You know you have technological stress when you can’t keep up with the newspapers and letters that come to work and home. Mobile phones that ring in restaurants make you want to scream and your workload continues to increase, since you are available 24 hours a day anywhere on the planet.
Welcome to the age of technology. An era in which computers and devices should free up our time but instead seem to rule us.
Recent news has focused on the PDA, the Blackberry as the ‘Crack-berry’. This was first mentioned by LA Times reporter Joe Robinson, author of Work To Live. He mentioned that addiction to this portable digital assistant is similar to the feelings a junkie has to break. Once a person uses this device, they cannot stop checking email, making phone calls, writing, and playing games with it.
Some entrepreneurs go on vacation and ‘bring their office’. Is it any wonder they burn?
If you think I’m scaling back, you’ve missed the finely pixelated point: these devices are great and can save us time, money, and help us find information. The trick is to control them, not for them to control us.
“How do we do that? Create a set of technology rules for the home and office.”
Try this:
Take out a sheet of paper and quickly write down your biggest time wasters. These can include: sorting email and spam, fax machines, too much time on the internet, too long to print a report, the list is endless …
Then try these rules to introduce simplicity into your life.
o Create a schedule. Limit the time people can communicate with you.
For example, you may be available to work by phone, fax, and email from 8:00 am to 6:00 pm every day, Monday through Friday. Evenings and weekends are prohibited except in emergencies.
Before Arnold Schwarzenneger became governor of California, he and Maria Shriver decided to put their answering machine on from 4:00 pm to 7:00 pm so they could have time for their family at home. This may be different now that he’s governor, but I think you get the idea …
o Limit your email time.
Limit the number of times you look at email. Choose early morning, noon, and late afternoon to verify messages. Just think of paper mail – you wouldn’t check it 20 times a day, would you?
o Limit your internet time: set a time limit before browsing.
Do your research and before you know it, you’ve linked to five sites and lost two hours.
o Buy the right equipment.
When considering new equipment, seek advice. Avoid buying that fancy new printer if the old one is all you need right now.
o Hire technicians.
If you are not interested in technology and your computer freezes when a report is due, it may be worth hiring an expert to fix your problem. Sometimes they are worth their weight in gold.
o Take a Techno-Escape.
Most of us run our businesses with a lot of digital devices and we need to take a break from time to time. Take 10 minute breaks when the pressure hits. Get up, stretch, get out of the office and out. Leave your cell phone at the office, talk to friends, or hide in your car and lower the seat for a few moments of peace and quiet.
Before applying these rules, I wasted my time checking emails 20 times a day (yes, I was addicted), surfed the internet too long, bought the wrong PDA, and tried to do all the technical programming myself. Talk about frustration.
If you follow these tips, you will never be a slave to technology again. And the positive side? You will have more time to earn money and enjoy a “real” vacation.
© 2005 Lisa Rickwood. All rights reserved.