True Confessions

The Gift of Time

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During the holiday season, it’s easy to get caught up in the frenzy of consumerism. Every where I look I’m bombarded with ads for cool gadgets, special holiday sale pricing, tantalizing offers of free shipping and extra freebies, and a persistent message to buy, buy, buy.

In Canada, my home for the last 12 years, the holiday season starts near Halloween. We don’t have a holiday between October and December to distract us from buying gifts for 2 months straight. Canada even now offers Black Friday sales in November to match the US, even though Canadian Thanksgiving happens on the 2nd Monday in October.

It’s easy to succumb to the pressure (and guilt) and start buying things at this time of year.  Even things you might not have considered purchasing if you weren’t inundated with promotionals and infected with “the holiday spirit.” However, one thing many of us want, but rarely get, is the gift of time. The tricky thing about time is that once it’s spent, it can’t be regained. It’s done, never to be repeated again. It can’t be returned, exchanged, or traded in for something better. We all get one shot at the time we have.

Some months ago I read an article in the New York Times, “Want to Be Happy? Buy More Takeout and Hire a Maid, Study Suggests.” The article reports the findings of a study that people who spent money on timesaving services experienced increased levels of happiness. Timesaving services mentioned in the article included things like ordering takeout, hiring a house cleaner, or paying someone to run errands for you. If these are things that you hate doing, it makes sense to me that hiring someone to do them for you would increase your happiness. Not only do you not have to do the dreaded task, but you also have more free time to do something you would rather be doing.

So for this holiday season, enjoy the time you are spending with your loved ones. It’s not about the presents. Give yourself the gift of time and take an afternoon off to do something you really enjoy. Or, if you’re still scrambling around for gifts to buy, consider giving your loved ones time by offering to do something such as babysit the kids, clean part of the house, prepare a dinner, or pick up the groceries. The gift of time is precious.

Digital Dilemma

Avoiding Spoilers

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It’s harder than ever to avoid spoilers for shows or movies that you may be interested in watching. This past weekend, on Sunday, I went to see Star Wars: The Last Jedi in the movie theater. It was only 4 days after it was released, but even so, I had concerns about how to avoid reading, or hearing, about the movie until I could actually see it.

I had a number of friends and colleagues who all rushed to see the movie on opening night. Afterwards, I was careful to only ask them if they thought the movie was worth seeing, while artfully dodging any other questions that may have inadvertently led to spoilers.

Even reading a review, or synopsis, about a show or movie can contain spoilers. Some authors are better than others about marking reviews and articles with a “spoiler alert” message. I recall once reading about the next season for a program I was watching, only to discover I could figure out everything that happened from reading the small synopsis for each episode. Talk about spoilers! And there wasn’t even a warning.

Sometimes, spoilers can be verbal, and can happen on radio programs, during interviews, or even with an innocent discussion. Or from a news source that’s totally unrelated. A colleague of mine, who incidentally is a huge Star Wars fan, shared with me how she was inadvertently exposed to a big spoiler for the previous Star Wars film in 2015. This colleague was being mindful to avoid any source that could potentially have information about the movie. Shortly before she went to see the movie, a big spoiler was randomly posted (with no warning), in a magazine about an unrelated topic, like gardening.

I’m not sure what the solution is, other than to avoid all news, social media, and casual conversations until after the threat of spoilers has past for you. Or learn to live with the disappointment. It’s almost impossible to control this type of information flow. Or to predict how and when it will appear. And at what point does a “spoiler” stop being a spoiler? Surely after enough time has passed, it’s ok to share certain things….

Digital Dilemma, True Confessions

Irony of the Information Age

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We have instant access to so much information. Instead of making us more knowledgeable and informed, it can often have the opposite effect. There’s too much available, and too many things of dubious quality. And it’s too easy for false information to go “viral” polluting news streams in a matter of seconds.

It’s easier than ever to access information about anything, but harder to trust the quality of the sources, or to figure out what’s relevant. Searching Google with just a few words, for example, often yields millions of results, more than anyone could possibly go through. And yet, most people will never go past the first page, relying on the advertisements and top 10 hits to find what they need.

We’re inundated with snazzy headlines, cool things to read, entertaining videos, all vying for a few seconds of our attention. The value of the information is often questionable, but that doesn’t deter us from watching, reading, and sharing these items of interest. We can now learn from our peers as well as reputable experts in a given field, making it that much harder to know who to trust.

I often read peer reviews when I’m thinking about purchasing something new, or trying a new restaurant to get a general sense of the item’s worthiness. However, even with peer reviews, I’m always evaluating the quality of the review and ratings to ascertain if a product is really a bad product, or if maybe a particular individual just couldn’t figure out how to use it thus resulting in a low rating.

Listicles are popular reading for many people.The Merriam-Webster online dictionary defines a listicle as “an article consisting of a series of items presented as a list” (source). They are often seen as a good way to ingest a few golden nuggets of quality information. If you’re like me and don’t have time to read dozens of articles about something, a listicle provides highlights in an easy to read, digestible format. However, I can never be sure how many items were looked at to produce the listicle, what criteria was used or how extensive the search process was. Unless I’m reading listicles from a reputable source, I’m always curious to know what didn’t make the list, and why it was eliminated.

We live in the information age, but if the quality declines as the quantity increases, is that a benefit for us?

