To help you understand why I have taken this view, let me recount an experience years ago where I was sitting in my boss’s office.  We were in the middle of a deep-and-meaningful and the phone rang.  The phone conversation went on for some time, so long that I gestured to him that I would leave.  He indicated I should stay, so of course I eavesdropped on the rest of the conversation.

At the conclusion of the phone call – maybe about ten minutes – my boss took out a memo pad and started writing.

He wrote – non-stop, for several minutes – without stopping to correct mistakes or pausing to think, signed the memo and put it in his out tray.

They key statement here is that many of us have lost – or never bothered to learn – some key personal productivity skills: drafting, composition, dictation and maybe even shorthand.  I knew a fellow years ago who used shorthand to help him think more quickly!

It is this interest in technology that has caused some who know me well to class me as a Generation Y “born out of due time” (1 Cor 15:8).  Whether I really am a gadget geek, technocrat or a wannabe GenY, the main point is that I have long been interested in seeing people derive maximum benefit in their investment in technology.

I am convinced that in many ways the advent of the computer has actually detracted from our personal productivity. Take drafting a report for example.  In the old days, we used to think about the structure of the report, make some notes, start writing and stop when we are finished.  Now, with the computer, we (at least this is the way I do it) write a bit here, a bit there, go check an email, visit a website to do some more research, and later on come back to the report.  Then we use Word Count every 15 minutes to see if we have written enough!

Let me know what you think!