Now that I have your attention...
You love technology. It allows you to communicate in a nano second. It provides you with all kinds of groovy tools to do things faster than a speeding bullet. It’s more powerful than a locomotive. Okay enough of the superman analogies. Technology, which was supposed to make life super good, may be tricking us and making our lives super bad.
How you may ask. Consider the following:
Attention! – how many times do you look at your phone in a day, no really how many times? For a third of us it’s 25 to 50 times a day. According to author Daniel L. Levitin of the Organized Mind attention deficit is the new world order and focus is becoming its long lost cousin. If we can’t focus we’re not getting the really important work done that will take us forward in leaps and bounds.
Brain Candy – oh how your brain loves the “sugar rush”; the reward it gets when it responds instantly to a text, a post, an e-mail. It convinces you that you are really super productive when in reality you are doing the equivalent of rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. Not a priority when the ship is sinking and your projects aren’t getting done, your customers are leaving and your sales are tanking.
The Now Wow – patience is a virtue and something many of us now lack. We want immediate gratification, feedback, a response right now! Most things in life require a longer term to come to fruition and many of us just don’t think it should take that long. Note to self that is one thing that hasn’t changed.
So what can we do about it? Turn off or turn away from your e-mail, phone, mobile device for a dedicated amount of time each day. It will take time to reap the rewards of this new habit but eventually your brain will get back on track and welcome the rest. Your focus will improve and you’ll step out of fight or flight type A panic mode. Rest assured, there really is life outside of technology and ironically it can improve your performance and satisfaction.
Note – I am not advocating eliminating technology, I am suggesting you regain control and become the Master of it rather than its Servant.
