This is a multi-part post.

Don’t look at the quality of this photo.
I can explain.

For those of you that know me personally and I mean PERSONALLY, not just a Facebook “Friend” or Twitter Buddy, you know that I have been doing some things differently in my personal life lately.  Now rather than to get into the nitty gritty details of the “Why’s” that I am making changes, (if you are one of the above social media specific ‘friends’, you probably don’t care about it anyway), one of these changes is adding more physical activity to my day.

Since the “internets” have taken over my life, being sedentary, reading blog posts and emails, sitting in board meetings for community and non-profit organizations, I am sitting and not moving around as much as I used to and (sound of clearing throat), I am getting older. (The secret is out!)

Instead of logging everything you eat, like folks often do dieting,  try logging how much time you spend on email or how much time you read for work, engage with clients and like minded cohorts online. You will shock yourself once you total up the hours at the end of the day, much less at the end of the week.  If you are driving (and sitting) to pick up the kids or watch them in a hockey game or swim meet, add that to your total.

So after I added up my hours and was sickened by the amount of “fanny time” I was spending each day/week, it was the thing that knocked me in the head and said, “Girl, you have got to make some changes!!”

The eliptical, treadmill and the bike all have ways you can read while you are getting some exercise. My Kindle is now full of e-books, and newsletters (hence the poor photo, taken by me, this morning), that I had not the time to read on my laptop. Additionally, this time at the gym has allowed me to let my thoughts wander and also organize myself for the day and the week ahead.  (BONUS!)

So, is this another one of the million posts out there about how you should get to the gym?  No, it is about thinking “differently.”  And while many of us know that a similar slogan that Apple used (1997), it is certainly still true 15 years later.

Technology consumes my life as it does yours.  We use technology when we find a benefit in it.  When everyone in your family is using Facebook to communicate about a loved one’s illness,  you think perhaps it is time for you to start.  When the only way you can keep in touch with your children, grandchildren, nieces and nephews is through a text message, YOU LEARN how to communicate with them in the way they communicate or you settle on the fact that you will no longer communicate with them as often. (or at all!)

Are you doing the same in your business?
How do YOU reach YOUR customers?