When I first decided to go self-employed, about 20 years ago, one of the benefits I imagined I would get from working this way was more focus, greater clarity and fewer distractions. How wrong I was! Well, to begin with I wasn’t wrong. Since I started off with largely paper based business systems, with just one or two projects and very few clients, there was little demand on my time from the outside world – fewer distractions and so more time for me to organise my life how I wanted it.
As time has gone on and my work has become more internet based, I’ve started being inundated with emails, calls to network, tweet and blog, complete surveys and interviews, read “important information” related to my profession and areas of interest and so the list goes on. Along with many of my clients, I have started to find this overwhelming and ironically self-defeating. It almost seems as though the communication highways have become like our motorways – the more of them you build or widen, the busier and more congested they will get.
How on earth does anyone, especially those of us championing the idea of living and working more simply, deal with this communication overload?
From a space free of distractions, for the moment at least, I thought I’d share with you some reflections on what it is I believe motivates us to get caught in this particular manifestation of the rat race:
1. Fear of missing out and appearing unknowledgeable.
2. Fear of not keeping up (with the latest data, world news, technology, political moves, gossip etc)
3. Fear of appearing ineffective, inefficient, outdated, out of touch.
4. Fear, fear, fear…
My two favourite antidotes to fear are…love and action. What we need to remember is that fear is a major driver in the Industrial Growth Society, the old paradigm. It is a tool commonly employed in the rat race to disempower. One route to a Life Sustaining Society, the new paradigm, is to recognise our fear, decide instead to work from our love of life and of what we do and take action on that.
What does this look like when we apply it? We can:
1. Decide for ourselves how much time we want to spend reading (taking information in) each day and where our focus is going to be. If we still feel a twinge of the “fear of missing out” then we can make a reference file for “material to be read later”. (An interesting experiment is then to review this file after 3 months and see how much of what you wrote there is still important to you!)
2. Use the utmost discretion in answering any email that makes a request of us (and therefore is likely to add to our list of tasks to do.) Is this an opportunity? Is this in alignment with my business or personal mission? If not, we can train ourselves to say no, firmly but politely.
3. Use the smallest amount of the simplest technology we can in order to complete a task. This includes networking sites and methodologies.
My theory is that anything more than this could be classed as a distraction and that we can use the time, space and energy we’ve just created to re-connect to our truth and to give to others.
What do you think?
What type of communication is a distraction for you?
What would you deem to be an essential?
This site seeks to explore the heart and soul of downshifting to a more sustainable, ethical and holistic way of living and working, in keeping with the needs of the planet, humanity as a whole and ourselves as individuals. 
I was going to respond earlier but I got distracted… ;-)
I think you’re right, and I very much like your motorway analogy. I’d add a couple of things:
First, another motivation for indulging in these distractions is when you’re procrastinating over something else – also fear-based usually.
Secondly, I think there’s a real need for those of us working freelance or running small businesses to be “out there” in social networking terms, at least to some extent. Our customers are reading Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, blogs and other sites. So we should be where they are.
For example, I haven’t been on Facebook very long, and I really don’t like it very much. A lot of the communication is crass. But I always get a much higher readership when I link there to a blog post I’ve written. That’s not important at the moment, because my blog is still personal, not business, but it will be in the future.
I suppose I’m saying that there’s a grain of truth in the fears you mention.
You’re also right though when you advise limitations, whatever they are. Particular times of the day, no longer than 20 minutes or whatever.
I was wondering what took you! lol!
Absolutely agree with you on the role of procrastination in indulging in distractions. I’m very familiar with that one personally! And yes, there is a need for those of us to be “out there” meeting people where they are. I think what I’m questioning is how discerning we can be in which networking opportunities we decide to participate in.
For me this is a bit like deciding to niche. It might seem counter- intuitive at first to be limiting who we promote ourselves to. In reality, niching can be very effective in focussing our efforts and offering a quality product or service. It’s always felt far more satisfying to me too, to be working in a clearly defined field, especially in those moments when I’ve felt very much in alignment with my business purpose.
The grain of truth in the fears in also something that resonates. What does that tell me I wonder? That there *is* a need to be knowledgeable, to keep up, to keep an eye on my effectiveness and efficiency? …but maybe not to the extent that my fears would have me believe. So, my grrrr at the distractions is maybe a wakeup call to check my balance?
I find many of the communications channels a terrible distraction. Despite being freelance, I refuse to do networking anymore as the cost in my time was greater than anything I got back. My clients now find me through word of mouth.
I’ve never had a LinkedIn, Twitter or Facebook account, I don’t read newspapers or watch TV, and I’m very careful who I give my details to.
I have my personal blog and always try to respond to anything that comes from that. I’m a member of a couple of forums and will attempt to respond to members of those too. I tend to let my answerphone pick up messages rather than feel obligated to drop everything and speak to whoever might be calling. My mobile has been permanently switched off for months.
This might seem a bit draconian, but for me it’s the only way to control others from eating away at my time and encroaching on my space. I’ve had two episodes of work-related chronic fatigue in the last five years and information overload was part of the problem. Most of the information that flies at us every day is utter rubbish anyway and you’re no worse off not knowing about it.
I now genuinely have no fear of missing out on anything other than living my life.
Steel – I think it’s great that your clients find you through word of mouth and it’s also good to know of another blog about sustainability and living more frugally. You sound happy with the measures you’ve taken to avoid information overload and that they are working for you. I find this very interesting to compare notes on how we each do this, what works and what doesn’t. Thanks for your contribution.