Sorry, I’m too busy.

How did that come about?

I’ve been busy for a long time. I lied about my age and at 14 started packing groceries at Woolies, so I think I have a fair slice of time, to look back and reflect on the changing attitudes and processes of my working life. Admittedly the above line would have had more punch, if I had worked in a coalmine but let me tell you Woolies got their pound of flesh for their $1 per hour.

Eventually graduating from Thursday night packing, to a real job (?), I found that the phone attached to my desk was the only link to anyone outside my office or to my circle of friends (as long as they were within earshot of the phone ring). If I left my office, I came back to pieces of paper strewn across my desk, with phone numbers to return calls. OMG (note text shortening) how exciting were stick it notes when they first came in? Sorry I digress.

Business continued on and I was certainly busy, but there was an understanding that when I went home the phone attached to the wall wasn’t attached to the business. There was a division of thinking concerning work and the rest of my life. TV was the height of technological engagement and I was sure the gang at Cheers knew my name. I’m starting to sound like a Luddite?

I thought I was busy but if I’d had a crystal ball to look into my future, I might have considered a career change to a Jackeroo or a fruit picker, neither of whom hover anywhere near a technological plateau. I stayed on the business path and embraced technology advancements with gusto. How cool was it to send a piece of paper overseas via fax?

Yet the halcyon days, of long summer nights at the pub after work seem a dark memory. Sure I can still go to the pub but not after work, because work never finishes.

I am now accosted 24/7 (who thought up that stupid combo?) by technology that encroaches on my life, redefines time, raises levels of anxiety, constantly interrupts and generally slows me down in doing my work.

Between emails, tweets, blogs, webinars, online discussions, Facebook, Linked In, and a myriad of other distractions I barely have time for my 3 hour lunch (kidding). Seems I’m just busy being busy and visions of quiet desert islands dancing in my head are washed away by the various chimes used to identify callers on my iPhone.

Is it time to take back control or are we too far down that technology road to see “the good old days” in the rearview mirror?

Busy is a vocation nowadays and people are attuned to the various replies, bounce backs and voicemail messages signaling busy.

So my new resolution is to take back my life and …..

Oops, sorry, I think someone’s sending me a Tweet.