There are certain days when I have nothing to share. There’s no blog to post, article to pass along, or joke to make so I typically just go silent. In those situations I become an observer and listen to what others have to share. Occasionally there is some value in the communication of others but generally what I see is garbage. It’s pretty clear when someone has nothing to say but feels the need to say something anyway so their voice is heard. It makes we wonder how dependant we’ve become in being part of the stream, no matter what.
Naturally it got me thinking, so I decided to provide guidance to those that find themselves in this situation and don’t know what to do. This will also be a good reminder and reference for me when invariably I’m tempted to talk for the sake of talking. On occasion we all say inane things online; it’s the perpetual culprit that might want to heed this advice.
- Find content that will help educate you
- Get offline, be productive doing something else
- Grab a piece of paper and start writing whatever is on your mind
- Go for a walk
- Spend time with family
- Express your creative outlet without using technology
- Call a friend, client, or prospect
- Read the newspaper
- Clean the house
- Plan next week’s schedule
- Role play an important meeting or interview
- Take a nap
Sure the list above is fairly obvious alternatives to communicating online, yet the fact that I felt the need to write this post means there’s too many guilty parties hoping to have their voice heard. Never forget the golden rule, silence is OK. I remember Peter Shankman once say during one of his talks, if you don’t have something important to say or share, don’t say anything.
The risk of talking for the sake of talking is that you might not have your most important messages heard when you do decide to share something of substance. We all have short attention spans, we tune people out quickly as soon as we’ve determined they’re rambling on. We all know the story of the boy who cried wolf. The moral of the story, examine what and how you communicate online. Think about what you’re trying to accomplish with your online activity and measure that against your actual communication stream. Sometimes we speak the loudest when we’re silent, and often that’s the best sound of all.