Solo Technology

Earlier today I had a minor stress fit and decided it was time to disable my little sidebar gadget that tells me when new mail arrives for three (3!) of my email accounts. One too many streams of thought destroyed by the ding and mad rush to check the new message(s).

The rest of the day was refreshing! No more urge to bounce a laptop off the wall either.

I’ve managed a half-arsed “inbox zero” at work for well over a year now, but I’ve always been a slave to the “ding” of new email coming in. Heck, I pride myself on being able to quickly respond to anything at anytime. It’s who I am and what my friends and coworkers have come to expect.

But ya know? If an issue is truly an emergency, why is it coming via email? Email is asynchronous. I guess I should coach folks to call me when things are truly critical, eh? Or at least text message.

If an email isn’t an emergency, surely an immediate response isn’t necessary or expected. Not when we all have phones, SMS/text messaging and a kabillion flavors of Instant Messaging.

Shortly after I turned off the email notifiers, I spotted a post titled, “Its OK to Disconnect” over at the Black Belt Productivity blog. Traditionally, this is the sort of article that would probably have caused me to snort and mutter, “common sense” into my beard while dismissing it.

But if it’s common sense, why am I not doing these things?

I went to the gym this evening before supper. My phone slipped out of my pocket while driving over and I didn’t realize it was missing until I was at the lockers.

I’m pleased to say that the “omg I’m not reachable” anxiety attack was minimal and I did not rush out to the parking lot to retrieve the phone. It was close — but I was saved by knowing that it was only going to be a 45 minute workout.

Baby steps. Just taking baby steps…

2 Responses to “Trying to be a bit less "Immediate"”

1. Light & Dark on February 1st, 2008 2:46 pm
   

   I’ve been working my head around the whole “unplugging” for periods of time at work too recently. I have a similar wide range of responsibilities, IT and network, marketing and web.

   There was a particularly interesting article in McLean’s Magazine recently on exactly this and how significantly our daily distractions (eswpecially email) interfere with effectiveness and creativity. The numbers will astound you. Intel is actually testing an enforced “Quiet Time” to try to provide a time for creativity-focused uninterrupted work.

   The article’s at
   http://www.macleans.ca/business/companies/article.jsp?content=20080109_25152_25152

2. Chris Kasten on February 1st, 2008 3:09 pm
   

   Good article! Thanks for the link.

   A recent study from the Universities of Glasgow and Paisley found that office workers check their email up to 40 times an hour, which is why a number of businesses — including Intel — are already experimenting with “No Email Day” initiatives.

   Holy crap.

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