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Are You In Control, Or Is Your Technology Controlling You?

Owner
Wyatt
One day I got to hear the following conversation:

First guy: "Wow, is that the new BlackBerry?"

Second guy: "Yes, I love it."

First guy: "I'll never get one of those things. If I do, I'll never stop doing email."

Well, do not you think, we have changed our work patterns to believe that email communication is the most important and highest priority for focusing our time. Tjis is may be because, many of us have become customer service representatives, whose sole job is to respond to email communication.

Most of the information age workers indulge in their daily routines as though the best way to accomplish their goals is to process emails quickly. It is indeed a busy work. Setting aside the obvious problem of being busy but not effective, (effective being accomplishing work that will help you achieve your goals), being hyper-responsive sets an unreasonable expectation for those who interact with you. For example, take this out of office notice from a very senior corporate officer: "I'll be away from my computer for the next two hours. I'll respond to your email when I return."

You may be thinking, "What's wrong with this approach -- leaders are supposed to be responsive." Yes, that is true, but they are also supposed to be proactive and deliberate in their actions -- not reactive. Allowing email traffic to dictate your focus and the use of your time is a highly reactive state and, frankly, does not bode well for proactive leadership.

The man who is afraid of a BlackBerry actually has a different issue to wrestle with: his personal responsibility to make good choices with the use of his time and energy in order to accomplish his goals. To blame the technology is an excuse to not be accountable for your own actions.

Here is the solution:

  • Accept that you are responsible for how you spend your time and your energy
  • Know that you have the power to choose when to engage with technology
  • Set limits around accessing technology -- for email I recommend three visits a day, early morning, noon, and late afternoon
  • Turn off the devices when you are with people -- give people a higher priority than technology
  • Focus on one thing at a time

Technology has been good for our economy. And it can be very good for your life, if used properly. The point is that use technology to serve you, not the other way around. This of course needs one to make deliberate choices of when to engage with technology so that it aids in your accomplishment of what is most important in your life. Remember, you own it, it does not own you.

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