Life's Operating System

The classic definition of a system is that it is a set of procedures or operations that are used to achieve a specific result.  We don’t think of our lives as having an operating system and in fact I would argue that most people do not see the value of understanding their inherent system.  What we often see instead is that we have desires or even goals but no systems. Goals are important, but a goal does not help us to understand how to achieve the desired result.  A system is required to move us forward incrementally to results we desire.  Understanding your system is an important hack.

I think that it would be beneficial to view life from the perspective of having an operating system.  For the sake of simplicity lets call this Life Operating System or LiOS.  As I thought about this I began to wonder if there would be versions of this operating system.  I have concluded that there should be.  As we mature it is likely that we would use different versions of an operating system.  As an example in the earliest stages of life version 1 would include the very basics of life learning such as learning to sleep, talk and walk.  In our early learning years we might be using OS 2.  Adolescence would bring on OS 3 while adulthood might be OS 4, etc.  Each version would include features that build upon the previous versions yet the upgrades would be essential to our continuum of growth and maturity.  

I am well over 50.  By my rough estimate I am now utilizing LiOS 7.  If you are wondering, I do not imagine that there would be ten versions.  In LiOS 7 there are a number of key features.  In this version those fortunate enough to have established a career and family are also likely very busy.  This version comes with features to manage that busyness.  Features include the ability to reduce distractions, connectedness, and awareness of the need for renewal,  Another feature is the ability to maintain relevance.

If we assume that we are all users of our respective operating systems then it becomes important to learn the features and benefits of that system.  Here is what I have learned about LiOS 7.  Experience, wisdom and hope are key features. Exercise and diet are also features.  Not every feature of this system is positive.  While there would be an inclination to call these negative features bugs, I have just come to recognize that like most operating systems we are likely to not want all the features that are built in.  One such reality is that the system does come to an end.  This is one constant in all versions.

What do you think are other features of this operating system?  How might this approach benefit our thinking?  Finally, what are you doing to master your system.

Are You a Basket Case?

Clutter is a great distraction.  There are a number of solutions to reducing clutter but the one that I see implemented most often is the placing of “baskets” in those places that tend to collect clutter.  I am fairly organized and as I write this in my office I notice that there are no less than fifteen such containers.  Not all of them are baskets.  I have a couple of wooden boxes, there are metal tins, and two large wooden boxes.  Each of these items were acquired with the intent of organizing my clutter.  I am guessing that each time I have introduced a new container the idea has worked.  The problem is that every time my office becomes cluttered I acquire a new basket of some sort.  This is how I arrived at more than fifteen.   I don’t know the contents of all the containers but several of them are full.

Baskets take up physical space.  Yet, they don’t exist just in our offices.  There are a number of other physical and virtual containers in our lives.  Your email inbox is one of those places.  The Task or To Do List serves as another container and then there are all the paper notes.  There are cloud containers such as Dropbox and Evernote.  These are all wonderful tools but they can be like just another basket.  Just yesterday I decided to clean up the clutter on my computer desktop.  I moved the files to a folder called “Desktop to vet” this sounded very organized when I created it yesterday.  I just checked and there are 102 files.  That is not organized.

I have way too many “baskets” in my life.  This is not a post about getting to inbox zero.  Rather, I am just concerned that we are holding too much stuff.  I am suggesting that we need to empty the containers and I can certainly say that in my case I need to reduce the number of baskets.  

The following is my plan.  First, I am committing to review the contents of at least one container every day.  The goal is to make decisions about where stuff belongs.  Each day I will place the contents in an appropriate long term location which will frequently include deleting, giving away, or throwing away items.  My goal is to reduce baskets and know their contents.  Here are some examples of potential baskets.  Empty the Trash on your computer;  Delete no less than 25 email messages every day;  Remove papers from your briefcase or purse;  Read the notes in your notebook and file them in an appropriate place:  Make decisions about files on your desktop and delete them.  Reduce your cloud storage.  Open an actual basket and get rid of stuff.  Do this every day.  Start today.

