Data Overload or Overlord?

Lately, I've been inundated with the amount of data that I come across on a daily basis.  With the advent of mobile computing devices such as laptops, smart phones, and tablets the amount of data I process is overwhelming.  Here is an example of instances where I daily interact with data in random order:

Twitter, Google Reader, Google Voice, Google Docs, email, texts, task manager, Foursquare, Calendar, Mint, Instagram, podcasts, Facebook, Dropbox, and last of all, good old web surfing.  This list doesn't even include what I do for work.

After evaluating these various instances, I have been wondering why I use these services.  Over time, these interactions just crept into my life.  Ten years ago, I was going through life just fine with email, a calendar and the web.  Now, I'm not sure how to survive without some of these services.  There are good reasons to use these services and then there is just pure time-wasting.  In my analysis, I have broken down my reasons for using these services into three main reasons.

My first reason is that I have created a way of life in which some of these services help me perform daily tasks easily.  In other words, I built my way of life around these technologies and depend on them daily.  They assist me the way technology should and I readily take advantage of it.  Examples of this include bills, schedules, banking and running my business.

The second reason I use some of these services is completely social.  It helps me stay in touch with people in my life on a daily basis.  I know we all have busy lives and it would be impossible to keep up with all your friends all the time.  With services like Twitter and Facebook, I can know when my friend's kid says his first word or takes his first step or even when he tries to say the word frog and it comes out very wrong.  If your community participates in these online social services, it makes it all the more easier to use them.  I have to make a disclaimer...online community is no substitute for real life community.  However, it is almost impossible to have real life community with everyone all the time.

The third reason I use some of these services is my addiction to information.  My need to know what is going on in the world.  It could be world news, local news, political, technology, sports or cooking.  We all have different interests.  The amount of news out there on whatever subject you want is huge and growing everyday.  This is where I find myself wondering what I am doing with this info.  I see myself spending hours reading my Google Reader and Twitter feeds and feeling like I just wasted a couple of hours.  I may have learned a couple of things, but definitely not worth a couple of hours.  In response, I am trying to be smarter with my feeds.  I can follow or subscribe to every outlet out there regarding my subject of interest.  Or...I can find one or two that may cover 90% of that subject.  In short, I'm pruning my feeds to find the best ones out there to allow me to work smarter not harder.  In return, I hope to gain some time...you know that thing we all wish we had more of?  I'm taking charge...no more overload...I'm becoming the overlord of my data.

Budget Link

     How to Create (and Stick to) a Realistic Budget with Mint [Budgeting]

My wife & I also create tags for each of us to easily see who is actually spending the money. This helps us stay on our monthly target also.

Happy New Year

So long 2010...you were full of fun, friends, family and trials. Thanking God for His faithfulness through it all.

HAPPY NEW YEARS to you & yours!!!

From the MATHAI family.

iPhone & iPad: 4-day Business Trip

A 4-day experience with just an iPad and an iPhone for my business trip to Canada. Lessons were learned and technology was great. International travel has its limits.

Click to read more ...

Twit-Break

So, I finally made it through about two and a half months without Twitter. It's amazing the stuff that can happen to you when you can't tweet about it. I'm serious, some of the most tweet-worthy things happened to and around me during this period. Example...I drove around the city of Bloomington with a dead bird stuck into my car's grill head first. This happened during the first week without Twitter. All I wanted to do was twitpic that gross scene. But no, I stayed strong and disciplined. Which brings me to why I went off Twitter in the first place. I felt like it was consuming my free time and some not-so-free time. Work was getting busy and this was the summer before my oldest went to full-time school for the first time. I took the break to concentrate on work and family life and also to see if I could be disciplined enough to do it. What I gained from this experience was the urge to pull my iPhone out and check Twitter. This action had become involuntary to me over the last couple of years of using Twitter. It took a few weeks of withdrawal symptoms where I would pull my phone out and realize I had nothing to check on it and put it away. Also, to not be tempted, I deleted all Twitter apps from my phone. I also gained just being in the moment when something happened with the kids or the wife or at work. With Twitter, I always feel like a journalist covering my life, finding interesting tidbits to share with the internets. I'm not saying this is wrong. This IS in fact the draw to tweet and read tweets. It's just that it was becoming so much of a habit that I was tweeting about hanging out with my friends instead of hanging out with them. Maybe it's just me and the way I used Twitter. What I realized from this experiment was how much I used Twitter to stay current with the lives of people I would ordinarily not know a thing about. These people are acquaintances and not close friends, but somehow following them on Twitter brought them a step closer in our relationship even if it was one-sided. I somehow felt more updated about their lives, which made it easier to talk to them at occasional social events. Having returned to using Twitter, I'm just more aware of my usage time. I see the advantages and disadvantages of the medium and hopefully will use it with wisdom. I love sharing tidbits of my life on Twitter and appreciate those who are doing the same. I figure that even if no one is interested in my tweets, at least it can serve as a timeline of the happenings in my life. For more than 140 characters at a time coverage of my thoughts...subscribe to this blog.