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Wednesday, April 13, 2011
Elective Connectedness vs Interruptive Connectedness
by: Adam Boettiger
DigitalMinimalism.com
On When I Want to Be vs Always-On
One of the things I do here is to conduct experiments
on myself. For the past three months I've been testing
a strategy that I've tentatively coined, "Elective
Connectedness". Technology and being connected are not
in and of themselves, bad things. I write this from my
MacBook Air. I have a smartphone (currently a Droid X
on Verizon). So I am most definitely not someone who is
opposed to being "connected".
And yet, it's not until we become Over-Connected that it
seems to become detrimental to us. Or to me at least.
Beeps, blips, vibrations, phone ringing. At least once a
month I consider buying myself a "Dumb Phone". One that
doesn't have mobile web or apps and is just a phone for
talking. But as soon as I consider it, I start to miss
small things, like being able to access my bank account
from my phone to make transfers or pay bills.
I came to the conclusion several months ago that Smart
Phones are not the problem. The problem is "us". Our
insatiable appetite for data and information; and our
fear of "missing out" on ...something. So three months
ago I decided to conduct an experiment I called "Elective
Connectedness". It's quite a simple, but powerful concept:
Elective Connectedness: Rather than being "Always-On",
waiting for the latest email message to sound the
alert on your Blackberry, Droid or iPhone, you simply
put your phone into "Silent Mode" and turn off the
vibration in the profile settings, choosing to check
it when you want to, not when it wants you to.
The first day it drove my wife nuts because I had forgotten
to tell her I was conducting connectedness experiments on
myself. "Why aren't you answering your phone!? I've sent
you 10 texts! What's going on!?" she said as I walked in
the door having simply gone to the grocery store.
She now knows about it, so I don't get questioned as often;
but the simple act of keeping my Smart Phone in Silent Mode
has had a profound effect on my ability to focus these past
few months. I'm still very reachable. I still check email
from the road. I can still use apps and yes, make bank
transfers.
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But I do all of this when I want to, and without any
interruptions. There is a huge, huge difference between
allowing your mobile device to interrupt you every five
minutes, and you choosing when to use your mobile device.
This strategy of Elective Connectedness is, in my opinion,
how we should all live our lives.
You get the benefit of mobile connectivity on an as-needed
basis, without the disruptive, productivity-killing nature
of being interrupted every five minutes to check your
phone. All of my text messages, email messages, tweets and
more are all there ? trust me. They're just there when I
choose to look at them.
You can do this too. In fact, I'd encourage you to try it
for a week. It does require a certain amount of "letting
go", of realizing that no, you're not an open heart
surgeon on call, and thus you don't have to look at your
mobile device every five minutes. Which is a bit of an
ego deflater, but you'll quickly get over it.
And yes, it is okay to be unreachable. In fact, it's
wonderfully refreshing. I've had more face to face
interaction with my wife because she'll come actually
talk to my face when I don't reply to a text message
immediately.
Maybe, just maybe, this is why people had more face to
face and quality interaction prior to the advent of smart
phones than they do today. With Elective Connectedness
though, it's quite possible to have your cake and eat it
too. Don't tell anyone about this though; because once
word of this gets out there could be a HUGE surge of
productivity at companies around the globe.
This'll be our little secret, okay?
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About Adam Boettiger
Practicing digital minimalist living in Portland, Oregon.
I have a love/hate relationship with email. I write as
often as I can, enjoy reading and also love to scuba and
skydive. Follow me @minimalism
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Questions? Comments? Email me at: quote (at) Quotes2u.com
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