As I speak to groups around the country I encounter legions of people who actually fear being away from their smartphones because they’ll miss the one vital phone call that could make their day, week, month, or year. Yes, giving yourself uninterrupted stretches, out of the information and communication shower is a little risky. In the course of a week or a month, occasionally you’ll miss a key call, but is this your death knell?

Generally, the party calling will call back or leave a message, or get in touch with you via some other medium such as email or text message. Also, the greater the degree to which you have differentiated yourself, the greater the chance that the party trying to reach you will not simply go down the list and call the next vendor or provider. They want you because of the product, service, information, or insight that you offer.

Hard to Find Peace of Mind?

When you arbitrarily conclude that you have to be “on” all the time, in addition to making it more buy lorazepam overnight difficult to meet the tasks at hand, you introduce a level of anxiety that need not be present. You ought to be able to eat your lunch in peace. You ought to be able to go to the bathroom in peace. You ought to be able to have a clear and uninterrupted stretch when you need to just sit and think.

So establish your ground rules. When will you be available, and when will you not? When will you leave the cell phone in your desk drawer, or in the car, or in some other place where it will not disturb your enjoyment of your current activity; be it dining out, going to a movie, attending a lecture, and so on. You work hard, and you get a lot done. Now it’s time to be gentle with yourself and realize that you could be even more productive by establishing some ground rules that work for you. You owe it to your organization, your customers or constituents, and most of all, to yourself.