Will you join me in assessing just how many “baskets” you have in your life and empty a few?  Hit me back to share your thoughts.

Pre-Game Warm-Up Routine

This is not a blog about sports which might make today’s title a bit misleading.  Although, as often happens in life the inspiration for the post came from watching a sporting event.  

On Friday night I had a chance to watch the beginning of the Miami Heat basketball game.  This is not typical for me but while channel surfing I saw that the Heat game was about to begin so I stopped on the channel.  While sitting there watching I watched LeBron James during the pre-game warm-ups.  I observed him smiling, taking shots and generally having a relaxing time on the court.  As I continued to watch it appeared that several players decided to practice dunking the ball.  In the short few minutes that followed I watched a number of spectacular dunks executed by LeBron that made me wonder why he does not participate in the NBA dunk competition.  Admittedly it was fun to watch and caused me to stay tuned to the game longer than I might otherwise have done.

The thought of watching the players in their pre-game routine stayed with me for much of the weekend.  I know that for athletes pre-game activities are an important part of the game itself.  You can see them stretching, throwing the ball, running the bases or running routes.  All of this activity is designed to help them perform better during the game.  While I am not much of an athlete, this caused me to think about my own routines and I realized that in many ways I have a pre-game routine.  While the game I play in is far different from a sports competition, the game requires me to be “on” and at my best.  My routine starts when I wake up which more often than not happens around 5:00am.  I don’t normally wake to an alarm clock but find myself naturally becoming aware that I am awake.  When I am on my regular schedule I am fairly guaranteed that this will happen around the same time every day, even on weekends.  Once awake I lay in bed for a while just processing my thoughts and observing where my mind is.  I think about my dreams from the prior night and I begin to think through my day.  This typically lasts for about 10 to 15 minutes but I usually do not fall back to sleep as I wake up feeling rested.  Once up I go through the typical morning routines that we all have around personal hygiene and then I start my morning exercise which is followed by my shower then a light breakfast.  I do this routine no less than four days each week and I strive to make it six.  I find on the days that I follow my routine I feel best and my energy level and focus is highest.  I am working to make morning meditation a part of this routine as I think it would help my overall outlook and performance during the day.  

You might note in this that I did not mention email.  That is not part of my morning routine.  Most days I do not look at email prior to at least 7:00am and sometimes slightly longer.  Email is just not the best way to start a productive day.

The question that I am asking my readers to ponder today is this.  Do you have a pre-game routine that you follow?  Does your routine boost your energy and improve your outlook?  And finally, what changes do you need to make to start your day off with a smile and bounce in your step?

This is What I Think

As a person more oriented to introversion than extroversion I find that I spend lots of time thinking.  Sometimes we call this living in our head and while that is helpful, I think that sometimes you need to flesh out those thoughts and take the time to examine them externally.  As I have written before  I take lots of notes on paper which are intended to capture many of the thoughts I have during the week.  Looking back at those notes some of my thoughts are random, some have spurred ideas, some express a frustration, and some are worth celebrating.  I decided that today I would share just a few of the thoughts I have captured from the past week.

So here is what I think:

