Positive Time Leverage in Technology

Positive Time Leverage in Technology
As we continue to explore new technologies into the future, it will become increasingly important that you don’t fall into any Time Traps with these popular technologies. On this Ron Orr Blog, I am going to provide tips on how to avoid these common Time Leaks that so many of today’s technologies are causing us, most of which relate to communication. I am going to relay the message to the reader, that Technology, when used correctly, can be a form of Positive Leverage. Technology can either work for you, or against you. If it works against you, it’s in the form of Negative Time Leverage, like Time Wasting. With so many technologies today to cover, let’s list some of the most popular ones I will write about: Computer, Internet, e-mail (Web-Based E-mail), Voicemail, Fax Machines, Answering Machines, Business Phone Systems, Home Phones, Cell Phones,Text Message, Instant Message, Cable TV, Satellite TV, Tivo, DVD Players, MP3’s, Ipod, CD’s, Cassettes, GPS, Wireless Internet, and PDA’s.

As a general rule, I believe technologies were first created with the best of intentions. That is, to make all of our lives easier, to Save Time, and help us remember our To Do Lists. I believe most of this to be true, but I believe there are a lot of potential problems when you more closely examine these technologies. If you don’t watch your time closely you can really waste a large chunk of your valuable time. I believe that the increased ease in which the world communicates via technology has, to some degree, made our lives more complex, and have left many Spinning Their Wheels. A perfect example of this is e-mail. E-mail can be a great form of communication, but because it is so easy for every one to read, write, send, and reply, everyone uses email for what it is, free, it’s too easy, in my E-mail Inbox post you can read how to handle large amounts of daily e-mail. When e-mail is exploited it is referred to as SPAM, I’ll have a post on just the topic of SPAM, what to do about it, and how to avoid it.

One other thing that has ruined Technology, is the lack of compatibility. Too many manufacturers today are competing with each other and because advancements are changing too quickly.Because of this, to us it seems to take far too much time to learn the latest technologies and there new features before we ever figure out how to use that specific technology. Another problem that is presented, is that there is still a large part of our population, (majority 40 years or older), that simply don’t like technology, didn’t grow up around it, thus never having learned it, and aren’t open to learning it anytime soon or in there Lifetime. Technology only works best when those using it can count on others to understand it. If the others don’t understand it, which is quite often, it will cost those who do understand it a lot of their own time and I call that a form of Negative Time Leverage.Technology is one of the root causes that created a population of those that love to Multi-Task, but not everyone is good at multi-tasking, and when done improperly is a very big waste of time. I would encourage my readers to especially keep track of this post as it will be a table of contents to all upcoming major technologies that I haven’t yet listed above.