No Time To Spare

I stood at a fax machine recently chatting with a co-worker about how passé the once revolutionary machine has become. In the era of scanning, emailing and electronic signatures, fax machines sit largely idle, collecting dust beside Dictaphones and overhead projectors.

When I entered the workforce, faxing was cutting edge technology and email was an infant. So I don’t have any frame of reference for what the workplace was like without the ability -- and expectation -- to instantly exchange information.

I enjoy trying to imagine that world and the conversations in it. “OK Bob. I’ll look for your draft to arrive in a few days. You should have my edits back in a week.” These pleasant daydreams are usually interrupted by a vibrating phone urgently alerting me to something very trivial that needs my immediate attention.

It’s hard to imagine the pace of life getting any faster or people trying to cram more into our maxed out minutes. Instant messaging, ready-made meals, one-hour processing, overnight delivery, same-day service. The list alone makes me anxious.

Nearly every driver on the road is also talking, texting or checking email on their phone, sometimes while eating breakfast and putting on makeup.

Technology has also blurred the lines between work, play and home life. This can be a great blessing, but has its challenges. The other day I caught myself having a serious conversation with a reporter while decorating for my child’s birthday party. I did my best to disguise my breathlessness while lugging a heavy cooler up and down our stairs.

So goes the imperfect juggling act we call life. We can use every high-tech trick and device, and somehow remain perpetually behind. Between email, cell phone, facebook, blogs, voicemail, twitter, and texting I could spend a whole day with my child and never complete a real conversation.

So what’s the point? I can daydream for hours about life before computers but technology has forever changed the way we live and interact. It pervades every aspect of our lives.

The problem is, the time savers don’t live up to their claims. My Blackberry might have more memory than my own brain and a few more applications too, but it can’t give me what I want the most. More time.

Ultimately, only I can do that, by judiciously drawing boundaries and determining which balls in my juggling act can fall and which ones are just too precious to break.