The difference between my original plan of phasing out of one system to the other over a month is that, in choosing to put the PC restoration into low priority, I’ve had to adapt quickly to a new OS, get things set up from scratch, and begin using systems I haven’t used before… all in the interest of getting up-to-speed quickly. I have no time to enter the pool from the shallow end – I need to canon ball off into the deep end because I’ve got work to do.

Naturally, I’ve rushed to find Mac-equivalent mechanisms to help me get back to my productivity – tools that help me communicated, interact, transfer data, and otherwise interface with all the people and services I used to – pre-crash. It was during this mad dash that I noticed something odd…

I immediately, upon getting the new system set up, started up the email. I chose to go with a web-hosted email retrieval as opposed to my POP downloaded system I was using before because, now that I’m portable, I didn’t want the hassle of being without email while out and about. I also didn’t want to juggle multiple email mechanisms, either.

I grabbed a Twitter client for the Mac (Twhirl – thanks Jean!) so I could get back in contact with my peeps from there. I got hooked back up with my forums, groups, and so on.

It was at this point I noticed the odd thing. I realized that I was spending a goofy amount of time either retrieving, restoring, replacing, or otherwise interacting with all these things that are supposed to save me time… but it was taking longer and longer to deal with them than any one point of communication would require otherwise. In other words… having five different ways to stay in touch with people for “convenience’s sake” takes a heck of a lot of time out of my day as opposed to say, just exchanging email.

It dawned on me that I spend an inordinate amount of time checking or monitoring my communications channels – much longer than it takes to actually conduct the communications I would have in them. It’d be like spending half an hour waiting for the phone to ring only to have a three minute conversation, you know?

It’s not entirely technology or having multiple channels open that’s the problem, I agree – it’s largely me and how I have been operating. I suspect it comes from a change I adapted to years ago when I began working for myself from home: Not having a built-in network of peers or an office filled with coworkers. I had to learn the hard way that building and maintaining one’s own network in self-employment isn’t always easy. So, I think that’s why I’ve become a “communication hound” much to the annoyance of some of my peers (sorry Twitter friends… I’ll learn to use IM more).

Well, today is a different day. I’ve still got work to do and it’ll surely be via my computer and online – there’s no escaping that. However, I’m purposely going to lay off the email, instant messaging, cell phone, pager, text message, video chat, twitter, and mental telepathy quite a bit more. I’ll still be in total communication but instead of watching the horizon for smoke to signal an incoming message I’m going to just stay busy with my work. I’m choosing to discover what it’s like if I only check email every few hours instead of every twenty minutes. I know, I shudder just thinking about it, but it’s gotta’ be done, Hoss. I’ve become part of the machine and it’s beginning to run me instead of me running it.

How about you? Have you felt there are days where all these wonderful tools, gadgets, services, and methods that were supposed to save time and effort have become more time-consuming than the tasks you were trying to accomplish in the first place?

It’s Starbucks Sumatra, by the way. Dark roast.