I know, I know…before all you folks who think Twitter is a waste of time start bashing me, hear me out for a moment. I was reflecting a little this morning and remembered that I used to have a Sales Manager that wanted me to keep track of what I was doing all day long in 15 minute increments. “Write it down”, he said, “I want to see it every week”. I didn’t do it of course cause I’m a renegade and it wasn’t my idea. In principle however, this was supposed to help me and my Sales Manager get a perspective on how much time was spent driving business versus wasting time.

It occurred to me while I was reflecting on this that what he wanted me to do, back in 1997, was to Twitter. Only, there was no such thing as Twitter in 1997. In fact, I recall, that in our office we had one, (yes 1), computer that had internet access via a 56K modem.

Fast-forward nearly 12 years and suddenly, I like the idea. I’m able to go back to my Twitter or Facebook account and review my status updates and analyze my activities. I know that neither service is intended to be utilized in this way, but when I take a look back over my recent status updates, it’s easy to see activities and time intervals that could have been more productive.

So there, now you can tell your boss, friends, and family that Twitter is a productivity tool.