The NYTimes has a piece by an IBM employee who has largely freed him­self from email by con­sciously using what­ever social net­work­ing tool would be bet­ter at mov­ing the con­ver­sa­tion for­ward, whether it’s IM, wikis, or even (gasp!) the tele­phone. This line stood out for me:

I have had con­tin­u­ing sup­port from my man­age­ment in this effort, because I’ve been able to prove how much more I can accom­plish by answer­ing a ques­tion, and post­ing it on a blog, for exam­ple, than I can by answer­ing the same ques­tion over and over. I still help peo­ple, but in a more open and col­lab­o­ra­tive fash­ion. Other peo­ple can join in the dis­cus­sions — maybe they will have a bet­ter idea than mine.

This is exactly how I try to describe the blog­ging phi­los­o­phy in the busi­ness world. Don’t think of the blog as another chore that needs to be added to your already over­whelmed to-do list. Instead, think about it as another com­mu­ni­ca­tion tool so it becomes a seam­less part of your ongo­ing work. This will no only help work flow, but help give your blog an hon­esty and approach­a­bil­ity it wouldn’t have if you thought of it as sim­ply another mar­ket­ing piece.