Why I threw out my Crackberry?
I-Phones, Droid, SmartPhones, Blackberries, Crack. They all create the same madness. Awesome functionality I admit, but are they beneficial? Do they increase productivity and save you time?
My last phone had web browsing, gps, email, games, video, touch screen, text messaging, every app you can think of and great reception. Awesome right!? I threw it in the toilet. I was at an airport recently, looked around and was astonished. Roughly half of the people were buried in their phones like it was the most interesting experience of their life. Fast forward 1 hour, they were still buried in their phone. I did the same at the mall, a restaurant, grocery store, even driving. People are addicted to their phones like it is the most wonderful thing on the planet! What were they doing that is so awesome?
Wasting time in a complete trance is what they were doing. Email, Facebook, Twitter, constantly checking news, scores, weather, playing games, apps, etc. I like a lot of the functionality of these technologically advanced phones. I do not like 117 interruptions a day. Who needs to check their email, the weather, sports, the stock market, etc more than a few times a day? Most check them 10-20 times a day which is completely unproductive. Have you ever added up how much time you are buried in your phone per day? I bet you would be amazed. Most spend more than 2 hours a day. These are the same people who claim to not have time for their family, exercise, to get important tasks done, etc. What could you do with an extra 2 hours per day?
Exercise: Take out a piece of paper and write 3 goals that you must achieve today. Begin to complete these goals. Tally up every time you are interrupted by your phone. You may tally up the total time you are on your phone or multiply the number of interruptions by 10 and that is approximately how much time you have wasted by submitting to the irresistible euphoria of the Crackberry! Every interruption you have to refocus on your task not to mention the time for all the additional things you do on your phone.
Email is meant for communication that is usually not an emergency and ability to communicate to multiple recipients. In case of emergency, CALL! Try limiting email and text messaging to 10 minutes per day. You may have to ignore many emails but I bet you will not lose any sleep over removing those time wasters which makes up roughly 80% of your emails per day.
Here is what I recommend: Turn off all notifications for email and text messages. Remove yourself from 80% of the periodic emails by opting out. Every time you pick up your phone or are on email/text ask the following question "Is what I am about to do so important that it is helping me achieve the 3 daily goals I have set?" After about 3-5 days, you will have kicked the nasty addiction of the Crackberry. You will have more time, better focus, increased productivity and a sense of freedom to achieve much bigger goals. Or you can spend it doing what you want with whom you want.
Additional recommendations: Do not answer calls were you do not know the caller or that is not an emergency. Schedule a daily block of time for email and phone. You will communicate that you check and respond to email and voicemail during this block of time daily. If an emergency, call your cell phone. Put this in your email signature, an auto response email and on your voicemail. It works best when you have 2 phone lines, one that goes to voicemail and one cell phone that is for emergencies.
You will be amazed at the positive result and increased productivity. And a side note, I got so much satisfaction from throwing my Crackberry in the toilet! I now have a phone that has excellent reception and when I absolutely have to use email I can.