Process Obsessive

Image provided by Michael
https://www.flickr.com/photos/jetaimetous/

The title of the post is obscure, but after digging around in the online thesaurus, it’s the best I could come up with to explain what I thought this entry’s topic is.

The age of technology has made some, if not most or even all people shift gears from big-picture managing to micro managing. In some ways, I think it has softened our brains a little so that we don’t remember what we did last or what we should do next despite how it’s been pushing us to living for the moment. We have electronic tasks lists that many refer to hourly, or maybe as often as every fifteen minutes.

This era has made us trust less too. Children have cell phones these days. Sure, they love having the device, but the parents are using it to keep tabs on their children, making sure they never step out of line even when they’re not in sight. The children are not allowed to figure out anything on their own.

I don’t have children at home anymore so, obviously, I fall into the first group exclusively, although I do have the excuse of have short-term memory loss that explains my forgetfulness. The trust issue is one I’ve always had way before this time of PCs, laptops, tablets, and cell phones so it not of any consequence. My electronic reach doesn’t even get involved with this matter.

Now that APPs have come onto the scene, supposedly more information is at out fingertips. Instead of hooking onto the internet and doing a quick search, we are told to use one of the apps to find what we want. I resisted the apps since they first came out in spite of the fact that many of them were and are free to download.

However, this last weekend I paid more attention to the daily routine I has set for myself. I open up the browser to my chosen homepage, Bing.Com. I have an account with them through Microsoft so the local new and weather are just a click away from that page. After getting my fill of the local garbage, I click on a button sitting on the “Favorite bar” to head over to one of my email inboxes. In order to get to my second inbox, I have to click on another button located on the same bar.

All this is easy. Still, this last Saturday I asked myself why am I opening the browser when I can access some of this through apps I could place on the taskbar of my desktop. I’ve always been annoyed by the browser screen, itself anyway. No matter which browser I use, the top of my screen looks junky and cluttered. To put it simply, I’m trying all the free apps I think I can benefit from.

My slim unobstructive taskbar now has email for all in one, notepad, OneNote, internet, dictionary, and thesaurus sitting in a row waiting for me to open at will. Yes, I still need the internet so the link is there, but I’m not using it as often. That is the one and only app that I use at full screen now. All of the others are set up on the smaller version.

What I have found to be so miraculous about this change is the feeling of being overwhelmed has diminished noticeably. Having the desktop more visible has made such a difference. My need for space on the desk where my PC screen sits doesn’t look as messy and cramped. I still want to move the cable equipment to a shelf that I still need to construct, but once that’s done, my little work area will suit me fine.

All this time, in my attempts to simplify in order to be more productive, I’ve shied away from any more technology trying to do the Feng Shui approach. Having all these little icons at the bottom of my desktop might be thought of as a cluttering strewn concept. But the appearance isn’t bothering me at all.

Maybe this will arrest my obsession for a better flow of process at my work corner.

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Are you using apps?

“If we could see the miracle of a single flower clearly, our whole life would change.” — Buddha