Is the information overload killing you?

It was a conscious choice not to become a “crackberrian.”  Among my friends that makes me an anomaly. I am aware of course, of the life advantages of the little black box clutched in your hand with the same tenaciousness the way a baby does an umbilical cord. The blackberry keeps you connected. Switched on. Clued in.  But I swore a long tine ago never to become one those people.

You know who they are. They are the ones who take their cell phone to church and put it on vibrator. They are your friends who are in a conversation with you, but, as you're obviously not holding their interest, take the call from the phone that's ringing  Rhianna’s latest hit and continue to talk to whoever's on the other end. They are the people who are sitting in a restaurant and checking voicemail every 15 minutes. They are the business person who takes another call when in fact-to-face meeting with you. They are people who are not in the moment but always looking to see, "What's next? What else should they be doing?"

Most of my resistance to being constantly plugged in came after I took stock of my work day. When I get in at 5:00 am, I wade through 25 to 30 e-mail messages. I move onto voice mail, which is limited, thankfully, to accepting only 2 messages since I last checked it. Afterward, I check a handful of websites, mail and other paper-based notices from my assistants also need my daily review. I do all of this within a 2 hour time-frame. Which would be perfect, if only for the fact that I have to repeat this process several times during the day and also deal with a continuously ringing cell phone which keeps me in touch?

I am not alone. In a global survey of over 1,700 business communications professionals (conducted by the International Association of Business Communicators of which there is a T&T Chapter) an overwhelming majority of respondents (85%) said that email overload was taking over their life and having a negative effect on their productivity.  The negative effect was even higher (93%) for users of Blackberry devices and other personal digital Assistants (PDAs). 62% of  respondents said they received too much email with 81 % saying that their email was always left open which means that they were continuously  wired to a virtual mode of communications.

At some point all the information from so many sources becomes too much to handle. Fore me, professionally being in constantly connected in the workplace, while very useful, robbed me of the necessary silent time to reflect on  my business, where we were and where we were going. Personally, with a daily to-do list a mile longer than Wendy Fitzwilliam’s legs and the constant deadlines, it became easier and easier to move away from my centre and subscribe to the mistaken the belief that busyness authenticated my presence in the world.

Of course there are many ways to take back control. Information filters can help with the volumes of data, screening  out less-than-critical messages and preventing an overwhelming amount of data from being thrown at you. Deleting your name from list servers is another way to limit the influx of e-mail. And sleeping in bed without the blackberry on the pillow next to you (I swear a business associate told me he does this) must also be helpful.

But for me, the most important solution has been to continue the human, face –to –face  connection in my important  relationships, whether business or personal. After all, these relationships are the very things that provide the energy that vibrates through my life. I’ve found that you can never stray too far from what is really meaningful before losing connection with yourself , everybody else and the things that really matter. And when you've lost that, neither b-mobile nor the best Digicel hookup can bring it all back.