NoelHeikkinen.com

Technological Moderation

Jun 12, 2009 Print This Post

Last weekend at Riv, I talked about moderation as a method of dealing with our Craving for Experience. One of the big questions I have received several times since then has been about technology. Apparently, people know what a tech-geek I am, so they want to know how to be moderate in their use of tech.

I don’t claim to have all the answers, but since this is one of the areas that can get out of control in my life I thought I’d share some things I do. I’ll break this post down into the categories I have wrestled with the most.

Correspondence in Moderation
Because of email, texting, phones, voice-mail, etc, we are constantly barraged with correspondence. Much of it is spam, much of it is brainless drivel (i.e. – nearly anything forwarded), and a bit of it is useful or necessary. Here are the steps I have taken to live with moderation in this area:

1. I turned off all “notification” and “push” services. Just because your iPhone / Crackberry / Google Account / Twitter has the ability to alert you every time you get a new message doesn’t mean you have to use that service. Turn it off. Every time you get interrupted by one of these notifications, you waste precious time and it takes a long time to get back to what you were doing.
2. I set up two email accounts. This may be one of the most important steps for me. I have a personal email address that I change from time to time that only a handful of people know about. Once too many people know about it, I change it. Simple as that. All other email goes to a public account that is checked first by my assistant. She responds to what she can, and sorts the others into folders based on the content of the email and how quickly I need to get to it. If you don’t have an assistant, you can use filters to do the same thing (although not quite as well).
3. I set specific times to check my email. I check my public email account twice a day. I check my personal email more frequently, but I never ever leave either account open if I am not working on email. That way I don’t see email that I feel I have to respond to right away. Ignorance is bliss.
4. I try to keep my email responses to 7 lines or less. The more you type, the more the person will type back. It’s a non-scalable system. A quick note lets someone know you got their message, and often that is enough.
5. I don’t give out my cell phone number. There are some people who need my phone number and a small handful of friends who I want to have it. Other than that, I keep it private. I also set up the feature that blocks my Caller ID when I am calling someone. I don’t do this to be rude but to keep me sane. My phone barely ever rings now.
6. My outgoing voice-mail message at the church refers people to my assistant or email (which goes to my assistant first anyway).

Reading blogs in Moderation
I am addicted to reading blogs. I could easily waste my day with them so I have had to set up a very strict system. It all starts by using Google Reader to manage the blogs I read. In fact, you can see all the blogs I read regularly here. I have them set up in very specific categories, starting with:

1. Daily Reads – These are the blogs I don’t want to miss. I read through these one time a day, usually right when I get into the office.
2. Daily Skims – I buzz through these pretty quickly looking for anything that peaks my interest.

These are the only blogs I read on a daily basis. I have hundreds more set up in different categories and if I need a break or it is my day off, I will take time skimming through them.

Facebook / Twitter in Moderation
These great social networking tools can suck you dry if you let them. Don’t let them. One of the key steps is turning off the notifications like I mentioned earlier. Here are some other steps:

1. Create custom feeds on Facebook’s home page – This allows you to see only the posts you want to read. You can always switch over to the standard feed when you want to catch up with everyone.
2. Block any app request you get in Facebook – I get a bazillion requests in Facebook to install some dumb app or another. I click “Block this Application” every time and slowly but surely the requests dwindle away.
3. Use a Twitter app (I use Tweetdeck) to sort the people you follow - This is the same principle as the custom feeds in Facebook.

Computer / iPhone use in Moderation
It is a constant struggle for me to be “present” for my family when I go home. I try simply to leave my computer in it’s bag and my iPhone on the piano as soon as I get home. The instant I pick up one of them up, it is all over. I am locked into it and ignoring my family.

Anyhoo, I hope this helps a bit for you. Please post any other suggestions you may have here. I would love to be able to learn from you.