Some days I think I’m drowning in data.  Work emails, home emails, cell phone calls, land line calls, the Internet, my Blackberry, the TV, the radio I have playing in the background all day in my office,  magazines, newspapers, and newsletters both online and at my door.  Oh, and let’s not forget the tons of snail mail that still comes every day.  The other evening I went on the Internet to find something.  Next thing I knew I’d spent two hours reading about other interesting things, while totally forgetting what I was first looking for!   I find if I don’t write things down,  and I live by my lists, I can’t get anything done.    What happened to focus?  Could I be losing my mind? 

The good news, according to Future Shock author Alvin Toffler, is I’m definitely sane.   The bad news is my brain is being forced to process information at a much higher volume than it was built to handle.  Toffler called it “cognitive overstimulation.”  I call it exhausting.  No wonder I sometimes feel anxious, unproductive and oddly tired after a day of sitting alone in my office . . .thinking “what did I really accomplish today?”  Forty years after Toffler uncovered the issue, scientists are beginning to uncover the fallout.  For example, they say that those who attempt to perform two different tasks simultaneously end up doing neither very well and those of us who pride ourselves on being great multi-taskers “don’t get a deeper understanding of information.”  One study shows a 10-point drop in IQ scores after constant distractions from e-mail, text messaging, and cell phones.  Well!  I feel better now!  I practically REFUSE to use text messaging.

A DISTRACTED LIFE?

The amount of time the average person spent on social networking sites increased from two hours, ten minutes for the month of December 2007 to more than five and a half hours for December 2009. I wonder what it is now.  During the month of November 2009, web users in the U.S. spent an average of 66 hours online and visited 2,603 websites for an average time of less than a minute.  Currently, among U.S. mobile phone users, 66% send text messages.  The average teenager sends 3,705 per month.  As of this past February, Apple offered more than 300,000 apps for its mobile users.*

Seriously, if you’re having more days than you’d like feeling heightened anxiety, lower energy and lack of focus, here’s an idea I got from Minneapolis-based writer Frank Bures, whose work has appeared in Harper’s, Esquire, the L.A. Times and The Rotarian.  (With those credentials, he must know something about all this, huh?)

The idea:  Spend one day (or at minimum a part of a day), every week, totally unplugged.   That’s right!  Unplugged!  No email, no text messages, no phone calls.  And NO Internet!   Frank says that at first, we’re going to feel pretty strange.  Cold.  Alone.  Worried that someone will call or send us an email, wondering why we haven’t responded.  But he says to hang in there.  The world will NOT come to an end, and instead, the most amazing thing will happen.  We’ll be able to finish small projects we’ve been putting off.  We’ll be able to review things that need to be done, get organized, and enjoy a sense of having space in our heads for new ideas.   And by the end of the unplugged day or part of a day, we’ll feel something we haven’t felt in a long time:  a sense of accomplishment.  The next day, we’ll wake up refreshed!  Best of all, when we finally log back “on” to see what we’ve missed, we’ll be surprised to find we haven’t missed much.  At first, we’ll have to train ourselves to unplug.  It’s like an old habit that takes practice and persistence to overcome.  But over time, it gets much easier.  And flexibility is key:  some weeks we’ll have to switch our “unplugged” days.  

Well, thanks to Frank, I’m game to get started.  Wish me luck!

*Sources:  The Nielsen Company, Apple

•  Regularly take stock of your effectiveness as a leader, rather than waiting for others to give you feedback.  There are numerous ways to access your own leadership skills, by the way, and they don’t take long; many are relatively inexpensive. 
•  Rivet your attention on efforts that support long-term objectives.   If you don’t know what your company’s objectives are, ask.
• Throw off time-hungry monkeys.   One of the best resources I’ve ever found in this area is The One Minute Manager Meets the Monkey by Ken Blanchard.  If you’ve got monkey problems, you should read it.

The payoff? You redirect your energy to where it exerts the biggest impact: your company’s strategic priorities.   

Jamal was still being carried in his mother’s arms when Rotarians came to his village to begin giving him the pink drops that would ensure he would never contract the crippling disease polio.  While his country has been certified “polio free,” isolated outbreaks occasionally still occur.   For Jamal and his playmates, however, a much more persistant and insidious killer stalks the small children of his village.  It’s harbored in the very life-sustaining water that their mothers carry to the village each morning on their heads from pools and streams several miles away.  Their source of clean water is scarce, and the water that IS available often is polluted by runoff from cattle or municipal waste.  Many days, Jamal, now almost three, plays in the streets of his village naked from the waist down because of the  persistent diarrhea that eventually may cause his wasting and death if his village doesn’t develop a clean, reliable source of water.  Hundeds of children in his village have already died.  It’s a situation we here in the U.S. should never tolerate, and neither would Jamal’s mother if she had any other options.

All over the world, more than 24,000 children will die today — most, like Jamal, are under age five.  One thousand children will die in the time it takes most of us to mow our lawns this week.  Yet, most of these deaths are entirely preventable.

Fortunately for Jamal and the other children of his village, hope is already on its way.  Two years ago, work began on a three-year, multi-phased Rotary Foundation-funded project to bring clean, mountain spring water to the village of Wum, Cameroon.  This project was spearheaded by a Charlottesville, VA Rotarian named Tom Dunnells with funding from the Rotary Foundation, using plans developed through an enterprising design contest by engineering students at the University of Virginia.  In one day, with the help of local Cameroon Rotarians, Jamal’s own mother and other village residents assisted in digging the trench from their village up the side of a mountain so that pipes for the gravity-fed water main can be installed to bring the clean water to Wam. 

This is just one example of what Rotarians do . . .we restore a sense of safety and security for people in need.  Through the volunteer work of the over 1.2 million Rotarians world-wide and their contributions to the Rotary Foundation, lives of people we will never see are changed for the better in hundreds of ways.  Hence, our motto:  Service Above Self.

Did you know?  The Rotary Foundation is distinguished from all other organizations because 100% of donations to the Annual Programs Fund supports the humanitarian and educational programs of Rotarians.  Donations to the Rotary Foundation go even further than most other non-profit organizations because they support projects that are administered by local Rotarian business and community leaders who put volunteer energies into the improvement of communities and the lives of people who live in them. 

Did you also know?  Independent evaluator, Charity Navigator, ranks The Rotary Foundation as No. 4 on its list of “10 Best Charities Everyone’s Heard Of,” saying “These 10 Charities became household names in part because of their exceptional financial management, no easy feat considering the scope and size of their operations.  Charitable givers should feel confident that these national institutions put their donations to good use.”

Service Above Self.  If you are looking for a way to bring some balance to your life, and help people in need at the same time, do what I did.  Attend a local Rotary meeting and see how you can help.  You’ll be glad you did.  For info on finding a Rotary Club near you, go to www.rotary.org