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Keeping
In Touch Electronically
How
connected are we to our inboxes, voicemail,
offices, email pals, wired friends,
and other electronic specters? Answer
this question: After someone asks
how your vacation was, what's the
next question out of their mouths?
For me, it's always this: "How
many emails were waiting for you when
you came back?"
Not too many, I'm sorry to say; I
was checking email the entire trip.
Taking It With Us When We Leave It
All Behind
Despite our protestations to the contrary,
all too often we're taking it with
us when we try to leave it all behind.
The average carryon doesn't contain
only a sweater and a change of clothes
suited to the climate at our destination
anymore - it includes a PDA; a laptop
with converter/phone line/extra battery;
a cellphone, a pager, phone cards,
email passwords, etc. etc. etc. And
even if we have the courage to step
away from that info portal and data
stream, we can feel as much adrift
as liberated.
And it's not just because we're afraid
to stop working. Staying connected
doesn't always mean working - the
torrent of information, gossip, and
email idling can sometimes seem like
work and be anything but.
Recently a colleague went on vacation
during a very busy period of the year.
He had planned the two-week vacation
for months, and was attending a wedding
overseas, so they certainly weren't
going to reschedule because he was
in the middle of a negotiation.
He told colleagues, friends, and family
that he wouldn't be checking email,
phone messages, or with assistants.
He did make one concession: he gave
out phone and fax numbers of his hotels
in Europe.
The result: he received not one phone
call, came home to an almost empty
email box, and was caught up in a
day.
I'm not advocating ditching your responsibilities
and work to disappear from the data
trail entirely. I couldn't give that
advice, because I don't take it myself.
I'm simply saying that life will go
on if, just for a few days, you cease
perpetually clicking the Check Mail
icons; you turn off your cellphone;
you stop dialing into your voicemail
at every unoccupied payphone.
Choose Your Weapon and Stick With
It
The torrent of new gadgets once seemed
full of promise for me; from the lowly
pager to your own hard-drive on the
Net. But as these gadgets came and
went, showed up in all the tech, biz,
and lifestyle departments in an endless
parade.
Even the novelty of my cellphone has
waned; when once I reached and surpassed
my monthly time allowances regularly,
now I'm literally hours short.
Phones. PDAs. Pagers and portable
computers. Push-button technology
to the end of our days.
My advice: Pick One.
For me, the laptop does it. The killer
travel app of the laptop, email, is
versatile (I can send and receive
faxes, check any number of email addresses,
even receive voicemail) and asynchronous
(I can read and answer on my time).
If I've prepared correctly, anything
I need to respond is right on my laptop.
If you're not tethered to your computer,
a PDA or simply a cellphone with a
load of numbers stored in memory might
do the trick just fine.
Only Dis-Connect
Most of us are looking for some middle
road between accessibility and privacy.
There are ways to stay connected without
disappearing entirely.
Some essential tactics:
1) Set up a vacation/out-of-office
email auto-reply. Most folks, once
they see one of these, will leave
you alone for a few days.
2) Change your voicemail messages.
Let folks know that you're not available,
and the day of your return. (One exec
I know adds a day to his return date
- if he's back on a Monday, he'll
say Tuesday to buy some time to catch
up, and will return calls on Tuesday.)
3) Give out only hotel and fax phone
numbers. If there are potential emergencies,
and you are absolutely indispensable
at home, give out hotel phone and
fax numbers. Colleagues and friends
who wouldn't think twice about sending
an email or leaving a phone message
or calling your cell to chat with
you on the beach will never go so
far as to leave a message with a real
human being.
I recommend this even if you travel
with a cellphone.
4) If you tell people you'll be checking
messages, they'll expect you not only
to check messages, but to consider,
return, and act upon all messages.
As if you were at work.
5) Pick choice words in all vacation
announcements (voicemail or email).
"If your problem is URGENT;"
"If this is an EMERGENCY…"
6) Cellphone voicemail. Use it. Just
because the phone rings doesn't mean
you have to pick it up. If you are
in a meeting or already speaking to
someone, unless you are expecting
an important call, to answer another
phone is outright rude. If I sound
old-fashioned, so be it; I'm simply
not sure at what point a ringing phone
became a reason to stop in your tracks.
7) Unsub from all wire services, professional
mailing lists, new book release notifications,
hobby listservs, anything that dumps
messages into your email box
without prejudice. You're likely going
to delete it all without reading it
anyway, and it's likely going to crash
your email app, so just get it over
with. And if your service starts bouncing
mail back to listservs, you're going
to be extremely unpopular.
8) Don't give out all your numbers.
On days when I'm on the road, I've
come home to the following: a message
on my home phone that says "I'll
call your office." A message
on the office phone a few minutes
later that says "I'll call your
cellphone." A message on the
cellphone that says "Where are
you? I left a message at your home
and office." Then they got online,
and left an email.
9) Return calls after office hours
(or during business hours if you're
calling a residence). Many problems
can often be solved by simply leaving
a message, but if you call during
business hours and actually get someone
on the phone, it can be very difficult
not to be dragged into whatever is
happening.
10) Make all your contacts at the
same time. If you absolutely must
check in, do it in one fell swoop,
and be done with it. Fire up your
computer, check your email and voicemail,
return calls and email, and make notes
in a single sitting. If you spread
it out in small episodes throughout
the day, you're never really away
from it.
Things to Leave Behind
1) The extra battery. Outlets are
everywhere.
2) Redundant technology. Checking
email with the cellphone, phone messages
with email, all of them with PDAs,
leads to unparalleled data clutter.
My advice, as mentioned above: pick
your app, and stick to it.
3) Email addictions and other habitual
behaviors. The early morning email
check, the late evening email roundup
- these tend to cut into the very
best times of the day, the time you
should be reclaiming, especially if
you are on vacation.
4) Overactive vocal cords. Please,
no reason to shout into your cellphone
so we all know how important you are.
We won't like you any less if we don't
know all your business, and in truth
don't care about your business, really.
Trust me.
The Low-Tech Option
On one recent two-day weekend trip,
I hauled a full laptop, complete with
a tangle of connectors and cables,
a cellphone, an address book, a tape
recorder, and a printed/emailed/memorized
to-do list, all so I could do about
90 minutes work. And that work wasn't
even very efficient. As a matter of
fact, it was a waste of time, energy,
and patience, as well as carryon space.
On my next trip, I'm bringing one
essential tool: a notebook.
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