Pressure… by Casey Serin on Flickr

Most of us could use less stress. With the kind of ridiculous connectivity that we have and the expectation to be constantly “plugged in”, it’s easy to get overwhelmed. And we aren’t only worrying about things that we have to do, but things that we feel like we should do, or could do.

I’m studying abroad in Spain right now. While I don’t have as many have to dos as I do at home, the list of should dos is almost endless (talk with friends, see a bull-fight, make Spanish friends, eat paella, etc).

I am normally good at handling a long to do list, but this shift from have to do to should do has been hard to adjust to, because instead of managing my time, I just get overwhelmed with all the possibilities and usually end up wasting my entire day eating lunch (it’s actually not that hard to do that here).

This change has forced me to think of how I normally manage being overwhelmed, and to adjust that strategy to this new lifestyle of fewer responsibilities and greater possibilities.

So, here’s what we are going to do. Make a list. Making lists is how I solve problems. It clears my mind and is a great distraction when I’m bored in class or at work. This list will have three columns:

So you have your lists. Ideally you’d work from top to bottom until everything was done, but we all know that it doesn’t work like that. We procrastinate, we put things off, we don’t feel like doing things we should do, so we do things we could do instead. Let’s look at 4 of the most common problems people have when they are overwhelmed, and try to come up with some solutions for them. You might have some suggestions for these problems, or strategies that work well for you. Share them with me!

So let’s talk Twitter.  Twitter is a free micro-blogging tool that allows you to create messages of 140-characters or less.  It is a great tool for community building, self-promotion (yes those are two different things), and actively engaging fans in your brand.

1. Broadcast promotional material.

Twitter was not created as a Press Release System.  Some users employ twitter as a tool for one-way broadcasting.  Please don’t do this.  Social media is about creating a relationship with your community.  I want to connect to you, not promo tweets written by your marketing team.

Interact with people on Twitter that are interested in you, your product, or your field.  Use @ replies and Retweets to build relationships.  People often wonder “why is no one tweeting me?” or “why isn’t anyone writing on my wall?”  The answer is almost always because you haven’t invited them to.  Ask a question.  You’ll be amazed.  No one is going to interact with you without being invited to, unless your audience is 13-year-old-girls… and you are the Jonas Brothers.

2. Use a username with “gurl”, “hot”, “boi” or any variation thereof.

This isn’t your AIM screen name from high school, so resist the temptation of a “prettypony6794” or “monkeysRcrazy4242”.  Be consistent with your brand and choose something that people will easily identify as you.  You can change your display name in Settings without creating a new account. (acceptable options: your name, band, gallery, company, etc.)

Internet rural (Credit: Caliaetu on Flickr)

3. Only tweet at night.

Most artists work weird hours.  But keep in mind that a high percentage of Twitter users are on a 9-5 work schedule and that is when you are going to get the most visibility.  This doesn’t mean that you can’t do anything at night, but save a large percentage of your tweets for the day, when you will be most likely to elicit a response.

4. Tweetflooding.

Also known as spamming.  Your 30 tweets about The Real Housewives of New Jersey are unappreciated and unnecessary.  Overtweeting is a good way to get unfollowed.  Also, people are less likely to want to interact if you are overwhelming them.  Think before you post.  Exceptions: If you are live-blogging an event like a conference or breaking news story, it is acceptable to tweetflood as long as you use #hashtags.  Find out what hashtag other people are using and add it to your tweets to help connect with other people talking about the same thing.

5. Miss out on conversation.

I see this all the time and it kills me.  If someone is talking about you or something that you are knowledgable and passionate about, you should be right there in the conversation.

• Use Twellow to connect to other people in your industry.
• Set up alerts on Tweetbeep and Google Alerts so that you know whenever someone mentions you, your brand, or something you are interested in.
• Check out Tweetmeme for what links people are most talking about.