Just a quick one, but I realised this morning that I have a compulsion to hit the character limit of twitter as accurately as possible when I post. Then it reminded me of the concept of a Haiku poem. Extract from Wikipedia for those who aren't familiar with the concept:

Haiku (俳句 ,haikai verse) listen, plural haiku, is a form of Japanese poetry, consisting of 17 morae (or on), in three metrical phrases of 5, 7 and 5 morae respectively. Haiku typically contain a kigo, or seasonal reference, and a kireji or verbal caesura. In Japanese, haiku are traditionally printed in a single vertical line, while haiku in English usually appear in three lines, to parallel the three metrical phrases of Japanese haiku. Previously called hokku, haiku was given its current name by the Japanese writer Masaoka Shiki at the end of the 19th century.

This idea of being constrained by the structure can make you think and distill the essence of what you want to say. Of course there is a great deal of noise in Twitter, but when you next tweet, consider what you say.

Before you ask, no, I can't compose a real Haiku for Twitter. But luckily there is a group on facebook dedicated to Tweeting in Haiku: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=23023722312