An Integrated Life

Pat S. was giving me a talking to at the party last night about the adverse health effects of getting overextended.  "You've got to learn to say 'no' more often...  You've got to be careful about how much you take on..."   I've gotten that message from a couple of other quarters in recent weeks and it's true that I did become stretched a little thin this spring.  But it's all been interesting and worthwhile.   (Like I was going to say "No" when Tone gave me the opportunity to go talk to the Elsevier managers?  Or I was going to turn Bonnie MacEwan down when she asked me to come to her library and be the speaker for her Library Week celebration?)

As I told Pat, I always try to be sure that I build in recharging time.  It's been years since I thought of myself as having a "work-week" that ran for a contiguous nine or ten hours a day five days a week.  Now I make use of the entire 24x7.  But this doesn't mean that I work any more hours, I think, than somebody in my position might have twenty-five years ago.  I just spread those hours around differently.  The technology makes it possible.  So, for example, when I went to DC for the new director's seminar, I went in a day early, and took Monday to go see the Hokusai show, and revisit Cezanne and Dada at the NGA, and linger with those marvelous little Whistlers at the Freer.   During breaks in the meetings, and late in the evenings, on the following days, I kept up with email and a couple of other projects as well.

As wireless becomes increasingly ubiquitous, I can do much of what I need to do from wherever I am.  And the multi-tasking that is supposedly the hallmark of the millennial kids has been second nature as long as I can remember (my favorite current example being at the NLM planning panel meeting awhile back when MJ and I, sitting at opposite ends of the long conference table, were actively participating in the discussion at hand, while also emailing each other about some of the AAHSL committee work that we're engaged in).

On Tuesday, Lynn and I will drive to Savannah.  The Bearded Pigs are providing the pre- and post-banquet entertainment at the Off Campus Library Services conference (which has a great program, by the way).  I'll bring the laptop and work happily for several hours each day from the hotel room.  We'll take a little time to explore some of Savannah.  And I'll spend several hours playing music with friends.

We talk about "work-life balance" as if these are competing interests.  But what we really need is a fully integrated life.  I was talking with one of the seminar attendees about this.  There is always more work to do and if you're not careful, you can burn yourself out.  So you have to be disciplined about building in the time for those things that revivify you.   Some people need to get completely away -- take a few days off from email and phone calls and work worries -- to recharge.   That's never been my style.  The library is never far from my thoughts, and I like it that way.  At some level I'm always trying to figure out the next step or resolve some dilemma or see my way to some creative way of addressing the next challenge.   What keeps me fresh is the variety -- to explore a new city for a couple of hours, or pop into a splendid museum, or see a great unknown local punk band in some dive -- and then get back to the laptop, the email, the projects at hand.

A few months after my dad died, my Mom came to St. Louis to stay for a few weeks.  She came to the library to see where I worked and what I did there, and she came to the Venice Cafe when I was playing music, and she walked along with the crew in the Soulard Mardi Gras parade.  Near the end of the trip she said that the different parts of my life made sense to her now, that she hadn't quite been able to see, from a distance, how it all fit together, but that watching me day to day, in all of my various aspects, she could see how it all worked.

Which doesn't mean, of course, that it's not still a challenge to avoid getting overextended, and I am determined to lighten up the travel schedule some in the coming months.  Maybe I can spend more time just tackling three things at once rather than four...

Comments

[MarkD]

I am a bit more sceptical then you about the benefits of an integrated life and the benefits of the new technology in general.

I have a joke that I always tell my European friends. The joke is told as follows:

The problem with the internet is that it was invented and run by Americans.

Americans rarely get this joke, Europeans immediately understand what I mean.

All the new technology, and the internet in particular, feed and enhance the American pathology to always do more. Americans equate more with better. Europeans have a different understanding of what constitutes a balanced life. Scott you praise your technological tools because they allow you to work 24/7, as you say. Europeans would condemn these new tools for precisely the same reason. You say you like the technology because it allows you to freely choose which hours you will work. Europeans would say that it enslaves you to constant work. Where is the truth in this? It is hard to say.

As for me, I hold the technophiles to account. They told me that this technology would make my life better, easier. They told me that it would free me up to do the things I want to do; that the technology would aid me by giving me more time. If you judged the new technology based on the sole criteria of providing more time, you would have to judge it a gigantic failure. I haven’t met a single person who has told me they have more time. In fact, just the opposite is true. People complain about being too busy.

In the end, I think the technology does have the potential to make life better. But that will only happen when we learn new ways of managing it. The beauty of the old technology lay in the fact that it was static, that it was not easily transported. The static nature of the old technology allowed us to escape from it and recoup on a regular basis. In the old days, you couldn’t bring the office home, you couldn’t bring your phone with you. You were forced to put it aside. But on the other hand, you are correct to point out that the mobility of the net can free you (if you manage it wisely). Scott, maybe you are the pioneer. Maybe you have found the way. The secret is controlling the technology to serve you and not the other way around. I fear though my friend that you are in a distinct minority.

As for me, I am one of those people who like to escape the technology every now and again. Australia makes it easy. There are many parts of this country (the majority in fact) where broad band and wireless signals are not available. We have this little cabin we go to three hours north of Sydney. There are no mobile phone signals, there are no broadband connections, just endless breathtaking beaches, unspoiled bush, and the sound of Kukaborras in the morning air. When I am there, I am even content knowing that (momentarily) I cannot read your blog.

[T Scott]

Tools are just tools and you are quite right that it depends on what we do with them. That was part of my message to the person at the new director's seminar -- there is a discipline required in making sure that you find time for those things that recharge and refresh you, regardless of what they are. It is easy to let the communication tools run you ragged. As a different example, Lynn and I never answer our home phone -- we let the answering machine do that. If it's someone we know, we pick up. But we don't feel obliged to answer the damn thing just because somebody is calling.

[whitneydt]

"...when MJ and I, sitting at opposite ends of the long conference table, were actively participating in the discussion at hand, while also emailing each other about some of the AAHSL committee work that we're engaged in"

Emailing? Seriously? Let me talk to you about the wonders of instant messaging.

[T Scott]

I use IM quite a bit -- in this case, since I didn't know what names/services MJ might be using, I would've had to email her anyway to get that info. (It would've been considered poor manners to holler down the conference table, "Hey MJ, what's yr yahoo name?") There's also the drawback with IM that it (at least the Yahoo version I'm most familiar with) doesn't easily keep a record and sometimes it's handy to have one. IM, on the other hand, is great for those occasions where you definitely do NOT want a record of the conversation...

[Steve Lawson]

> IM, on the other hand, is great for those occasions where you definitely do NOT want a record of the conversation...

Whoa, don't be so sure of that! I log all my chats, so you might not have a record on your end, but I would on mine.

More importantly, nice post. I could use a bit more integration and less disintegration in my life these days.