In the last two weeks I've been in Dallas, Austin, San Antonio, Houston, Atlanta, Pittsburgh, Washington, New York and even Alaska. Just one more short trip to Charlotte and Nashville left.

The trip taught me something. For two weeks I kept in touch via email and cellphone but had no time for three things I'd been using every day. Two of them I really missed, the other ... not so much.

Blogging

I really believe that blogging has been a huge help in establishing my business. Its not just the brand-building, but to write interesting posts you've got to stop, think and write down ideas in long form. You've got to analyse the pros and cons of all sorts of business problems and then open it up for feedback from commenters. That kind of deeper, slower thinking just doesn't happen during a normal work day and blogging is that opportunity to set time aside and think. Brian at teeman.net has proven a great blogger since he started last year. I'll be back next week.

Skype

Business deals used to get done in smoky backrooms with whisky and cigars. Now its all done on Skype. Its absolutely my number one source of useful information, tips and partnerships. Its possible to have long-form, free-flowing conversations with people over several days and to easily catch up if you missed a discussion.

Twitter

I didn't miss it one little bit. Over the last few months, I've got some marginal use out of it. We've sold a few products and made a couple of connections, but generally its been a time-sink. I was actively glad to have been away from it. Twitter falls somewhere between two stools ... its neither a proper fleshed-out idea nor a proper conversation. Mostly its full of RSS feeds and people advertising one product over and over.