Simplifying Technology or saving time for the right reasons

Quite often I’ll refer to myself as a being a reluctant geek and a walking contradiction. I’m a tech because I have a natural ability for it, not because its my passion, and I’m a walking contradiction because I would be happiest living in a Yurt, off-grid, by the water somewhere outside of town rather than in a technology charged environment. Its not that I dont like computers or technology but in the 20 plus years that I’ve been doing it for a living I have seen it go from being an idea of positivity to a reality of negativity.

What do I mean by that?

Two things best demonstrate my point.

The first being, computers were supposed to save us all a lot of time and make things easier for us at work. Instead of being able to do a weeks work in three days and have more time for living, for family, friends and all the good things in life, we are no expected to do two weeks work in one. As a result were working longer AND harder than ever before.

The second is, when was the last time you heard someone sing the praises of their PC for making things easier and less stressful? It doesn’t happen. As a rule people are frustrated by their computers, not empowered. The constant need to upgrade and replace and invest in overwhelms the useful little things we can use out computers for.

There are a hundred little tools and pieces of software out there that we can use to enhance our life and make tasks easier, and of those I am a big fan. What I don’t like is the fact that almost without exception these tools are employed, not to give us time, but to take time away. We take time away from one task purely to let us fit in another one.

Remember when we used to be in the middle of something and if people asked us to do something else we could just ask them to wait? Remember when if we weren’t in we were just out? Nowadays we try to multi-task like the very computers that sap our energy all day. Now if you phone someone and they’re not in, they’re reachable on their cell or pager. As a result we are all working all the time, its almost impossible to unhook, to disconnect and switch off.

So what’s the point, and how does this fit into the whole simplification theme?

Well tonight I made a decision, just before I sat down to write this as a matter of fact.

I love all these little tools that make my life easier but like everyone else I’ve used them to make my life busier. Well no more. If I find a piece of software that allows me to do an hours work in half an hour then I’ll use it but I will keep that half hour that I saved to myself. No more doing two days work in one, to hell with that. Life is too short to work myself into an early grave or live a life or all work and no play.

I don’t want to be more productive but I do want to produce the same amount in less time. Clients get their work done in less time for the same money so they don’t lose anything. I get paid the same amount so I don’t lose anything. And in the end I get more time to spend doing the things I really enjoy in my life.

Now doesn’t that sound more like the kind of life that computers were supposed to bring us?