“I’ll be online briefly” or: Gone is the Working Day

[authorBox image=”http://uzuner-solutions.de/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/2014-06-18-Christoph-Mittler.jpg” name=”Christoph Mittler”]Christoph is currently doing an internship in our marketing team. In this article he explores to what extent the digital world controls us and how to escape its grasp.[/authorBox]

This phenomenon probably sounds familiar to everyone: As soon as we arrive at the office and our working day is about to start, all attention is immediately focused on the emails received since the end of the last working day. And “thanks to” smartphones, we can start to check them already during breakfast or on our way to the office.

Master and Slave

As quickly as that, we’ve handed over the reins because all we do is responding to the questions, demands and suggestions of other people. The inbox now determines the structure of our working day. And instead of being able to focus on one task, we have to accomplish many things at the same time, which not only takes time and energy, but often even leads to poor results. Going back from this reactive state to an active one is difficult, if not impossible. Rather than being in control of your actions, we’ve become enslaved without noticing it.

If you think that this whole thing primarily happens to “lazy“ people, you are mistaken. Prof. Dr. Matthias Burisch, head of the Burnout-Institut Norddeutschland (Burnout institute Northern Germany), found out that it’s especially motivated and committed people who fail to meet their “own” standards in always trying to live up to all expectations. He calls this type of people “Self-burner”.

“Are you still mailing or are you working already?”

This is what communications expert Anitra Eggler asked herself a few years ago. Since then she has been dealing with the phenomenon of wasted (working) time due to the internet. In her experience, incoming emails not only prevent efficient working, but also raise expectations of receiving even more messages, because the reward center in the brain is activated by these distractions. As a result, the feeling of always being available is not only a construct in your own head and the assumed demand of your supervisor, but an inner compulsion without an on/off switch.

It’s therefore not surprising that more and more employees are controlled by their computer or smartphone programs instead of using them efficiently for their own benefit. The result of this “voluntary” subjugation is a dramatically increased number of employees who suffer from fatigue syndrome.

Another similar phenomenon is the “aimlessly browsing the internet syndrome”. Although it often starts with the intention of finding relevant information in the vastness of the World Wide Web, what happens in reality is that you move from link to link and lose sight of your objective.

After a while you realize that a lot of time has passed already, but you haven’t got any closer to the solution. While trying to find answers, you sometimes even forget about your initial question.

Reset your Habits!

It would appear that Mrs Eggler has a rather negative attitude towards digitalization. However, she’s well aware of its advantages. She has browsed, mailed and googled for many years, both in her private and in her professional life. But she has become a lot more efficient.

Her advice for coping with the flood of information both on the web and in the inbox is trivial, but still makes a lot of sense: Before plunging into the information flood, it’s very helpful to use a pen and a sheet of paper. Away from the unpaved data highway, you can write down your aims for the day or for your current research. Thus, even with the ever-increasing “extensions of man”, your own creative mind sets the pace for your actions.

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In the clavis team, we often exchange ideas about how to leave your office behind after work – both physically and mentally. It would be great if you joined our discussion and shared some ideas about how to avoid the everyday distractions…? 🙂