I love all my little free tech tools and gadgets, but things break. I have a pro version of Xobni that isn’t hooking up with my account, so it only shows the free version. My Live Mesh file system is blocked by an antivirus program on my laptop, so the files don’t update. And I have a tangled mess of keyboards and mice on my desk because I bought some fancy-schmancy systems that use  bluetooth, and then the bluetooth got hosed up.

So I have all these little efficient things in place that are no longer efficient. This has produced a series of complicated little workarounds that are just downright annoying and time consuming. I’m using a wired keyboard and mouse, and I have to plug them into a USB hub that I use for a thousand things. So I’m forever unplugging one and replugging. And don’t get me started on the printer issues. Because we lost the wireless set up for one of our printers, I pretty much have to go to Kinkos to print something in color from the house.

I’d bet money that you have situations like this in your business…. little roadblocks that you’ve learned to work around instead of fixing. It would probably take half an hour to fix the Live Mesh thing, but instead I take an extra 5 minutes to wrangle files from computer to computer each time I need to sync something. If you add up the time I’m spending, it would be 30 minutes several times over.

Broken technology and little roadblocks are annoying, time-wasting and inefficient. So why don’t we feel like we can take the time to fix this stuff? When I go to print something, I sigh and get grumpy. I do my little workaround and promise myself I’ll fix the problem “soon.” Yet “soon” doesn’t come, and I keep cussing and dealing.

What’s on your business get-around-to-it list? I propose we all set aside Thursday, May 26, as Fix-It Day. Add a comment with a list of the little things you need to fix, and we’ll all commit to setting aside time May 26 (or before) to resolving those little irritations.

Who’s with me?

Now that I’ve held an actual advance copy of the book in my actual hands, it’s time to start sharing!

We’re giving away 10 copies of the book on Goodreads, complete with a cupcake magnet and other goodies!

Enter to win the chance to be one of the first reviewers: bit.ly/U2Fgoodreadsgive

Oh boy has it been crazy here on Avenue Z. I’m finishing up a new site (www.askbethz.com), getting ready to release the book (should be out in late May, but you can preorder here ), settling into married life, coaching a running team… Today I’m flying to Houston for my first speaking gig with a book signing, and I had to call the airlines to make sure I’d have wifi so I can get a project finished on the way there.

Crazy busy, I tell you!

But as I sift through my emails from the past couple of months, it looks like “crazy busy” is a new normal in our business world:

• “Sorry it took me so long to respond… things are crazy busy!”
• “I wanted to get to this last week, but it’s been nuts!”
• “Thanks for your patience… It’s just nonstop around here these days!”

And on and on. When I was growing up, I don’t remember my parents coming home and saying, “Wow, kids. Sorry we haven’t been home for dinner much — it’s crazy busy at work.” Both parents came home at fairly normal times, ate dinner with us most nights and retired to the TV room with us to watch awesome ’80s tv (Taxi, Love Boat, One Day at a Time, anyone?).

Are these “crazy busy” times a new phenomenon? Have we created work environments with deadlines at such an impossible pace that we’re all going insane? And has technology — the tools that are supposed to make our lives easier — played a role in causing this chaos?

I would answer in the affirmative for all three of those questions. I think the easier we have made it to access work, information, entertainment and connections, the tougher we have made our workloads. As much as I love technology and the excitement of this world we live in, I’d love it if we stopped answering the “How are you?” question with “Crazy busy!”

So, how do you answer “How are you?” Is your life calm, cool and collected these days, or are you crazy busy, too?

Gotta run… My Roomba robot vacuum just got stuck under the couch, my iPhone needs charging and I have to pack my Garmin Forerunner so I can go for a run in Houston.

Some of the biggest names on Twitter say in order to really participate on the site, you need to follow everyone who follows you. These people follow thousands and thousands of followers and deftly manage complicated lists to interact with as many as possible. And the more they interact, the more followers they get. And the more followers you get, the bigger your reach, and the bigger you get, etc. You can see how this is great advice, right?

For the past couple of years, I’ve tried to do what they say. I’ve followed back countless self-professed SEO experts, marketing gurus, extraordinary life coaches and super-motivating speakers. I’ve followed back dogs, running events, community fundraisers and more. I drew the line at the Reverse Vasectomy Clinic that wanted to be friends, as well as anyone whose avatars showed nothing but cleavage or dollar signs.

As a result, I ended up following almost 2,000 people. Have you ever tried to keep up with the chatter of 2,000 people? Better yet, have you ever tried to carry on meaningful relationships with 2,000 people? When I first got excited about Twitter, I followed maybe 350 people. Many of them were fairly quiet, so I had a great opportunity to have real conversations with the ones who were chatty. They asked about me;  I thought about them. They made me smile when I saw their Tweets.

As my list of Twitter contacts grew, my Twitter friends’ posts slowly got lost in the ever-growing ocean of Tweets. All of a sudden, most of my Twitter updates pages were filled with comment after comment from people I didn’t know. The people who started following me were frequently people who used Twitter software to find new followers. They’d follow a few hundred new people at a time, give them a few days to follow back, then dump the ones who didn’t and find more to follow. Their following/follower relationship was usually something like 1.1/1 because they were always trying to grow their numbers.

As my Twitter friends disappeared, replaced by SEO tips, motivational quotes and retweets of other people’s motivational quotes and SEO tips, I had less and less to say. And the less I talked on Twitter, the fewer real people followed me, and the more I lost my real relationships. I could use Twitter lists and other tools to track “real people” versus Twitter machines, but I find those difficult as well, and I’d have to sort through my hundreds of followers to put everyone in their basket.

I miss my friends. I miss real Twitter conversations. Thus, I’ve decided to take Twitter back. I’m slowly unfollowing people I don’t have much in common with. When I go to their profile and see that I’m one of 31,000 friends, I don’t think I will be missed. In a few days, they’ll use their Twitter software to unfollow me back, so my Twitter reach will shrink considerably. I bet some people may be miffed that I’m dropping them from my roster, and I guess this move may hurt my chances to promote the book. But I’d rather have a smaller reach and better conversations than a tremendous following that I can’t relate to.

What’s your social media philosophy? Do you use Twitter to grow your business? If so, how do you manage the volume?