How to gain control over your digital life

your universeWhat seems like an eternity ago (but was really only last April ), I wrote about David Armano’s concept of “Sun-Shaped People“, and after getting a chance to watch him present and shake his hand at SOBCon07, I’ve been more than impressed with his uncanny ability to take tip-of-the-spear concepts that most people are just starting to wrap their heads around, and explain them—visually, no less—in ways that make you say, “oh, of course… that makes so much sense.”

Well, David has done it again. Pure brilliance.

How do you manage all the ways you could be spending your interacting-with-others-online time? You know; social media, email, blogging, posting photos of your family online, all that digital jazz. You’ve probably got lots of “channels” for interacting with the world, and if you’re like most people I’ve been in touch with lately (and tons of others), there are some channels that you subscribe to wholeheartedly, and others that may have once been important, but now are fading away.

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Enter: The Social System.

Doesn’t that just make perfect sense? On his post about it, DA explains the whole thing, but I think the picture does a pretty good job on its own.

As I’ve spent more time in social media circles, and tried balancing the time that sites like Facebook require with all the other responsibilities of life, work, etc., I’m coming to see that I want a lot fewer planets in my social system than before.

Now, the time may (will) come when I need to expand this; there are strategies that require more of a presence on some planets than others, and there are some planets I’ve yet to set foot on that I know will move very close to the middle of my system, when the time is right.

My social system could go from “Me -> blog -> mastermind -> email -> Facebook -> LinkedIn” to, “Me -> blog -> StumbleUpon -> email -> mastermind -> YouTube -> VideoSticky -> Facebook”, or something like that, all depending on what’s necessary and important to my strategy.

In the meantime, though, it sure is liberating to realize that I don’t need as much interplanetary travel as I once thought… after all, it can be tiring to spend so much time on (and traveling to) all those distant planets! And that’s why I got lit up about this topic enough to write a post about it: finding the balance—in every aspect of our lives—is living “monkishly” (hey, it’s my site; I can invent a word if I like, right?). Because are we going to make the kind of impact/live the life we want if we’re spread too thin, or exhausted from doing so?

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Now, two steps for you:

1) What’s your social system look like?

Don’t worry about creating a graphic (although don’t let me stop you from it, either); if it’s easier, just use the “one -> two -> three” diagram, and plot out your social system. Share it in the comments, too.

How’s it look? Is it serving you? Is it giving you enough contact with others, or too much? Or, not enough of the right kind? Make adjustments as needed; after all, you’re the creator of this universe, so make it right for you.

2) Apply the analogy elsewhere.

Where else could this kind of system-thinking help you in your life? Work projects? Family responsibilities? Home maintenance? Personal development “practices” (meditating, praying, reading/learning, service, healing)? Fitness/health?

For example, you could come up with all kinds of systems for keeping you on top of your goals, in the right proportions:

• eating healthy -> exercise 4x/week -> supplements -> bodywork
• do the dishes -> laundry -> sweep/vacuum -> mow the lawn -> clean out the gutters
• play with my kids -> read to them -> build stuff together -> take mini-vacations
• write articles -> networking -> work with clients -> write book -> joint ventures

Sky’s the limit. So, what’s in your universe(s)?

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