Using Technology To Simplify
Why is it that so many people (myself included) think that technology is the answer to our complicated lives? I have fallen prey countless times to buying the latest “time-saving” gadget, lured by the promise that this would give me my desired free time to do the things I truly want to do.
But the interesting thing is that technology, when applied by itself, is generally a complicator, rather than a simplifier.
For instance, a few years ago the promise of creating easy and healthy salads led countless thousands to buy a device called a Salad Shooter. According to the ad, you simply reach into your fridge and pull out vegetables, and a few minutes later you have a beautiful salad. My mother purchased one of these with visions of healthy daily salads. However, we quickly found that the beautiful salads were not so easy: veggies still had to be cleaned, cut into pieces the right size, and fed through the machine. (As a side note, we also had a bit of wall cleanup when my aim went off). Then there was the clean up.
When my mother decided to get rid of her gadget, she asked me if I wanted it. I was tempted. I love gadgets! But I decided to stick with my good old knife and cutting board, making salads as I need them.
The point here is that had I made daily salads before, the device might have been useful. But since it was a seldom sort of thing, the device was a complicator.
I ran across an article (What Toyota can Teach You about Personal Productivity – lifehack.org) in my backlog recently that had a paragraph that caught my eye. “Create manual systems first, then use technology as a tool to assist the process.”“Create manual systems first, then use technology as a tool to assist the process.”
Aren’t the most manual systems also the simplest? Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for using technology when possible. But consider one scenario: would the use of a word processor simplify or complicate the jotting a list of 5 items down?
I am currently looking at the way I do things, and getting back down to basics. It may result in some of my beloved gadgets being retired. All I know is that some of my processes have become cumbersome, and perhaps taking the technology out of them will help me streamline them and get me back on track.
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