I think it says a lot about our nation that we began this week worried about who wore what on the Red Carpet and we are ending our week worried about the impact of federal budget cuts.  I think that Sequester is dumb for both sides.  But I also think that neither side has it right yet.  We should manage our expenses and monitor our revenue.  If you need a history lesson on this examine the airline industry since the 80s.  I think that having breakfast with my uncles this week was one of the highlights of my week.  I think that just because someone does not share your point of view that does not make them aggressive or your enemy.  I think that we should strive to wake up by 5:00am.  If you are tired at that time then you stayed up too late.  I think we should listen longer to people, and open doors.  I think that if you hug someone you should hold on until they let go.  I think that you should not read your email first thing in the morning.  I doubt it is really that important.  I think that you should spend the time during which you are not reading email to meditate, pray, exercise and organize your day.  I think that we should drink water in the morning before we drink caffeine (by the way it will cause you to drink less caffeine).  I think that Jack Lalanne had it right that there are too many unhappy people.  If you are too young to know who that is you should watch this he was not perfect and he did not live forever, but his views about health still resonate.  I think we should exercise six days each week.  I don’t always achieve that but it remains a goal that I focus on.  I think you should take the time to know how your phone and computer actually work.  These are powerful productivity tools.  I think that those of us over 45 should check our Blood Pressure more often.  I learned this last week and was shocked.  I think you should know who your partners are and make sure you are adding value to them.  I think that we all need a cheering section (thanks Chuck).  I also think that we should be  part of the cheering section for someone else.  Start by cheering those that you love.  I think there should be a perceptible difference between your waist and your chest.  I also think that most americans already have achieved that but perhaps we should change the perception.  I think that time is a resource that should never be wasted.  I also think that the greatest poverty in our world is the failure to pay attention (thanks Brian Tome).  Finally, I think that you need a notebook to capture your thoughts.

Thanks for listening.  What do you think?

Are You Listening

Yesterday I boarded a flight to Philadelphia.  That is nothing new as when you live in Pittsburgh to fly most places you either fly to Philly or to Charlotte.  The good news was that Philly was my final destination.  What was very different about the flight was that my seat was one row from the rear of the plane.  Normally I would prefer not to sit that far back but this was only a short flight.  

As seems to happen more and more often this flight was full.  Since we were flying mid-day there were a number of business people with their briefcases, backpacks, and pretty much everything else they were allowed to carry on to the plane.  There was even a young mother carrying a fairly young child joining us in the back of the plane.  Sometimes when I see a young baby I get a bit anxious as flying is not yet normal for them and can be upsetting.  Actually, I wonder whether flying is normal for anyone even those that fly frequently.  

Our flight attendant got everyone boarded about fifteen minutes early.  This was no small feat.  Then she proceeded to make an announcement explaining why she was moving us along so quickly.  It turns out that yesterday was the equivalent of her Friday (it was Tuesday for me) and she had a date in Philadelphia.  The point being she wanted to get home and get ready.  She then proceeded to make all of the customary announcements that are required by law and airline safety rules.  I have heard these announcements thousands of times yet I still stop what I am doing to listen.  Perhaps because I typically sit in the front of the aircraft I listen as a means of being polite to the person that will be serving me for the duration of the flight.  It is also possible that I listen because I think it is prudent to do so.  Either way, I do listen.  

As I sat in the rear of the plane what I observed was that very few of my fellow passengers were listening at all.  I saw people playing with their stuff, wearing their headphones, and texting/reading email, but very few were listening.  At one point our flight attendant said in her Philadelphia accent “lissen.”  That did not seem to work.  When the plane was taxiing to the runway there were still a number of people that had to be told to remove their headphones, and turn off their electronic devices.  This included my seat mate who was asked by a pilot after repeated requests, to turn his phone off (it was ringing at the time).

I think that we are becoming a society that does not listen very much.  We have way too many ways to ignore the people around us and given that most of us carry our personal information and entertainment everywhere we go why would we listen to anyone at all?  The problem is that in failing to listen we are also failing to learn.  We are missing the world around us.  We are not seeing because we are not listening and when we don’t see we can’t be productive.  See what I am saying?

All year I have been hearing the same message over and over again.  I am listening and waiting to see what this is all about, and as a final note I hope that flight attendant had a great date since I was listening.  

Are you listening?  Listening requires action.  What are you going to do?  If you want to read more about listening Go Here  If you like this post please post a link on FaceBook or Twitter.  I would like to know if you are listening.

The Greatness Guy

I was having a conversation with a colleague in a coffee shop several months ago.  We talked about family, philosophy, exercise and food.  Pretty much the usual conversation when you meet someone in person for the first time.  As we got around to the work that we were preparing for that day my colleague shared with me his role based approach to his job.  On the surface someone that did not really know him would say that he has a sales role in our organization.  However, my colleague told me that he sees himself as a “Greatness Guy.”

