The social media application, Twitter, is being treated little differently than the arrival of Facebook, the boom of the Web or the introduction of email. On the surface, without much experience, it appears to occupy, rather than nourish time.

Journalist and consultant Steve Buttry has a good post on the challenge of making the most of Twitter in the least amount of time.

He has some general principles:

1. Don't drink the entire stream. Use some tools to filter it.
2. Integrate Twitter into your day and ensure you stay disciplined in using it.
3. Use it as a news source, with your cell phone, and with lists to sort through others in a particular field.

"I am sympathetic to the challenges of time management using Twitter or any new tool that demands our attention. I am not sympathetic to time management as an excuse for refusing to stay current with the demands of digital journalism," he writes.