Staying DIS-connected

By Ed Avella
Campus Director & Dean of IT Programs

Between our use of social networking site like LinkedIn, our cellphones and email accounts, it’s pretty safe to say we are all well connected. That said, my daughter’s expectation of availability is wholly different than mine, as she responds to three am texts because she leaves her ringer on and she simply MUST chat about how her best friend’s date went!

There is the hypocrisy in my exasperation over my daughter’s zeal to OMG and ROTF her way deep into the night: Right now, I am writing this as my wife toe taps impatiently over me waiting to go to dinner with my Grandparents. You see, I took a “vacation day” to be with my Grandfather on his 91^st birthday, and I am sitting on the couch feverishly editing this because I was just struck with a stroke of genius and simply MUST put my thoughts to document lest they are lost.

Ok, the truth is I revised it because my wife thinks it was too verbose and I needed to get to the point. Of course, this little sidebar shows I really didn’t listen. Either way, I should be on my way instead of typing this.

My point? We must accept that the world has gotten much smaller, and to a large degree, this means time zones and even the clock no longer applies to the business of communicating. Technology makes it easier and easier for us to document our ideas as they strike, to the point where we can share them immediately. It is therefore equally likely our colleagues and coworkers are similarly connected and have just as immediately received our communiques and are already crafting a response.

At some point, and at the risk of continuing to annoy my wife, enough has to be enough. This is really a question of time management, isn’t it? As managers or support personnel, many of us face this problem. Our individual creativity is stifled in an inverse proportion with how little we are able to get away from work. What are you doing to effectively manage your time and separate yourself enough to recharge?