It makes me crazy. The constant texting, Facebook updates, emails from every source….I find it exhausting. And distracting. At the risk of sounding like my grandmother, I’m a bit nostalgic for the ‘olden days’. The days where I left my house and my phone calls, texts and emails didn’t follow me. When if I missed a call I wasn’t even aware of it until they called me back. IF they caught me on the home phone.
The constant expectation to be accessible has started to wear me out – I’ve noticed it taking a toll on my behavior, every time the phone rings I sigh, “Who’s interrupting me now??” I leave my phone on silent pretty much all the time and have just recently changed my text alert tone so that it isn’t so obtrusive.
Now all this isn’t because I don’t want to talk to or engage with people, it’s because in true Highbrow Hippie fashion I want to engage with myself. I am one of those people who actually enjoys being by herself. At WAX I’m always responding to emails, talking with clients or engaging with my staff. Some days I get to focus on the things that I want to get done that day, other days, not so much. Some days the emails, television, Facebook updates and text messages end up circling around in my head drowning out my own thoughts. Until I hit reset.
So I’ve put myself on a technology diet in the pursuit of being more productive and focused on doing what I want to do I’ve come up with a few strategies I’ve implemented:
1. I only check my emails twice a day. Once at 11 and then again at 4. During the week ONLY. Weekends are email free zones.
2. I turn my phone off one day out of the weekend and at night.
3. I stopped watching as much TV. This one has proven to be much harder than I anticipated. It’s always such a welcome distraction, so I’m considering getting rid of the entire thing.
And while I’ve noticed some pushback from people, “Did you get my email?” “Did you get my text?”. I’ve also noticed that as time has gone by, my friends and family have gotten used to the fact that sometimes I answer my phone and sometimes I don’t. If they don’t hear from me they know that I’m just listening to myself. Like a Highbrow Hippie should.
