Technology How To Make It Work For, Not Against Your Family

The latest electronic devices can either aid a more balanced life or they can cause stress. Instead of saving us huge amounts of time, modern technology often consumes our time. Further, advertising seduces us into a purchase by promising ease and freedom. But we walk a fine balance between saving time and wasting it. Sometimes we get so caught up answering our constantly ringing cell phones and checking our overflowing email boxes that we end up being trapped by the convenience it all.

Take the cell phone for instance. Its great tool to have in reserve for emergencies but if it’s always on and you’ve left your cell number on your home answering machine, aren’t you just inviting stress? When we casually give out our numbers we are effectively making ourselves open to interruption around the clock. Who wants to be continually interrupted? I sure as heck, don’t. Not only does this rob us of precious time, but it’s an invitation to abuse. When people are given permission to contact you 24/7, they will.

Modern gizmos, chosen and used wisely can be a blessing for families on the go. The busy families I polled told me they can’t fathom living without their modern conveniences namely their cell phone. Think for a moment about how you use your own modern conveniences. Is there a more efficient way of using the product to work for instead of against you?

Personally, my greatest realization came with the answering machine. We used to use it primarily for taking calls when we were out, until we discovered the benefits of letting it take messages during family time. It was a challenge not to automatically pick up the phone not to mention, ignore the incoming message. Overall, it has been a positive choice for us to not allow an untimely disruption ruin an otherwise quality moment.

As mentioned earlier, cell phones can be blessing or a curse. It’s all in the way you look at them. For on-the-move parents and children it replaces the beepers of old and it’s an ideal way to stay in contact. Your children can reach you instantly and you can give your cell number out discreetly to teachers, caregivers and teenage babysitters. It’s all in the way you set up your phone usage as to whether it is really adding or taking away stress from your life.

Just because other people choose to be available around the clock, doesn’t mean you have to be. Be discriminating with who you give you cell phone number out to. And, when you don’t want to be interrupted, don’t harbour guilt or hesitate to turn it off – especially when you’re driving.

And rather than allowing the phone to interrupt your work constantly, set aside a specific time to make and return calls. If you really don’t want to be disturbed, go so far as to turn down the ringer and rely on voice mail to keep you appraised of messages.

If you’re serious about freeing up more time for yourself or creating more balance in your life, start with your telephone use. Give some serious consideration to the amount of time you spend on the phone. Can you realistically scale it back? You may want to keep track of how long and how frequently you talk on the phone, say over a period of a month. Did you really have to talk to your friend for a whole hour when half an hour would suffice?

Make your telephone work for you. Maximize voice mail or answering machines to convey information rather than force others to play phone tag.

But with everything said and done, if you still need to use your cell phone frequently for business or to stay in connect with family members please use it wisely. Turn off your cell phone (pagers too) in restaurants, theatres and when using public transportation. Instead, view these situations as free time and a time to escape from the constant interruption of the outside world. Enjoy the reprieve. Not only is the use of cell phones an annoyance to others but it robs us of our own escape by forcing us to listen to a conversation we aren’t interested in.

What a great invention the answering machine was. You get all your messages, can return calls at your leisure, ignore calls you don’t want, and spend uninterrupted time without missing anything important. As I look at, I didn’t solicit the interruption so why do I automatically respond to it? One way to get over that sense of urgency is to keep track of your incoming calls for a day or two and make note of how you respond in non-convenient times. Don’t let a ringing phone rob you of any more precious time break the pattern now! If you’ve got a quick thought you need to share send an email (but first read next week’s column for the pitfalls of emailing).

Then there’s the cordless phone. Aside from using it to walk into another room for more privacy, how many of us use it to our advantage? Just think of how much more you would get done if you folded laundry or cleaned up around the house while you chatted.

Finally, there are the pros and cons of optional telephone features like call waiting. The upside is, it saves you from having to keep redialing when calling home to reach your teenager who spends a lot of time on the phone. The downside is, if you’re the one using the phone, you have do deal with the annoying beep each time a new caller rings through.

But, nobody ever said modern technology was perfect.