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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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