To the uninformed, my colleague’s self-ascribed title might seem a bit arrogant.  But this bears a fuller explanation.  We work for FranklinCovey.  Our organization has as its mission the following:  We enable greatness in people and organizations everywhere.  My colleague (we can call him Mark since that is his real name) sees his role in sales in our company as one of creating opportunities for greatness for our clients.  Thus, the role of Greatness Guy.  

I was thinking about Mark today and that statement came back to me.  Imagine what might be different in your world if you stopped seeing yourself from just your job title.  Let’s say you are a third grade school teacher but instead see yourself as a Creator of Curious Minds.  Or rather than seeing yourself as a Manager see yourself as a Communicator of your team’s Worth and Potential.  As a Mom you could see yourself as a  Character and Competence Coach.  Or for yourself you could become a Corporate Athlete.

What Mark has realized is that there is great power in thinking about our roles from a different perspective.  When we focus on the outcomes we want to achieve we can see and do things differently.  Your accountability increases, and you establish a clear set of expectations about what you can be counted on to do and achieve.

A significant part of being productive is to first decide what you really want to achieve. We can choose to decide for ourselves what we want to do or we can wait until the priorities of others dictate our responses.  A focused and proactive approach to our own most important outcomes and priorities is fulfilling and increases the chances that we might actually get something done that really matters.

Oh yes, and as for Mark, he is not just selling solutions, he is enabling greatness with people and organizations around the world.  What roles do you play that you need to think about differently?  Let me know what you think.

Productivity is About Getting Things Done

This past week I had the opportunity to work with a couple of different organizations on improving their productivity.  I find often times that at the end of the session I get several comments from people that indicate that they appreciate the ideas and that they are anxious to begin to apply the concepts.  That feels fulfilling at the end of a long day working with a large group.  But, when you think about it that is not the point of spending time working on productivity concepts.

What we really want as a tangible outcome from a day focused on Productivity is an improvement in the amount of work we get done.  Whether you are improving your email processing, reducing the size of your inbox, or defining your roles and goals, none of this will matter if you don’t deliver your projects on time.  

Determine what works for you to get done the things that you really need to do.  If the systems you are using cause you to spend more time on them than you do on doing your real work, then it is time for a new system.  Remember, the choices we make each day should lead us to greater levels of productivity, not organized and systemic procrastination.

Choose well.

You Don't Have An Email Problem

I read an interesting article in TechCrunch over the weekend that offered a compelling defense of email. The article acknowledges that email has gotten out of control and that certain segments of our population (think millennials and other tech savvy groups) see email as bloated, outmoded, and very old school. To a degree I can see their point of view.  There are certainly other forms of instant communication that can be efficient for the “I need it right now” crowd. Urgency addiction aside, I believe that there is still a important role for email and that rather than email being the problem, the problem is more than likely you.  We don't have a problem with email, rather we have accumulated a series of bad habits as it relates to our use and abuse of the medium. 

Think for a moment about the ways in which you typically use email each day. If you are like many people you check email first thing in the morning (probably on a smartphone), often times before you are even fully awake and usually before you have your first cup of your preferred morning beverage. Things can fall apart right there. If you have received a message related to work you are most likely to move into work mode almost instantly. Perhaps this has even changed your morning plans as now you believe you need to get to the office as quickly as possible to deal with that problem. If, however you did survive the morning look at your messages without any significant problems you may now be likely to check your messages a few more times during your commute (there is just something about those unopened messages). When you do get to the office you sit down and turn on your computer and once again the very first thing you are likely to see is email. Every one of these actions is based on a series of habits you have likely formed over a number of years. These habits are typically at play without you even acknowledging them. Have you stopped to ask yourself lately if they are serving you well?  

Every day people complain about the volume of email messages they receive or about the size of their inbox. While many of the complaints are valid, I rarely see people actively engaged in changing the situation. There are solutions available. But there are also a number of myths that complicate the ways in which we interact with our email inbox.

