When Addictive Technology Becomes An Obstacle To Productive Time Management
Technology grows ever more dominant in the work place. They took hold because they had the capability to increase productivity and improving time management. Yet rather than being tools that benefit you and free up more time, many of them have instead become time consumers of themselves.
You find yourself involved with technology during major portions of each day. The problems arise when it becomes hard to reach a stopping point and say, “Enough for now!” The word ‘addiction’ is creeping in with reference to several areas that can insidiously consume chunks of time every day.
Just as with substance abuse, people discover that it becomes difficult to cut back. They may become restless and anxious when they do so. Analyze your current situation with regard to three areas in determining if these assets might be creating addictive tendencies in your life.
Internet
- 1 in 20 adults say their relationships have suffered from excessive use of the Internet.
- 12% say they stay online longer than they would prefer.
- 14% claim it is difficult to stay offline for long.
Problems: When you find yourself looking at a specific website, do you then keep on clicking, seeing an interesting but unrelated link, which leads to another and another…. There is so much vying for your attention on every site that it is easy to become distracted. You are unaware of how many minutes are flying by-minutes you should have been devoting to something else.
Solutions: Decide in advance why you are on the Internet.
- Researching a specific topic? Stop when you are done. Do not let all the advertisements lure you from your targeted agenda.
- Checking the latest news, blogs, etc? Set a timer and stick to a predetermined number of minutes.
Electronic messaging has become one of the more time-consuming, and often overwhelming, aspects of the workplace Managing the flood of mail is often cited by employees as their biggest challenge.
Problems:
- You devote a significant portion of time first thing every morning to sorting through your inbox and trying to figure out what it is you should be working on today.
- You check email every time you reenter your office throughout the day.
- When a new message arrives, you stop what you are doing to deal with it.
- Several times per day you scroll through your inbox again, worried that you might have overlooked something.
Solutions:
- Schedule two or three blocks of time each day to deal with just email.
- Have folders set up within your software program for daily action items, reference files, and temporary-hold items.
- Make an immediate decision on every message coming in and drag it to the appropriate folder.
- Put a time limit on these sessions and stick to that to ensure that you are prioritizing.
Electronic devices
Cell phones, PDAs, iPods, and other communication devices can help you keep in touch and even work in locations that normally would not be considered work spaces, adding to daily productivity.
Problems:
- You feel you must have the newest technology in each field.
- Once you get a new device, it seems to be taking more of your time rather than freeing you.
- You are not using all of the features of your current device, either because you did not really need them or because you have not had time to study how to program the tool.
Solutions:
- Before purchasing the latest and greatest, decide whether it would work better for you than what you already have.
- Schedule a block of time to sit down and learn the features.
- Determine when you want to be available, and turn off the tracking mechanisms for personal hours.
If you find that you are spending a disproportionate amount of time in any one of these three areas, look for ways to cut back. When you devote specific blocks of focused minutes on one activity at a time and predetermine the number of minutes, you will discover that rather than cutting into your daily productivity, you will be getting more done, keeping addictive tendencies at bay, and providing yourself with added personal time.
Key Organization Systems, Inc., 2008
As a productivity trainer and organizing specialist, Denise Landers helps businesses, governments, and educational institutions develop effective time management strategies to maximize daily productivity and minimize stress. Receive free professional time management tips at Productivity Today.
Provided by: Mobile device news
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