All projects: Gel, Jobs, Gootodo, Games, Uncle Mark, Goovite, Blog, Bit Literacy
On the "digital sabbath"
Mark Bittman, whose food writing I've enjoyed for some time in the New York Times, admits that he has a problem: too much information and no way to deal with it.
His solution? Declare a digital "sabbath": no e-mails, no Blackberry, no electronic media of any kind, for one day a week.
After several months, it's beginning to pay dividends. As Bittman says, "nothing bad has happened while I’ve been offline; the e-mail and phone messages, RSS feeds, are all there waiting for me when I return to them."
This would be a good first step for many people - after all, over 40% of surveyed workers feel they are nearing the "breaking point" from their information overload.
And yet.
Even with a digital sabbath, people are still overloaded and stressed six days out of seven. Wouldn't it be better to solve one's overload permanently? Especially as information overload increases, people will be looking for a better solution than a temporary respite, once a week.
They may not know it now, but millions of people are in dire need of the basic skills of managing information - what I write about in Bit Literacy, though there will surely be other books soon on this same topic.
A sabbath is good and healthy, but people really need help on the other six days of the week.
You're absolutely right, Mark. I had the same thought when I read Bittman's piece. If email and our electronic devices are so useful, why should we give them up, even for a day? And if we find them overwhelming, giving them up for a day a week is not going to be enough to really help.
We're better off with learning how to manage them than imposing arbitrary limits. We're better off bit Bit Literacy.
Great post, Mark! Thanks for sharing this. I did a follow-on post to yours and pointed back to you and Bit Literacy. I loved Bittman's revelation that it was not the end of the world to pick one day to be "commfree." Nice!
Pick a Day to Unplug
http://viaspire.blogs.com/weblog/2008/03/pick-a-day-to-u.html
I have been trying to clear my mailbox every day. Just after xmas I think I had it down to about 5 messages. It's now back up to around 20-30.
Letting go of the bits can be tough!
Sainsbury's - the third biggest food retailer in the UK - runs a 'no email Wednesday' and a 'no meetings Friday'. It seems to work for them.
Why didn't we have a 'mentioning "my book" on Bit literacy' Sabbath too?
Here's the thing about digital overload--you can choose to buy into or not. It may be generational (I'm a Gen X who acts like a Gen Y when it comes to things digital), but just because you have a cell phone doesn't mean you have to answer it. Just because someone emails you doesn't mean you're at their beck and call. I hear more stress about digital overload from those older than me--often those younger (and myself included) feel that access to information is freeing--you just have to remember who's in charge!
At the Feb 29 2008 Wharton Business Technology Conference, Blackberry awarded students in a contest (http://www.whartonbiztech.com/blackberry.php) to build a new "home" interface for the device. The idea is that the user would turn on the "work" interface for business switch to "home" for personal use. How does this get at the "always on" issue?
The problem though, is that I've become so conscientious about keeping my inbox clean that I feel that I have to check it constantly, just so I can keep emptying it out (because new things inevitably pour in at a rate faster than I can clean them). Trying to stay "bit literate" is taking up too much of my time... I feel that I've missed something.
Remember that the suggestion in "Bit Literacy" is to empty your inbox at least once a day. You certainly don't need to do it all the time.
If you find yourself doing it too often, then set a specific time during the day to clear the inbox, and don't worry about it until then.
The on-topic comments pretty much cover the signal. As to the noise:
Bananaman, let me get this straight: You're reading Mark Hurst's blog and complaining that he's plugging his own book?
Whaaa?
Having practiced real Sabbaths, no work, no media for 4 years now and following Bit Literacy for the past year, I can attest to the value of both working in tandem. The best thing is that I don't have to worry about loose ends going into Friday evening, knowing that I have punched through the inbox everyday, and don't have any carryovers left to worry about. Getting out of the mindset where you have to worry about your to-do list, and starting to focus on people and tasks is very liberating.