Since business is business, I made sure that I took care of that first. Meetings had to be done in person because the client has not moved into the computer age yet. I know it seems hard to believe but, not everybody feels comfortable sitting with a computer screen in front of them.
Since I had completed my work before I left for my trip, I felt relaxed and I looked forward to meeting with my client. The first day on the road I didn't find need to check in with facebook. I had notified everybody that needed to know that I would be away and scheduled accordingly. It was especially relaxing.
I was offline and tech free! It was a novelty but, even though I was traveling with others it got lonely. They didn't take the time to experience life as our client does and the phone calls and messages poured in causing heavy sighs of disgust and cranky attitudes that I couldn't really relate to because after all, I was tech free, baby!
We checked into the hotel and the young lady at the front desk made me feel so welcome that toward the end of my stay I asked for her name so that I could let her manager know how kind she had been to me. She really did have an impact on my trip, especially since she answered my questions and laughed at my stupid jokes but, my travel partners didn't notice much about her because they were so busy with their smart phones.
Before the official meeting, I told my travel partners we should not use cell phones during the meeting. Everyone agreed that it would be best and we all went into the meeting tech free. It was the best meeting I have had since I started GHC. There were no interruptions and nobody's mood changed because they took a quick glance at a text message.
For the remaining few days of meetings I maintained the tech free lifestyle. Actually, when my tablet had a little glitch that I know I could have fixed, I told the others I couldn't help but to be offline. Big deal, I kind of checked in but kind of was having fun experiencing the tech free life.
When I returned from my trip, I had a bunch of facebook posts to review and a few things that required immediate action. Just like I had expected, nothing was out of control.
As I reviewed facebook posts, mail and messages it occurred to me that there is a pattern. The people that I know that are willing to control their "tech" time seem to be happier. They also seem to be more productive and therefore are more relaxed when they are faced with a problem.
It makes sense that when we all focus our attention on the task at hand we are more productive. The constant interruptions take time to process and they are not anything to do with the original task.
I suggest you take a good look at how you spend your time with technology. After all, if we want to be in control, we need to know how to manage our time.