 

 

 

True Confessions

Under Construction

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Few things feel as disruptive in the home as going through renovations. Space must be made. Things are moved around, piled up, bagged, or stacked, sometimes for an extended period of time. All while I’m trying to get through my day-to-day life.

Earlier this year, my building decided to replace the windows on all of the units. Ever since I found frost on the inside of my bedroom window my first winter here, I’ve been an advocate for the window replacement project. However, it’s challenging to keep up the enthusiasm when the actual work is being performed. For each window installation, 5 feet of space has to be cleared in front of the window. And it has to stay that way for days, sometimes weeks, until all the work is finished. Furniture is piled up away from the windows and covered with drop cloths. And no curtains.

In order to keep my sanity throughout the process, I rely on a few things I learned from moving. The first trick is to adjust (i.e., temporarily suspend) my expectations and standards. I have to get used to looking at stuff piled up and remind myself it’s temporary.

Another adaptation is planning extra time for routine tasks, some of which may take longer because everything is displaced. For example, my designated practice area was consumed by stuff relocated temporarily from the living room. Consequently, I now have to move things around to recreate a suitable space, and take it down when I’m finished. Cleaning also takes longer, and it needs to be performed daily during the construction period. So much dust!

Now that I know the construction will go on for longer than anticipated, because something always comes up, I work that into the plan too. When I move everything, I make sure to keep things I may need easily accessible. And I designate special places for critical items such as keys, phones, wallet, chargers, etc.

One of the most important things for me has been to maintain one space that I can use for an oasis when it feels crazy. This time around, I’ve been able to keep my bedroom clean and clear.

If I ever get renos done in the future, I’ll be adding money to the budget to stay somewhere else for the duration of the work.

Digital Dilemma, True Confessions

Cyber Sales

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Around this time of year, it’s easy to get caught up in the fever of “Black Friday” and “Cyber Monday” sales. Along with these two highly publicized annual events come some other aspects of the season that remain behind the scenes. In addition to being inundated with Black Friday/ Cyber Monday Sales [enter shop here], I also can’t help but think about price discrimination, targeted advertising, and customized sales & advertisements.

By now, I’m sure most people who use the internet and mobile devices have some idea that their actions are being tracked and monitored. Whenever this topic comes up in conversation, I’m always surprised at how many people shrug their shoulders and say, I’ve got nothing to hide. What are they going to find? Whether this is true or not, does it make it ok for companies to learn that much about us? To collect data every time we go somewhere or buy something to analyze our habits? To scan our interactions on social media and in email for keywords?

I’ve blogged about these issues before (here and here), but every year it seems that the apps and services get even better at tracking my movements. While I don’t have anything to “hide”, I do have something to protect. And therein lies the difference in the subtle shifts happening to us regarding how we interact with and perceive all these services. The tendency is to perceive tracking/monitoring as a way to catch illegal, criminal, or shady activities. And while this is one reason for tracking and monitoring, it’s also a way for companies to learn more about us. Once armed with this information, companies are then perfectly poised to exploit our vulnerabilities and target us with exactly the right formula to get us to spend money. They learn our spending tolerance (i.e., how much are we willing to spend for…) and then adjust the costs based on our individual price points (also known as “price discrimination”).

Many people enjoy getting customized coupons or advertisements exactly for the products (services) they want to acquire. And in some cases, it can be really useful if you’re waiting for a sale to purchase a particular item, for example. However, I can’t trust the “sale” price I’m seeing, even if it’s at my desired price point.

Convenience always comes with a compromise on control, and it’s important to consider who’s controlling what these days.

 

Productivity

Put a Date on it!

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One of my biggest peeves is when information/documents/records don’t have a date. Dates can be incredibly useful on things such as cards (birthdays, events, holiday), notes, to-do lists, documents (paper and electronic), event posters, and notifications. When dealing with web content, the date is critical for information. How else will I know if what I’m looking at is relevant and timely?

My job often requires me to analyze documents and records retroactively. I encounter both printed and electronic documents without dates. Without a date, sometimes it’s really challenging to evaluate the validity of the information. The computer will automatically provide a create or a last-modify date, but many times this date can’t be trusted if documents (photos) were migrated (moved) from one machine, or system, to another one.  Often when this happens, the migration date becomes the “create” date making it almost impossible to know when the document was originally created. Unless somebody put the date on the actual document.

Why is this important?

A date is a quick way to provide context to content. It helps to create a timeline of what happened when. It’s invaluable for assessing if something is truly outdated, or if it still has some value. Or for identifying the most current version of something.

I’ve started adding the year to event promotions. The event date is usually for something happening in the near future, so the year isn’t necessary.  However, I find adding in the year makes it useful later, when I’m looking back to see what was done previously. For example, I run a workshop called “Tax Talks” every spring for small business owners. I find it helpful to have the month, day, and year on the promotionals so I can compare one year to the next.

When I cleaned out my childhood bedroom I went through boxes of old artwork. Since my artistic skills never progressed past a 2nd-grade level, I found it difficult to figure out what I made at a given age. Now I tell all my friends who have children to write a month/year on the back of the artwork. It seems insignificant now, but will provide valuable information later on.

Adding the date is easy, the hard part is making it a habit. I still forget sometimes, but I usually remember to write the date on everything, even post-it notes, to continually reinforce the habit.