Seven ways to keep up

I have been out of the country the past two weeks,  and it is amazing how much can happen in such a short time. So far I have found:

• Apple announced new iPhones  and 3.0 (no I don’t have one yet, but I did upgrade to 3.0)
• WordPress released version 2.8 (Yes, I have upgraded this site, but haven’t done all my sites)
• Lots of new WordPress plug-in releases (Upgraded this site, but many more to go)
• TweetDeck released a new version (Upgraded this too)

These announcements just remind me how much technology changes every day, week, and month.  It is amazing to live in a time where change comes so quickly.

The constant introduction of new things makes it hard to keep up. I can’t find enough hours in the day to look at everything I want to know about.  I use news readers, Twitter, and news sites, but I just can’t get to it all. Most of us don’t get paid to spend all day just keeping up with what is going on.

Here are seven ideas on how to keep up.

1. Focus on the areas you need to know about.  Don’t try to keep up with everything, just the parts of the world that matter to you.
2. Find time every day to read about the subjects you are following so you make progress every day.  Use a news reader to help you identify information you want to read.  Try using Altop or Google’s reader.
3. Bookmark information you find that you think you might use later.  This will give you future value from what you read today. Learn how to use Delicious or some other bookmarking tool.
4. Join a user group in the area you are focused on.  Use those meetings and connections to help you keep up.
5. Learn how to find information on the things you don’t (and can’t) keep up with.  Become an expert at using a search engines.  I am surprised at how many people have a hard time looking for information with a search engine. Search on Twitter.  It is a great place to find the current buzz on any topic.
6. Identify people who are keeping up in other areas so you can check with them when you need their expertise.  This could include people you know personally or people on the web.
7. Take advantage of new technology.  New tools that come along can really help you sort through all the new information.  I understand you can’t use it all. Find the tools that make you more effective and apply them to your focus areas.  I use Windows and browsers, iPhone and apps, WordPress, Twitter and Twitter tools, Facebook, news readers, bookmarking services, online services, and the development tools we use to build web applications.

Good luck.  It is hard to keep up.  The only answer is to keep working on it.  I hope these ideas help you.

Let me know how you keep up.

Related posts:

1. Problem: Keeping track of all this information Solution: Delicious
2. All the Good Technology is Free