The first myth is that email is bad. I read about companies that are abolishing email.  Some schedule days when email is not permitted as in no email Fridays.  The sense is that eliminating email will make them more productive. I doubt seriously that this is true. I know that in my world the abolition of email would make many of my client and personal interactions much less efficient, and likely far less timely. 

The second myth is that we should strive for "Inbox Zero."  To me this seems absurd. In a world where many of us receive an average of 150 emails each day striving for inbox zero could easily consume more than three hours of your day.  If we assume that you do receive an average of 150 emails each day, and your average processing time for these messages is a mere two minutes each, you would spend five hours each day to achieve inbox zero.  I quite imagine that spending this much time keeping your inbox empty would be at a considerable costs to the other areas where you are accountable for results.  

The third myth is that you don’t need a system for handling email.  This is perhaps the greatest myth of all since it is likely that more people ascribe to this myth than the previous two.  You need a system.  A system is simply a set of detailed methods, procedures and routines created to carry out a specific activity, perform a duty, or solve a problem.  Or to quote Orison Swett Marden, “A good system shortens the road to the goal.”  While I have indicated above that your goal should not be inbox zero, you do still need to manage your email, and that is best accomplished by employing a system that works for you.

So, if you have bad habits related to email it is time to change those habits.  Email can be a very helpful and productive tool when you apply solid habits.  As a starting place you should determine what are the requirements in terms of email response time in your organization or culture.  I have found that this is one of those great assumptions we have about our workplaces.  It is likely that your assumptions about email response time is greater than your work culture requires.  Determining what is required will free you up to determine how often you should process your inbox.  While three times each day is likely not to be an effective method for your workplace, it is also likely that 30 to 50 times each day would be considered excessive and unnecessary.  You need to find the proper balance that works for you. 

Once you know how many times per day you should process your messages next look for ways to reduce the actual handling time per message.  An example of viable ways to do that would be rules in Outlook or Lotus Notes or Filters in Gmail. Applying rules or filters can automate the processing of a considerable number of messages, perhaps as much as 25% of the messages you receive could be processed by a rule or filter.

Finally, create your own set of verbs that describe how you will process messages.  I use five.  They are Do, Delete, Archive, Label, and Later.  When processing messages I apply one of these verbs to every message I open or review.  This simplifies processing as I have reduced the number of decisions I must make in order to process each message.  Using this method I can power through a significant number of messages during each of my “processing sessions” which happen every time I choose to open my inbox.  I try to never open the inbox unless I have time for a processing session even if that means as little as 5 or 10 minutes.  You will be amazed as to how efficient this can be.

My final thoughts about your email habits relates to the ways in which we choose to be notified of our incoming messages.  I prefer to turn off all notifications, badges, and alerts related to incoming messages.  These turn out to be merely audible, visual, and at times physical (when you use the vibrate feature on a phone) distractions.  I take the position that I will always have new messages and therefore there is no reason to check to see if that is true.  Further, by deciding when I can process messages I am more focused when I do check my email.  This requires a significant amount of discipline which I admit I fail at from time to time.  Still, the key is to begin to make this a habit and like the formation of all good habits it takes time before they stick.

I would love to hear your thoughts and comments below.  Also, for those that read this post if you think it would be helpful to a friend or colleague please feel free to forward the link or email the post.   

I Still Write Notes on Paper

In a world of ever proliferating digital devices it is in some ways surprising that we are still taking notes on paper.  Yet, despite the many promises and predictions that have been made, paper based notes are still one of the primary ways in which individuals create and keep notes.  The challenge today however is that while many are still taking notes on paper the sheer volume of information we create, receive and need to retain puts a strain on our ability to keep up with those same notes.  In addition, we are challenged today to be able to find the notes after they are written.  I have personally seen many different systems which are attempts to integrate paper with digital notes but each of these systems is either redundant or assumes a level of extra work that most people are unlikely to continue to do over time.  While I remain a huge proponent of digital based notes, I find that in my day-to-day work I still have a need for notes on paper.  Even this document which is clearly being created digitally was first sketched out in my Moleskine notebook.  

