Making Technology Work For You

This blog post is an abbreviated version of the presentation I gave at the 2010 Resolution Expo. I am sharing my presentation in this format because I felt that those who attended were able to get empowering information and hope that readers of this blog will do the same.

In the presentation I covered the role of technology, discussed that one size does not fit all and looked at tools to consider.

There are many competing roles of technology but in my opinion the role of technology is to make a task easier or more efficient by using the new technology. For example cars are better than horse drawn carriages because they are faster, keep the streets cleaner (maybe not the air) and solve problems of large transport. Of course cars are not prefect and have their own down side. This is the truth about almost, all if not all, innovations in history.

Technology often becomes a challenge between the new way and the old way. For example you may have kept a schedule in a book or maybe you are one of the many devotes of the Franklin Covey System. There is a challenge between switching to a calendar like Microsoft Outlook or Google Calendars. Maybe you have looked at the software from Franklin Covey but this still requires a change.

There are advantages to both a classic written calendar and a digital calendar but for many the ability to share and collaborate on their calendar as well as to create reliable backups makes the digital calendars a desirable solution.

Technology makes things move faster. Sometimes this can be a good thing and sometimes this can have undesirable consequences. Internet chat or email can make for a quick conversation but it can also make for confusion or a lack of closer relationship if it is not used correctly.

The right tools will make you more efficient. Efficiency has many definitions depending on the person it relates to but for our purposes we can see efficiency has the highest reasonable speed with the best outcome in light of the costs. Driving a Ferrari may be efficient because you can get to work faster and with the best (most fun outcome) but it is not necessarily efficient because of the high costs associated with it.

More tools and the newest tools does not mean more efficient. A Swiss Army Knife that can do 6 things well is more efficient than a Swiss Army Knife that does 100+ things poorly. 

Finding balance with technology like all things is a vital part of our responsibility as consumers. It is a good idea to look for a guide to help you find this balance. Denver DataMan is a source of this advice. We help individuals, small businesses, and nonprofits discover their needs while exploring options and implementing solutions.

One Size Does Not Fit All

When it comes down to it the important thing is that one size does not fit all. The technology that works for me may or may not work for you.

The graph below is how DDM thinks about finding the technology that will work for you. The formula we use is always moving an evolving with you because you, your business, and technology are also always changing. We find the right tools, compare them with the tools you use, and put it together to create greater efficiency. No one wants to change all their tools at one time. This formula takes that into account while balancing the fact that the tools you are using might not be optimal.

All that is left is finding the right tools so you need to know the tools to consider.  For example is an iPhone better than a Blackberry? That all depends on what you need and want to do with it. The long and the short of it is that solutions need to be made to work for you and balance the various parts of your life.