 | Do you put your tech tools in their place? |
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 With the dog days of summer behind us and fall ramping up, many of us are busier than ever with our jobs, school, and family responsibilities. And, at the speed of our fast-paced lives, our technology tools are right there with us, keeping us connected and informed. As useful as smart phones, internet, social networks, and email can be in our daily lives, many of us are using them in a very automatic way without taking a moment to pause and think about their impact on the flow of our time. In some cases, technology tools are actually making us less efficient and we may be squandering more time then we're willing to aknowledge. Cell phone use is a good example. We may find we are very tethered to our telephones and are responding to phone calls at any time of the day or night. We have an impulse to attend to another person's needs on the phone no matter how much of an interruption it is from whatever else we are doing. And yet some of us have the opposite issue. Voicemail messages can build up and overwhelm us. We may run out of time in the day to return all those phone calls only to find that days go by before folks hear back from us. Technology tools are designed to to serve our needs and make our lives easier. To make sure they do, we can invoke our power of mindfulness and self-observation. Read on for a way to ensure that you are in control of your electronic machines and not the other way around. |
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Are you hooked on multi-tasking?
Contrary to what you might expect, a number of recent studies have shown that multi-tasking can actually make us less efficient and less effective than doing one thing at a time. And yet, the ready availablity of technology encourages us to respond to email while talking on the phone or to update social networking sites while attempting to simultaneously enjoy a concert or interact with family members.
Although devoting full attention to a single important task or conversation may be an ideal, most of us are not interested in giving up multi-tasking cold turkey. One thing we can do, however, is to take a closer look at our multi-tasking behavior in order to get a better grasp on it. Doing a little experimenting can give us a good clue into our relationship with technology and it's effect on our lives.
Try out this 2-day mini evaluation of your tech use. What you discover may surprise you.
- For the first day, don't change anything - just notice and log your patterns with regards to your phone, internet, and email use. Write down what you observe: do you check emails many times a day? How do you handle phone calls? Are you distracted during calls? How often do you "take breaks" by surfing the the internet? What about doing internet research? Do you tend to go too far with it? How much time are you actually spending online (besides what's absolutely needed for work)? Most modern electronic devices have a built-in timer. Use the timer during this day to track your actual internet use time. Don't just guess; time yourself!
- For the second day, try out "uni-tasking" to see what you notice. You probably will need to consciously slow yourself down to do this! Try checking email only at 2 or 3 planned times per day. With phone calls, if you are one to rarely answer the phone, try stopping whatever you're doing and answering a few times, focusing your attention only on the call. If your pattern is always answering the phone, try resisting the urge to pick it up. Focus instead on the task at hand; only checking voicemail at a few planned times during the day. At the end of the day, log your observations. What did you notice about your attention and your efficiency?
- After the two evaluation days, spend some time reviewing your log notes. How did it go? What surprised you? What did you notice about the quality of your interactions? How was your time management? What did you notice with regards to responding to messages? How did you see your internet use impacting your life? Does it enhance and support your work and your lifestyle or is it holding you back in any way? The final question to ask yourself is whether there are any small changes to implement that could have a significant positive impact for you.
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