He checked his cell phone

He looked at it. Again and again and again. Which caught my eye.  Sitting in a fast food place yesterday after a short shopping binge,  I was watching a guy seated across from me. In the time it took for him to eat his french fries, he looked at his cell phone 25 times, and picked it up to text or surf twice.  In less than five minutes!

No wonder white-collar productivity is tanking.  I would bet he wasn’t even aware of his constant distraction. So what’s the harm? Distraction causes accidents. Distractions also mean we’re on “automatic” – not thinking about what we are doing.  For example, when we multitask while eating, we tend to eat more, since we aren’t aware of how full we feel.  They also slow down our processing – making us less efficient. We don’t learn things as well, and have a harder time recalling information learned when multitasking.

In addition to the risks and the decline in productivity, our constant need to “check in” with our technology takes us out of the moment. I know, sounds all new-agey. But it is true. We don’t know how to be just with ourselves, with out the distractions of technology. We don’t know how to be with our friends and family without constant connection to our virtual friends, family and customers. We don’t know how to let our ideas gel without the constant stimulation of texts, posts, tweeting and information. It feels like we need to fill every available minute with busy work.

We become used to constant stimulation to the point that we can’t focus for more than ten or twenty minutes at a time. We feel cut off without the contact. I always chuckle to myself when I see  couple out for a romantic date, sitting across the table from each other, not staring into each others eyes, but staring into the blue glow of their cell phones. It seems like they’re missing one of life’s great experiences.

When was the last time you just daydreamed? You know, stared out of a window, not thinking about anything?  Does everything need to be filled with busy? You can be busy, but not necessarily effective. The next time you pick up that phone, tablet or laptop, ask your self, “Will what I’m about to do make a difference?” If not, maybe you should put it down and just enjoy your french fries.

Working Effectively: Step Away from the Cell Phone!

I laughed out loud (LOL) when my karate Sempi Julia posted the sign to the right on her FaceBook profile.

In humour, there is a germ of truth. Every day I see people crossing busy intersections with ear phones, blue tooth ear thingys, or madly typing away on cell phones.  Unfortunately this lowers their awareness of what is happening around them.  The result?  A big increase in the likelihood of a pedestrian/car accident.

Lack of situational attention (caused by use of gadgets) also increases the likelihood of being attacked.  Self-defense instructors emphasize that the best way to defend ones self in a personal attack, is to not get into the situation in the first place.  How do you do that?  By being aware of what’s happening around you, and adjusting your own behaviour/situation.  If you notice that you’re walking down a dark, unpopulated side street, you can get onto a more populated street, where it is less likely you will be attacked. If you are busy staring at your phone screen, you won’t notice the absence of people.

The problem with gadgets is that they reduce your situational awareness, because of divided attention.  Our brains cannot process two streams of information at the same time.  I’ve posted about the fact that texting reduces performance in learning environments. 

If you are busy listening to music, or texting, you just don’t see the car that just ran the red light, that is coming straight at you. Don’t believe me?  Watch this video.  

How to you manage your gadget addiction?  Some simple rules:

1. Don’t use gadgets when physically moving (okay, you get an exception on the treadmill).
2. Don’t use gadgets when listening or talking to someone who is physically present.
3. Give yourself gadget breaks — after 50 minutes of gadget free work, check your texts for ten minutes.
4. Disconnect for 24 hours.  See how it feels.
5. Block off chunks of time to work gadget free. 
6. Have gadget free meetings. 

The big challenge for all of us is to develop self-discipline when using gadgets. The sooner we do, the more productive and effective we’ll be.  So, “Step Away from the Cell Phone”.

Bad Social Marketing

Yesterday, I wrote a post about WalMart that wasn’t very flattering. As my posts are automatically promoted on Twitter, I received a tweet from @powermatdeals, offering me a coupon for powermats, because I was shopping at WalMart.

I have no idea why because they thought I was shopping at WalMart, I would want a coupon to buy a powermat online.  Aside from that, I wasn’t shopping at WalMart, I was annoyed with them for stupid, inaccurate, non-customized marketing.  And then powermat does the same thing, as a result of my rant about WalMart’s stupid online marketing.

So now I’m annoyed with Powermat for sending me an irrelevant Tweet.  Dumb social marketer.  Dumb.

150 Million Blogs and Growing

In the past, I have opined about my obsession with improving my blog stats.  I just found a new website called blog pulse that tracks all kinds of stats in the blogosphere.

Get this, as of August 16th at 7:15pm, there were almost 150 million blogs.  And over 89,000 blogs were created in the previous hour.

There are a whole slew of implications related to this finding.  First, although it’s easy to publish, it’s very hard to get readership.  Second, as a reader, it’s really hard to sift through the sheer quantity of blogs out there to find the great quality insights. It may be even harder to develop a followership than in the old school era of books and book tours.

Very few bloggers make any meaningful money from their efforts.  For most of us, a blog is a labour of love.

In the end, there will be many of us talking to the ether, with very few actually reading. There will be fewer of us who are able to talk to millions. With that kind of proliferation of publication, it’s amazing that anyone is reading my blog.  So thank you to my friends, family, and those whom I don’t know, who religiously read this little blog.