Who’s In Charge Here?

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Let’s turn to email. During the working day, when I am in the office email is collected for me automatically by old faithful (also known as Eudora www.eudora.com). I can tell it to check for messages at time intervals from one minute upwards, and I choose to have a check on an hourly basis. I resist the urge to do a manual check in between times, instead using Eudora’s hourly beeps telling me there’s new mail to help organise working on it into neat gaps in my day, and to trigger short work breaks.

Working in the office invariably means being sat at a computer staring at a screen. This is not the best thing health-wise and the hourly mail check is my cue to stand up, stretch the legs, go stroke the cats, make some tea, or do something else that forms part of a five or ten minute break.

When out and about, a mobile device provides my email, but again, it does so when I am ready, and in general I ‘pull’ email down to it rather than letting it keep a constant check at regular intervals.

To all those of you thinking ‘Bah, it’s fine for her, she obviously doesn’t have a pressured life, or need to respond to things with any sense of urgency, or work to schedules other people set,’ let me clarify. As an IT journalist my working life is driven by deadlines set by other people. I need to keep up with the latest information, chase products, maintain oodles of working contacts and professional relationships, and generally making sure I am on the ball. I do a lot of communicating.

Also let me state that I deal with a steady and plentiful stream of emails every day, rain or shine, whether I am working in the office or out on the road. Many emails relate to work in the pipeline or potential jobs, and they do need to be dealt with in a timely fashion. The same goes for calls made to my mobile and landline. In general when people email or phone - for work or leisure - they have something to say, and they want – and deserve – a response in good time.

But the thing is, you have to show the tech who is boss.

Just because your phone rings or your mobile email device pings, you don’t have to jump. You’re a person, not a performing seal, and you have the capacity to make choices rather than just react to external stimuli. You need to stay cool, and find your personal ‘on’ and ‘off’ switches both for work and for other aspects of your life too. Really – getting in control does make you more productive and calmer too.

I have an expectation that one day I will be out with a group of people for a meal and suddenly they’ll all be either chatting away on their phones or fiddling with mobile email. Not me. I’ll be the one calmly discussing the relative merits of the sweets on offer with the staff, and enjoying actually living in the moment.

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