Ah, technology. I love it, then I feel controlled by it and at times addicted – where’s my phone? We walk and talk, and drive and talk, and many of us sit with our friends and families while we continue to interact with people miles (and even continents) away from us, staring into a blue abyss.
I remember when I got my first business card with an email address on it. I thought it was so cool that I could communicate with someone instantly and they with me…until, well, anyone who could find your email address could get to you. Tech to the rescue! We created spam filters and the ability to block someone, but we still must check our junk folders for an important correspondence that did not land in the right place.
Scheduling a desired meeting is easier with tools like Calendly, which has saved me a lot of time not listing all the times that are open and then engaging in the back and forth with ‘what about these dates?’ Some of these tools are so easy that before you know it, you can have an entire day or week of back-to-back meetings.
Returning from vacation and checking my calendar for the next week, I saw that over half the week was already booked and my momentary post-vacation calm was obliterated. Worse, many blocks of time appeared to assume that I didn’t need to stand up and move for three hours chunks. As if the internet had been listening (wink wink), I received an email that asked if I would like to schedule time for focusing, i.e., time that will not be available to be booked. As I chose time each day for focusing and saw my calendar fill up with time I could do exactly that, I felt relief.
It’s so easy to say YES and accept the invite until we are so overscheduled that there is no time for contemplation or just a break from one meeting after another. There is a peril to saying yes directly or indirectly and the more overscheduled we are, I believe, the less our fully evolved and engaged selves can show up. So, look at your calendar and fill it with blocks of time to think, dwell or ponder, and let the resulting calm just be there. When I do this, I come up with more creative, well-thought through solutions and am more wholly connected to my co-workers, family and friends.
– Becky Sharpe, CEO
