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.