Quite a few people have been asking me how I get any work done since they see me conversing on Facebook so much throughout the day. The truth is that I have a secret. I use this wicked awesome Facebook Toolbar for Firefox.

The toolbar is great because it gives me quick updates via its iconography if I have new messages, friend invites, group invites, or event invites. It also lets me update my status easily without having to even open the Facebook website. You can also use the toolbar to search or for its quick links to various sections of your profile that you might want to go, but I don’t seem to use either of those features very much. Instead, one of the most widely used features for me is one that you don’t even see in the toolbar….it’s the Growl notifications.

Growl is a great little app that “lets Mac OS X applications unintrusively tell you when things happen” (sorry PC lovers). The beauty of it is that my day is already filled with tons of other tasks like writing emails, making phone calls, taking meetings, and writing proposals. This means I get very little time to keep up on what is going on in my social sphere. With the Facebook Toolbar and Growl working together, I literally get short little glimpses into who is doing what throughout my day. If I see something appropriate to me, then I might make a comment in Facebook, if it is not, then I’ve wasted no time. Also, do take into consideration that I don’t just sit at my computer waiting to see what updates come in. I use this Facebook/Growl setup much more like a person would use Twitter – focus on what you see at that specific moment in time.

So there you have it. The secret is out of the bag. If you got stuck or my directions are messed up just leave me a comment and I’ll fix. Happy Facebooking!