I have developed a system for taking notes on paper that is really an evolution of the way in which I formerly took notes using a Franklin Planner.  The system I use allows me to take paper notes without having a need to digitize those notes, while still making the notes searchable.  Using my system requires a few decisions and some discipline.  What follows is an outline of my system with a bit of guidance provided along the way.  Please note that this is a fairly long post due to the number of specific directions. 

To make the best or optimum use of this system you must first decide if your workflow can be accomplished using just one notebook.  This is a very important consideration since the need to have multiple notebooks would make this system cumbersome.  My own life and work does allow for the use of one notebook which I carry at all times (even on weekends).  Once a decision has been made to limit my notebook entries to just one book then the type of book becomes the next critical decision.  I personally use the Moleskine Ruled Notebook in the hard cover 5 X 8.25 size.  This book is large enough for taking notes during meetings and telephone calls but is also small enough to carry with me.  The hard cover works well when I am taking notes in my lap such as while waiting in airports, sitting on planes (another feature is that paper notebooks are permitted to remain “on” during takeoff and landing) or moving about throughout the day.  

The Moleskine notebooks have 260 pages.  Typically for my use the notebook will last between three and five months depending on my work schedule and the time of year.  The Moleskine notebook is more expensive than most notebooks.  In stores such as Target or Barnes and Noble they can cost about $18.00.  However, there are typically very competitive prices for these notebooks on Amazon.  Lately I have been able to purchase books for around $10.00 each.  Despite the cost I have found that the binding in a Moleskine book is such that the book will always lay flat.  The pages will not typically turn automatically thereby requiring you to hold down the page when writing.  This feature might not be important to some but this feature alone has made me a loyal Moleskine user.  By the way, the Moleskine is considered to be among the more fashionable notebooks to carry but while this is a nice bonus (it will make people see you as smarter and perhaps a bit hipper) I buy them because I like the pages, and the way the book works for me.

Once you have selected your notebook we move to setting it up.  I recommend that you place your name and contact information on the inside page.  I also like to note the date that the notebook is started as a quick reference.  The notebook I am currently using was started on October 2, 2012 and will likely last until almost the end of February given where I am in the book as of this writing.  Just as an aside I write fewer notes during the holidays and as such this book will last a full five months.

The key to making your notebook searchable is the creation of an index.  In many ways the index works in the same fashion as the index in a book.  It will be the first place you will look to find information inside the book and will save you from skimming pages when you want to find specific information.  What makes the index work is the weekly review process I will describe in the following.

To create the index I turn to the back of my notebook.  From the last page I count off six pages (starting with the last lined page of the book as the very last page is an unlined page).  The logic for counting off six pages is that it will allow for the creation of six months of index pages which is likely going to always be a minimum of one month more that you need.  Additionally, having six pages will permit each month’s index to run longer than one page if necessary but I have rarely found that to be the case.

Your sixth page (counting from the rear) will be marked for the starting month’s Index.  In my current notebook the sixth page is marked “October Index” since the notebook was started on October 2.  I write the index label at the top of the page in the center.    

Entries on the index page will be made at least weekly and in some cases more often.  I use a simple criterion to determine if an entry should be made.  When I review my notes during the week I ask myself if it is likely that I will need to review that note again.  If the answer to this question is “yes” I make a reference on the index page.  Some notes I know instantly will need to be indexed and when that is true I index those notes right away.  The references on the index page are noted with a code that tells me which page of my notebook the note is written on and will also tell me which sequence number represents the particular note.  An example would be as follows:  On the 16th of November the second note I wrote was related to my preparation for a coaching call with a client.  Since time spent coaching clients is something that I bill for this is a note I would want to quickly locate in the future.  The code I write in the index is “16-2 Coaching with the name of the client.”  This tells me that the note was written on the 16th of November and it was the second note that I wrote on that day.  The sequence is important since sometimes my notes may be several pages long.  The sequence number helps me to quickly locate the page on which this particular note is located.  

