I don’t know about you, but I like to be very intentional with the time I spend on Facebook.  Well, really I like to be intentional about how I spend my time on any of the social media tools I use.

I don’t want to log in and spend hours browsing – after all, you can’t have fondue on Facebook.  I do want to log in, do what I want to do, read what I want to read, and get out.

One of the ways I do that is by organizing my friends into lists so that I can keep up with people based on the nature of our friendship (friends from High School, friends from Church, colleagues and networking “friendlies“).  Then, when I want to see what my Church friends are doing, I’ll check that list.

Note: I also use lists to control who can see me as “online” for Facebook chat.

I Realized it was Missing

Or at least I did until the recent Facebook layout change.  In fact, the new Facebook home was enough of a redesign that I forgot that I couldn’t find my old filters.  Until today.

Today, Steve posted a status update on Facebook that reminded me that of how I used to be intentional about my time on Facebook.  Thanks to his insight I remembered how things used to be.  And I was a little sad that it was missing.

My Quest

But, since I figured there must be a way to get that functionality back, I set out on a lunchtime quest to find my lost tools.  And boy was I glad when I found that it was right there under my nose the whole time.

It turns out that it was right there under my nose the whole time.  All I had to do was filter for “Most Recent” and use a drop-down menu I’d never noticed before.  There, right in front of me were all of my “missing” filters from the Facebook home page (see below).

Now You Know Too

So, now you know, too.  If you want to be intentional and purposeful about how you spend your time on Facebook, I recommend Friends lists.  And if you were wondering where your Facebook home page filters went, they’re right there under your nose, just waiting for you to call them back into action.

How about you?

Any Facebook hints you’d like to share?
Any observations on the new Facebook layout?