INBOX: The start of the new year is often accompanied by people deciding to detox, and there's no reason why you can't do the same with technology.
After all, the over-consumption of technology has similar side effects to over-indulgence. Hunching over a PC screen is hurting your back, too much e-mail is giving you headaches, your addiction to Facebook is starting to hurt your relationships - you know the sort of thing. So why not take my New Year Tech Detox Plan?
As with any addict, you need to stand up and recognise that you may have a problem.
• Tech Detox1: Spot the signs. Can you spend a day communicating with people, but without actually opening your mouth to talk? Are you texting, instant messaging and e-mailing constantly?
• Tech Detox 2: Small steps make big changes. Try switching off from the web/e-mail/mobile for a short period. Try for just an hour to begin with. Feeling a funny, tinkling sensation? That's an actual thought crossing your mind - remember those? Thinking can be useful. In time, a two or even three-hour hiatus from digital media will enable you to think thoughts you never thought before.
• Tech Detox 3: Repeat after me: "I can choose". Yes, you can choose to answer that e-mail. Or you can choose to leave it until the morning and get a good night's sleep instead, when your brain, newly reinvigorated, will be able to come up with a far more scintillating reply.
• Tech Detox 4: Cut the pointless chatter. Don't spam everyone. Rarely have the letters "FYI" (for your information) had a more evil application than in e-mail, the use of which sends two messages: "Sending you this means my back is covered" and "I'm here to create more useless information for you and more withering replies for me, to which I will have to . . . reply".
• Tech Detox 5: Be clear. Telling people roughly when is a good time to get back to you about something helps them, and you, to schedule.
• Tech Detox 6: Forget complicated time management software and keep a simple text file you can cut and paste or e-mail back and forth to your BlackBerry or home PC. Bill Gates will hate you for not buying more software, but he'll live.
• Tech Detox 7: Keep to a schedule. Try not to wander off on the internet looking for that ideal holiday villa in Italy until an allotted time. A PC should really have been called a Tardis because, before you know it, the quick check of the sports results has morphed into a three-hour Google session. It is not possible to just dip in and out of such a time machine, since human beings can only ever handle - at most - two simple tasks at once. Multitasking is a myth propagated by those who never have to multitask.
And with that: Happy Tech Year.
