The Siren Call of Constant Data (Ed Batista)

Ulysses-and-the-Sirens-Waterhouse-1891-DETAIL

The Sirens, those creatures who spellbind any man alive... Race straight past that coast! Soften some beeswax and stop your shipmates' ears so none can hear, none of the crew, but if you are bent on hearing, have them tie you hand and foot in the swift ship, erect at the mast-block, lashed by ropes to the mast so you can hear the Sirens' song to your heart's content. [1]

Homer's Odysseus adopted this solution to allow him to hear the Sirens' "thrilling song" and "honeyed voices" without being lured to his death--but it's probably not practical for the temptations you face. You're not being tempted by mythical creatures (I hope), but if you're like my clients you are tempted by the unceasing flow of constant data.

The email piling up in your Inbox is just a start, of course. Synchronous chat apps and their countless channels allow you to connect with anyone in your organization immediately. Round-the-clock social media streams connect you with vast numbers of people in the world beyond your organization, often blurring the boundary between personal and professional life in the process. And commerce platforms allow you to see financial figures updated every second. There are undoubtedly other forms of data specific to your company or industry that are now conveniently available to you at all times, in all places.

Sometimes keeping up feels like an onerous duty, but just as often you feel a sense of eager curiosity. No one's forcing you to be online, but you can't resist the temptation. And when you are offline you feel the absence of the data flow: Something's always happening somewhere, if not in your company than in the markets or the social media universe, and you want the latest information. If you feel the need to connect with someone, you don't want to wait. Or if someone's trying to connect with you, you want to be able to respond immediately.

There are many reasons to appreciate these tools, and my clients derive tremendous value from them--but many of my clients also experience counter-productive side effects from their use. The feeling of absence becomes intolerable anxiety. The temptation to be online at all times becomes an irresistible compulsion. And the ability to be present with family and friends and participate in real-world activities unrelated to the business suffers.

So what can you do? There are some tactical steps that can help:

Unsubscribe. Perhaps you needed be on every channel at one time--but that time is probably over.
Block. A number of tools can temporarily block access to designated apps and services. [2]
Delete. You can take blocking a step further by deleting apps entirely. (If this sounds daunting, that's a reason to try it.)

But the ability to successfully employ these tactics ultimately relies on your capacity for emotion regulation and attention management. If you can't manage the feelings of anxiety and compulsion that arise when you're offline, you'll resubscribe, unblock and reinstall everything as soon as you get the opportunity. And if you can't redirect your attention away from the stream of data and toward something else--a meal, a sunset, a loved one--you'll remain in a constant state of distraction. There's no permanent technological solution to this fundamentally psychological problem.

So what can you really do?

First, note that emotion regulation doesn't mean suppression. Suppressing your anxiety and compulsion essentially involves pretending that you're not having these feelings. You can do this for brief periods of time, but not for long, and research suggests that the effort may be counter-productive. [3] Instead, emotion regulation starts with improving your ability to sense and identify these feelings--getting closer to them, not distancing yourself from them.

Emotions such as anxiety and compulsion are physiological events before they register in consciousness, so attune yourself to the manifestations of these feelings in your body. What does it feel like (literally) to be anxious or compelled? Also, expand your emotional vocabulary so you can label your feelings more accurately. I'm using "anxiety" and "compulsion" here, but perhaps different feeling-words better describe your own emotional state. [4] And note that your capacity for emotion regulation will be enhanced by some form of mindfulness practice [5], consistent sleep [6] and regular physical activity. [7]

The same practices that support emotion regulation will also improve your capacity for attention management, in part because of the close relationship between emotion and attention. We can even think of emotions as "attention magnets"--one of their primary functions is to interrupt deliberate thoughts and orient us toward potential opportunities and threats. [8] The challenge is that the elegant neural apparatus that we began to evolve two million years ago must now operate in a radically different environment--a world that has been meticulously engineered to hijack our attention by stoking our emotions, a world in which we must actively resist the siren call of constant data. [9]

Footnotes

[1] The Odyssey, pages 272-273 (Homer, translated by Robert Fagles, 1999)

[2] Here are some examples of temporary blocking tools: