I was given a Blackberry by my company a couple of months ago. Due to the the obvious ‘always-on’ problem but more due to its addictive quality, I noticed another change in my behaviour. My Blackberry usage was cutting into some very precious ‘thinking time’.
You see, most of my ideas normally come from random moments. In the lift, smoking a cigarette outside, waiting for the tube… Moments when you are not in front of your computer, directly facing your problem and desperately trying to find the next award-winning solution. Well, I wasn’t having these moments anymore, as soon as I was in these situations to let my mind wander, I would automatically reach for my precious Blackberry and start toying with it. Checking and replying to emails, checking the BBC website, even playing the brickbreaker… Everything but letting my thoughts flourish.
I suddenly realised the perversion of the Blackberry was exactly that. It was making me intellectually lazy. I didn’t have to face my thoughts anymore. Ever. I could always reach for my Blackberry as soon as I was had some time to kill.
In the wonderful book ‘A technique for producing ideas’ from James Webb Young, one of the most important steps to having an idea is the incubation time. When you stop thinking about your idea and let your unconscious mind work on it for a while by doing other things. So you then have your Eureka! moment, at a time when you least expect it.
So I have to come to the conclusion that my Blackberry is seriously threatening my ability to come up with my Eureka! moments and stop (ab)using it, before I stop having ideas for good.
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MatthewK 2 Jan 2008
ReportI kind of disagee in that, when I’m out and about and ideas come to me, I find it useful to have a device close to hand which can not only record that idea, but I can use to collaborate with someone else on, straight away. Horses for courses I guess…
Jerome 2 Jan 2008
ReportYou are confusing productivity (or efficiency) and creativity. True creativity needs a bit of time to breathe and ferment and that’s what my Blackberry usage steals me from. But on the other hand, it has made me more efficient. Only problem is that I’m in the creative industry.
Saffron 2 Jan 2008
ReportI believe that email web browsing etc gets in the way of being effective. So what i try and do is restrict my times to when I email to a longish session in the morning then two short session around midday and then one at the end of the day.
I read recently that in C19 London there where 6 posts a day so a letter sent at 8am would be delivered by 10am and the response if sent by midday was being read by 2pm. The response to the response sent by 4pm was being read by 6pm.
Mathew K - keep a note book in your pocket much better for sketches which can = 1,000 words.
Jerome - important not to confuse efficiency with effectiveness. Many business / people can be very efficient but how effective they are being is what counts.