35 years ago, in 1975 the first mass-marketable microwave was produced, before that no one would have dreamed of 5 minute meals on the go or not taking the time to sit with the family and eat.
It wasn’t actually that long ago when the only people who carried computers/PDAs/phones etc were businessmen or the wealthy. There were not many game machines, if you had a game boy you were lucky, but most children spent their time enjoying the outside world or listening to music.
Sticking to plans was easier, you got a phone call arranged a time and had to be there – because there was no way to cancel, or to get distracted.
The internet came next, then the mobile phone–both of which revolutionised the world as we know it. We could get information faster, stay connected easily to anyone, anywhere in the world and we have more choice.
Life should be simpler, so why isn’t it? How come most of us spend our time rushing around, trying to fill as much as we can into a day – taking work home and on holiday – has technology given us less time instead of more?
New research suggests that merely owning Smartphone increases the amount of time we spend checking messages outside working hours.
Author Ian Price collated data from over five hundred workers on the experience of managing work email both with and without BlackBerry’s and measured dimensions of stress along with organisational context. Comparisons with the control group suggest the device can, if anything, ease the anxiety of message accumulation but with significant consequences for time spent on email outside working hours.
"This is the first time this has been researched and shows how the way we use technology such as BlackBerry means that we are over-connected with consequences for work-life balance, resilience and productivity. Those with BlackBerry or equivalent spent 2.5 times as long checking emails outside working hours as those without. However, BlackBerry users had email volumes only 13% higher," says Ian.
Do you do put in more than 40 hours a week? Do you ever feel you can relax?