When taking notes I start each day using the right hand page in my notebook.  While I can’t say that I have a particular reason why I begin each day on the right page I think it is mostly driven by the fact that I am right handed.  For me this is the easiest place to write notes.  I generally begin each day with a blank page.  At the top of the page I write the date on the right hand side.  I typically write the date using the following format “2/1” I don’t typically include the year since the date for the beginning and the end of the notebook will be indicated on the front cover page.  When I write my first note of the day I move to the first line of the page and I write the number “1” and I place a circle around the number.  The circle denotes that this is my first note of the day.  The circle helps me to easily see that this number is the sequence number.  

I generally write my notes on the right hand side of the page.  However, during the day I frequently have a use for the left hand pages.  I call these the “notes” pages.  I will typically use the left side for jotting quick notes such as things that I am capturing quickly that may not necessarily be worthy of a sequenced note.  As an example my left hand page notes over the past week included items such as “cancel Marriott hotel”, the names of a group of people I met while conducting a course, and an address I wrote down that I needed for making a hotel reservation.  Sometimes I will index these notes but that is not typical.  Finally, I will usually use the left hand page for capturing tasks that I do not have time to put into my Task Management system.  When I do this I will note an asterisk next to the item so that I know it represents a task that I will need to either do or manage later.

All in all my system is fairly simple.  I hope that perhaps you will find it useful for managing your paper notes.  While I expect that more and more people will ultimately use digital notes I think that this system is a good way of managing those notes that we place on paper until we all move to totally digital notes.

I would very much enjoy getting your comments on this system.  Also, if you have recommendations for improvements I would love to hear them.  It has taken me about six years to make the system work for me yet I welcome an opportunity for improvements. 

Why I Left Facebook

My first technology action of the new year was to deactivate my Facebook account.  This is something I considered doing for a while but decided that today would be the day to make the move.  I noticed that while I was not very active on Facebook, the action to deactivate my account caused me to pause for a moment.  I wondered what my “friends” would think of my action.  I also wondered how I would get those occasional post out when I did choose to use the service.  I felt an uncomfortable sense of loss when I clicked the button to deactivate my account I noticed myself pausing before I clicked the button.

As I thought about leaving Facebook I examined the ways in which I have used the site.  For the most part I tend to read the posts of others.  I “like” those posts that I find fun or thought provoking and occasionally leave brief comments.  I have never forwarded a Facebook post, and my own posts are typically automated posts from the running application I use.  I also noticed that there were some 30 applications that I had granted permission to post on my behalf.  I don’t know if or when those applications have posted to my account but it certainly made me wonder how there got to be 30 of them.

Over the past year I have learned some interesting things about Facebook and the ways in which I use it.  One of the things that finally struck me is how tools like Facebook can become rather invasive.  We give up a significant amount of our privacy when we use these tools.  Some of what we give up is voluntary when we post messages and perhaps we give up that privacy intentionally.  But we also perhaps lose sight of the fact that often times our posts can and will likely be read by those for whom they were not intended.  This can make for uncomfortable relationships with work colleagues, saddening surprises from close friends, and an awareness of the details of the lives of those you know that you would rather not have.  

Finally, Facebook can create strange obligations.  While I have not received many direct messages, I usually find it odd that people close to me would choose to communicate with me through this method.  While I understand when something is forwarded through Facebook, the messages that strike me as odd are those simply written for me.  Since I was never a regular user of the site I had to be told to go there to get these messages.  Of course, I would be told that either by telephone or email or sometimes face-to-face.  In my mind it just seems that those sentiments could have just as easily been shared in those same face-to-face conversations or the email that advised me of them.

When I deactivated my Facebook account I was given the option to make it temporary.  I did select that option as I have no idea at this point as to whether or not I will someday want to be back on Facebook.  After all, could more than 500 million people be wrong?  And then I ask the question “will anyone miss me on Facebook?”

So let me know your thoughts.  Would you consider leaving Facebook this year?