Be Out of Touch – And Enjoy It!
As the owner/user of an iPhone, an iMac and a MacBookPro,
plus a wireless connection in office and home, and in most public venues for
all of them, (plus a roommate who is similarly connected) I am somewhat
familiar with email, voice mail, live conversations and meetings through
various means including Skype, Google+, webinars with and without video and
conference calls. Add to this mélange of apparati the social media
network that includes one or more of the following social media -Facebook,
Twitter, Linked In, My Space and Google + - and you have activity that
sucks up a lot of time, attention, energy and resources. Yes, it’s how
people communicate, connect and do business and fills our calendars and schedules
with meetings, appointments, commitments and projects.
The phrase, “taking time off” is interesting because one cannot
really ever turn time off. What we mean is "time out" from the
usual and ordinary, perhaps to invest in the unusual and extraordinary.
Like it says in the old ads for Timex, it just keeps on ticking. One day, we will run out of time, or
walk out, or lie down and check out. Think of some of the amusing ways
people speak about time. “I didn’t have time to do it.” What they
really mean is they did not choose to take the time to do it, whatever “it”
was, but who is going to say that? How about this one?
“It’s time to eat.” That was my mother calling from the kitchen.
Whether you were actually hungry or not didn’t matter. It was “time” for
breakfast, lunch or dinner. One family I knew quite well, not my own, sat
down precisely at 5:30 PM every evening for dinner and everyone was expected to
be there and be on time. Being “on time” is highly important to many
people but different cultures regard that behavior with more or less
value. Personal priorities about being “on time” may also vary.
In certain cities in the U.S., it is not uncommon for
us to find timetables or daily schedules for buses or trains. If the bus is to
be at a certain stop at 10:09 PM, for example, one can expect that to happen at
the designated time, give or take a minute. For polychronic individuals such precise timetables
are mind-boggling, as many of them are simply used to going to the bus stop and
waiting – not knowing whether they will be waiting for five or forty-five
minutes. That is just the way things are.
This difference in time orientation is reflected in
the complaints of U.S. business people conducting business in Saudi Arabia or
in Mexico, for example. A big source of frustration for them is the difficulty
of getting through a meeting’s agenda. That is because in these countries
meetings begin with an extended socializing time in which time is spent
establishing social rapport – usually over many cups of coffee or tea."
We are often like Pavlov’s dog. The bell rings and we respond
whether by changing activities, answering a call or checking something in the
oven. We are conditioned and regulated by time. It’s “time” to go
to bed. It’s “time” to get up. It’s “time” to go to work.
It’s “time out” and “time” to start again. It’s “time” for the
meeting. It’s “time” to leave in order to get there in a reasonable
amount of time. It’s all about time and yet time is an invention, a
construct for our convenience and we are bound by it. How we measure time
and how we use it reveals an enormous amount about who we are as individuals
and who we are as a culture.
Here’s a phrase that amuses me because of the double entendre. “It’s
about time” we say, meaning usually that we have waited for some time for
something or other to happen and finally, it has taken place. Whether that
expresses gratitude, relief or annoyance depends upon the context. A
long-awaited package arrives at the door and we say, “It’s about time!”
And really, it is simply that it has taken longer than was expected or desired
for the delivery to be accomplished. Big deal! Get over it!
At least we got the package.
ßIn order to get more done in the same amount of time the phenomenon of
multi-tasking has appeared and it seems to have arrived in conjunction with the
advent of computers that are able to perform several functions at the same
time. Recent research at Stanford on multi-tasking shows that people who are regularly
bombarded with several streams of electronic information do not pay attention,
control their memory or switch from one job to another as well as those who
prefer to complete one task at a time.
High-tech jugglers are
everywhere – keeping up several e-mail and instant message conversations at
once, text messaging while watching television and jumping from one website to
another while plowing through homework assignments. But after putting
about 100 students through a series of three tests, the researchers realized those
heavy media multi-taskers are paying a big mental price.
When it comes to our brain’s
ability to pay attention, the brain focuses on concepts sequentially and not on
two things at once. In fact, the brain must disengage from one activity in
order to engage in another. And it takes several tenths of a second for the
brain to make this switch. As John Medina, author of “Brain Rules” says: “To
put it bluntly, research shows that we can’t multitask. We are biologically
incapable of processing attention-rich inputs simultaneously.” ( http://brainrules.blogspot.com/2008/03/brain-cannot-multitask_16.html)
When we are in situations
where there are multiple sources of information coming from the external world
or emerging out of memory, we are apparently not able to filter out what's not
relevant to our current goal. That failure to filter means we are slowed
down by that irrelevant information."
However, that said, there
are examples and instances that may show some exceptions and here is one such
illustration. The song, “The Time of My Life” which was the music and
lyrics used in the final scene of the movie Dirty
Dancing with Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey, was written by Frankie
Previte. Previte said: "I received a call from Jimmy Ienner
who asked me to write a song for this little movie. I told him I didn't
have the time and he said, 'Make time. This could change your
life.'" Frankie's former bandmate John DeNicola and his friend Don
Marowitz came up with the music for the song. Says Previte, "I received a
track from John and Donny and I wrote the lyric and melody for the chorus in
the car while I was driving along the Garden State Parkway, going to a studio
session for another song."
Here’s the message:
Making or taking time to do what is really important can change your life. The
question is, what is really important? You are!
In light of all this connectivity, our current offering is
an opportunity for a small group of people to unplug for several days and come
together in an old-fashioned retreat setting and see what we might make of this
kind of experience. It will be interesting to get some feedback on
the unplugged part of the Seminar and see how many were really able to stay
simply unplugged for most of three full days. Perhaps the only way to
accomplish that part is to go to a hermitage where there is no electricity, no
wireless, no cell service (global sat excluded) no land lines and make it a
true wilderness event. I will put it on my to do list and write it
out on a yellow note pad. Consider the SFLC event in April in Santa Fe, New Mexico! http://www.santafelead.org
© Gary Gruber 2013
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