BlackBerry Increases Productivity While Decreasing Work/Life Balance

One of my psychotherapy clients asked me, “Is it normal for my husband to have his BlackBerry sitting next to us when we’re making love?” This woman’s doubt was proof positive that we’ve entered a brave new world. When our sending and receiving messages takes such a high priority that nothing, not even making love could stand in the way and when an intimate partner could doubt herself for feeling upset by the intrusion of this electronic device I knew that we had gone crazy.

According to a USA Today Digital Dependency survey 60% of respondents around the world say that they can't live without their devices and nearly four out of ten say the loss of their digital PC data would be an “unmitigated disaster.”
While Blackberrys have had a positive impact on productivity they have also had a negative impact on work/life balance. Technology can be your best friend or worst enemy. The compulsion to communicate incessantly—involving nonstop use of cell phones, BlackBerrys, PDA’s and the Internet tend to leave people emotionally breathless.

I was recently at a business luncheon. I had presented my program and was sitting at a table with a group of high-level executives. Once the organizer stood to say grace everyone bowed their heads. When the luncheon began these men and women kept their heads bowed with their hands on their laps. Even as the food was served they seemed to be immersed in deep thought over the profound questions of the day.

Then I realized that they weren’t praying at all. They were all intensely focused on their BlackBerry sending and receiving emails, frantically working on their little keyboards like frantic teens playing video games. They were lost to the world around them as they messaged back in forth, some of them with other people in the same room. They had fallen into a technological black hole in which they were drowning.

Think about how much time do you give away without meaning to. The more you give away, the less you have left for what you need and what you consider important. Remember, attention isn’t limitless nor is your energy. We have to take charge of technology and use it to our advantage.