It’s 2009 and we’re all wired.  A lot of people are terrifically proud of how connected they are 24 hours a day.  Call me old fashioned but I’ve decided to put a bit of brake on the fast lane of electronic life.  Read on and let me know if any of this strikes a chord with you…

Having just returned from 3 weeks without Internet, I find myself tiptoeing back into cyberspace rather reluctantly.  I’m incredibly blessed that my life and work here in East Africa takes me into places that are beyond the reach of the electronic world.  I’m also blessed that here at my desk in the city of Arusha, I generally do have access, when I need it.  (More or less!)

But do I want it? That’s my question as I gingerly open my inbox, my blog, my facebook and my twittering.

The honest answer is that I do need AND want the connection that internet brings.  But as I get wired again, I’ve decided I have to engage some boundaries.  I’m starting with the inbox.  Now, I have kids living in different countries than I do and I definitely am not going to put boundaries up against our connectedness, but here are some of the ways I’m saying no to being run by the tyrant, email.

Hours -- I’m free to view my inbox any time, day or night, to search for mails from the kids or my folks or sister, but I will not be opening work-related mails after hours or on the weekend.  OK, since I’m 10 or 11 hours ahead of California, there is a tricky time difference that sometimes means I absolutely have to open a mail. Sometimes people have to know something by the end of their workday, even if I’m into a weekend now.  So, time zone issues might force me every now and again, but by and large, I’m done with letting work invade any hour of any day just because it can.

Setting my agenda first – This means that I need to figure out what is important to do on any given day before I open mails and start getting ordered around by what everyone else thinks I should do with my day.  Too many times, I’ve been knocked off course of what I knew was the important work of the day by the logjam of mails in the inbox.  I need to know what the day is about before I pop that thing open.

Breathe -- This means that I need to give myself time to think, consider and do what is needed before I shoot off a reply.  If someone wants to bring a team of volunteers out here next summer, I may not be able to give them dates that would work for us within 24 hours of their inquiry.  Of course I want to be helpful and responsive.  But the speed at which a message cannow be delivered will no longer push me to make hasty or premature decisions. 

Be present – This is basically about focusing on what needs to be focused on and resisting the urge to multi-task.  As the mother of 4, multi-tasking in an award winning event for me.  Dang, I’m good.  At least that’s what I’d like to think.  But is it always really an effective way to live?  I hate it when my kids call me out on if I really heard what they just said… that thing that I was saying “Yea, uh huh,” to while I was also answering a mail.  And I’ve made some major gaffes in email communication when I’ve not given it proper attention.  The other day, I wrote a friend who was going to house us during a busy week at his place.  I wrote that I hoped we could stay out of his way as much as possible.  His response seemed a bit odd so I checked the original mail only to find that, in my unfocused rush I had actually said, “I hope you’ll stay out of our way as much as possible.”  Can you believe it?  That was an epic fail.  Fortunately, he has a good sense of humor.

These small steps seem easy enough to follow but I confess to being challenged by them.  I’m not going to give up the fight, though. Life is so much bigger, wider, richer, sweeter and more beautiful than the screen of my Mac.  (Hard to believe, I know.)