Phones: Can You Shut It Off?

You are sitting at the kitchen table having dinner with your family and engaged in conversation. Your trusty smartphone is sitting on the kitchen counter and start beeps that you have a new message. Do you instantly run to it and check it or do you wait until dinner is over? It could be that one important message you didn’t know you were waiting for. Or it could be that your phone keeps buzzing, chirping, burping, or playing sound effects from Super Mario Brothers begging for attention this moment. What do you do?

From my experience, myself included, it seems that most would instantly get up to check the phone, and reply to the message immediately. The time of being home with your family has just been beaten out by a message from work or friends. Our connected world has provided the luxury of communication instantly with anyone anywhere, yet seems to have taken away our ability to communicate uninterrupted with those right in front of us. It is not limited to family dinners. I have sat with many clients before whom are constantly interrupted by their phones, some of whom miss important details of our transaction, or we run out of time because a good portion of it was taken by a phone call that interrupted our meeting.

So I pose to you a challenge: Can you turn off your phone?

I have learned the magic of airplane mode. Most of my face-to-face client meetings last from 60 to 90 minutes. During that time, I switch the phone over to airplane mode so I can still access my calendar, documents, etc. But at the same time, no phone calls, texts, or emails can get in. At night,  I shut off my phone completely.

It took some adjusting to not allowing myself to be connected all the time, but now I find I’m able to focus more clearly on the tasks at hand. Being a business owner, I always felt the need to be available all the time because you never know when the next deal will come in. But more recently, especially since getting married, I’ve realized that sometimes it’s just as important to be unavailable for awhile so that you are refreshed and ready for when you are available.

PS: I am guilty of everything I wrote in this article myself.