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Control of Technology Regained By Todd Duncan  I believe there are actions we can take to temper the technology traps that so often destroy our productive time. Here are five ways to accomplish this:
1. Shorten the Leash At High Trust Sales Academy (HTSA) events, I appoint one attendee to be the pager and cell-phone sheriff. I then tell everyone that if a cell phone rings while I am on stage, the owner has to pay a fine to the sheriff on the spot: $20 for a first offense, $40 for a second offense, and $100 for a third offense. Any money that is collected over the course of the three-day event is donated to a charity selected by the audience. You would not believe how big the pot swells. At a recent event, the attendees set a new record, doling out more than $1,200 in fines — several people donated on more than one occasion. You would think the attendees would turn their pagers and phones off — but many do not. It is because they are afraid they will miss an important call. Unfortunately, they are not set up to break free from their technological leashes. With most of us carrying at least two of the three — a cell phone, a laptop, or a PDA — we are attached to work 24 hours a day. As a doctor, police officer, or firefighter, this level of availability is necessary. For you, it is not. In fact, it is usually detrimental. One of the biggest traps of technology is the ability it gives us to work anywhere, anytime. I am not sure which is truer: Technology keeps us on top of things, or it keeps things on top of us. Only you know the truth. But when the latter is more accurate, you need to shorten your leash and give yourself time free from the threat of work interruptions. Otherwise, two things will continue to happen: You will never maximize productivity on the job, and the life for which you are working may never exist. 2. Substitute, Do Not Stockpile According to Newsweek magazine, "There are 1.5 billion mobile phones in the world today. Already you can use them to browse the Web, take pictures, send e-mail, and play games. Soon they could make your PC obsolete." I hope so, because the fewer tools we have to accomplish our work, the better. Will we ever have one technology tool that will allow us to do everything? The answer is not anytime soon. But the closer we can get to it, the better off we all will be. When you add up all the time you lose with technology problems, it makes sense to use your tools only as needed and not in unnecessary excess. You know what I mean. We buy technology tools all the time that we do not really need. We buy a new version of something we already have and continue to use the old one as well as the new. If you have to buy a new piece of equipment, get rid of your old one do not use both. Substitute, do not stockpile. Donate your old cell phone to a women's shelter, where they can be used for emergencies. Give your old computer to a nonprofit company or a college student you know. Let a coworker or customer have your old PDA. Use what saves you time, and do away with the tools you have replaced. Technology can save time, but there comes a point when the more you have the less time you save. 3. Ask Directions Men do not ask for directions (I know). Women usually do. So, maybe this particular piece of advice is more for my male readers. Either way, if you want to waste a ton of time, try to figure out how to use your technology tool on your own. I spent seven hours trying to learn how to use an MPEG Audio Layer 3 (MP3) player. It was a tool I bought because I can download lessons from the Web and listen to them on the road without having to keep track of several CDs. Not to mention, it is much easier to carry than a portable CD player. But because I did not know how to use the thing, I was seven hours in the red from the start. I should have taken advantage of the salesperson's knowledge and let him teach me. It would have taken fifteen minutes. Then, I would have been saving time from the start. Instead, MP3 technology has created a deficit of time. There is nothing genius about this piece of advice, but so few people use it. We buy technology tools and take hours teaching ourselves to use them. Then, to compound the problem, we never figure out how to use all the functions with which we could ultimately save more time. How many functions on your PDA, cell phone, or laptop do you not know how to use? See what I mean? Too often, we make the false assumption that technology automatically equals time saved, when the truth is that it only saves us time if we know how to use it effectively. The quicker you get to that place, the sooner you start saving time. 4. Test Your Tools' Efficiency Four years ago, I spent a lot of money for a very nice laptop. The thing had everything I thought I might need to get my job done efficiently at home or on the road. It had floppy, zip, and CD drives, a fifteen-inch screen monitor, and a top-of-the-line sound system with all the function buttons above the keyboard. It was heavy, but I figured it was a small price to pay for having an all-in-one computer that would increase my productivity. About three months later, I realized that I did not use half of what the laptop offered. Now, I was stuck lugging around this ten-pound box that was beginning to become a burden. In fact, I stopped taking it with me, because I dreaded carrying the thing. Besides that, I realized that all the software on it required a ton of memory and made it function slower. In the end, I gave the laptop to a friend who works from a home office and does not travel, and I bought a small laptop that offered only what I needed. I have been using it effectively ever since. We all need to evaluate the efficiency of our technological tools. We also need to be honest about what we discover. Do not keep something that just looks good but that gives you all kinds of trouble or has many useless functions. Do not hold on to something that does not do what it is supposed to do. It is wasting your time. Take your time researching the tool you think will give you the biggest boost in time, and then test it out. If it is a success, great — stay with it. If it is slowing you down, dump it for something that makes more sense. Better yet, do not rule out the option of doing things the old-fashioned way. Technology is not always more efficient than you. 5. Go Backward to Go Forward I recently sat in a meeting that concluded with the scheduling of another meeting. As soon as a date was mentioned, everyone checked their calendars. "I am available on that date," I replied, as I looked up from my paper calendar that is filled out in pencil. It was silent as everyone else pushed buttons and poked wands at their PDAs. About a minute later, they all chimed in that they were free. How free is another question. Sometimes technology is not better. It is just prettier. I know that there is a subtle pressure to have the hippest tools available. But if you can accomplish something more efficiently without a tool, do not get a gadget because everyone else has one. Besides, retro is fashionable these days. It is a fashion trend in clothing, cars, and housewares. Why can't it be in technology, too? Reprinted by permission. Time Traps, Todd Duncan, copyright 2005, Thomas Nelson Inc., Nashville, Tennessee. All rights reserved. |
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