Are you on Twitter? Facebook? MySpace? LinkedIn? Other social networks? Posting regularly? Checking your email every 15 minutes (and immediately responding)? Check your RSS reader daily? Is it helping your business? Cellphone on all the time? Is it helping your quality of life?

We get caught up trying to keep up with the latest ways to boost our business. In some cases, a small effort has a major benefit (for example, a website allows people to find your online 24/7). But when we spend too much time focusing on trying to keep up with “the world”, we lose sight of our intimate network (people who truly know and care about us). Hyperconnectivity is giving us the feeling of doing something (having thousands of Twitter followers) but at the expense of meaningful relationships (both in our personal and business life). It’s also decreasing the amount of creative “unstructured” time that we need to think deeply about issues. If we’re always reacting to a stimulus, we have no opportunity to actually do something novel.

Before you jump into the latest business “fad”, find out the true cost (time/money) and the real world results (profit, goodwill). You’ll always hear stories about the person who made $100,000 overnight from a Twitter feed, but remember that these stories are passed around because they’re not typical. Focus on what works for you, experiment on new things, but balance your return on investment (ROI) of your time/energy.