Time to do everything-except think

A belated happy New Year to You all. As recent economic signs suggest a turn upwards with increasing strength in a number of leading indicators, let us all look forward positively to a successful 2002.

At this time of year we think about our New Year resolutions (most of which will already be broken bY the time you read this). Occasionally, I am asked for my cell Phone number. Many are shocked when I will not give it out. Although I carrY a cell phone, I decided about three Years ago that I did not need mY cell Phone going off every 10 minutes wherever I happened to be. You see, I had become a digital junkie, an addict. It seems I am not alone. As we sit in a cinema, church, or a restaurant, do we all really need to hear these phones going off non-stop? Have You ever looked around at a traffic signal to see almost every driver talking into a cell phone? It begs the question: do we all really need to be available everY minute of the waking day?

Similarly, it became too easy to spend half my time online. The thought of a new message just waiting for me, or discovering buddies I did not know I had, who might want to chat with me, made it compelling to get back online or check mY voice mail for the umpteenth time in the day.

At the time, I was getting uPwards of 30 voice mails a day and uPwards of 80 e-mails a day. Many were surprised to get e-mails from me at 3 a.m., and it didn't matter if I was in the U.S., the U.K. or any of l0 other ports of call. Colleagues thought it okay to call me at2 a.m.,5 a.m. or l0 p.m. regardless of the time zone I was in. This was technology in control of my life. No longer a tool, it was con- suming me.

Now I am sure that there are People who live in a state of perfect wireless-ness, who have mobile Phones around their necks all daY, and can download from the Internet, have Palm Pilots that play music, laptops that play movies, who can track inventory back at the mill. In other words, they can do everYthing and anything electronically anywhere, anytime. However. manY PeoPle become out of control with near paranoia if a call is missed.

For me, the realitY was that the more calls and e-mails I answered, the less effective I became-and I know that to be true of manY others. We are consumed with information overload and too many demands on our time. I found that I was doing instead of managing or, more importantly, creating. My communication skills deteriorated as I answered each in the shortest possible way.

Each of us needs more time to switch off and just plain think. Time needs to be spent efficiently, not frantically answering 50 messages most of which should not have been sent in the first place. I am a great believer in technology as a tool. The difference technology has made to run our businesses is almost incalculable. The ability to work share, taP into Customer Relationship SYstems (CRM), respond instantaneously to customer requests, check Prices, inventory and shipping times, get quotes, send specifications, as well as hundreds of other uses are what technology was meant to do. So mY resolution is to not only find time to think, but to use technology positively not negatively for what it is meant to be: a tool, not a master.

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Alabama

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Dixie Plywood

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