. LOLZ” anyway. Of course, if your job is to run a Twitter feed then this doesn’t apply to you. Condolences.
• Weberise. Consider accessing Twitter via the Web, either by using the Twitter site directly, or via a web-based client like Hootsuite, instead of with a non-web application. And, more importantly, close the website down when you aren’t actively using it. When you don’t have a dedicated application running your attention will be directed to Twitter less often. Hootsuite is probably better than anything else you’re using anyway.
• Dedicate time in the day when you will check on Twitter. Set up a schedule, this could be once an hour or twice a day – whatever works best for you, and stick to it. I know this sounds lame. I hate timetables. But it works, if you’re disciplined. And, again, if your job is to watch a Twitter stream for your company then this obviously doesn’t apply to you.
• Mobilise. If you aren’t already using Twitter on your phone then you’re probably reading this as a printout – get with the times, grandpa. There are tons of great Twitter clients available for your phone. If you’re on the iPhone then check out Twitbird Pro, Tweetie or the Hootsuite app that integrates with the website. If you’re on a BlackBerry get OpenBeak (formerly Twitterberry) or ÜberTwitter. If you use a Symbian S60 device, like many Nokia models, then try Gravity. Some of these apps will cost you money, but it’s worth it. Alternatively use the Twitter mobile website .
• Don’t mobilise. It’s bad enough that you use Twitter all day on your computer – now you’re hauling it out while having supper with your family and watching Avatar? Put that thing back in your pocket, freak. And only use Twitter on your mobile when it makes sense and is socially acceptable to do so. If you and all your friends / family are geeks, then whip it out and go crazy. Whatever.
• Unfollow. Only morons follow all their followers. It’s the quickest way to build up follower numbers and also to make sure your feed is polluted with spam about Britney Spears getting naked. Who cares how many people follow you if 80% of them are spam-bots and douchebags? The less people you follow, the less of a distraction Twitter will be. If you must follow tons of people, and I can’t imagine why, then use a Twitter client like Tweetdeck that allows you to group people, and make a group of users whose tweets are actually worth reading. Then ignore the rest. Stop complaining about how people use Twitter and just unfollow them if you don’t like it.
• Variety is good. If you follow all of the above steps you will likely end up accessing and using Twitter from a bunch of different places. This can be irksome to minimalists like me – but get over it. It’s good to integrate Twitter into the rest of your life instead of the rest of your life into Twitter. However, if you want a single Twitter client that will enable most of what I’ve recommended, check out Hootsuite. It rocks. It also integrates with Facebook, allows for scheduling, is web-based, has an iPhone app and has other powerful features. Best of all, the web application is free. And no, I don’t get commission from them. Yet.

These are just some of the ideas I have for using Twitter productively, and will probably post more in the future. I’d love to hear your tips too, so comment away.

See you on Twitter, smarty pants…