Integrating Technology with Intentional Actions

We live in an exciting time, where virtually anything we want, need, or can use is available at our fingertips.

Need food…. Check.

Need supplies for around the house…. Check.

Want to start a business in your pajamas and never get dressed…. Check.

Want to mindlessly scroll the internet for hours…. Check.

We can purposefully never have to leave home these days. Technology has changed the way we live so that ease and simplicity has never been, well easier. At the same time, it has never been more crucial to live with intentionality.

Balance is the key. I am not referring to a work-life balance, however there are some major similarities around the concept of work-life with regards to technology that we should pay attention to.

Technology is not what it used to be. Over the past 15-20 years technology has slowly (or quickly depending on which version of the iPhone you may have) taken top space in our day-to-day life.

Are you old enough to remember the Palm Pilot? It was the precursor to the modern day smartphone. It was amazing (in its time) to collect data and begin to move us from a paper society to a digital society. It was a wonderful invention, a technological breakthrough (for the public), and it helped us manage time better.

Fast forward to now and we use technology for everything. Technology is like beauty and the beast. The beauty is the simplicity and the ease. The beast is how tied to them we are. In 2019 the average time spent on technology was between three and four hours a day.

Entrepreneur Magazine wrote an article that said the average person will spend just about nine years of their life using technology. Nine years! So that brings the question up of how. We must ask how people are spending that time.

Intentionality Will Set Us Apart

Most people, when pressed will admit to mindless scrolling their devices at some point every day. With the ability to utilize technology, we have a choice to use it to move us forward or to keep us stagnant. Of course, we all need that break, the escape from the grind, if you will, to break up the day, however many of us “take a break” from working online only to escape to being online.

Being intentional around how we use technology along with the when and the why is so crucial today. Rather than figuring out how we can take breaks from technology, we should shift our thinking back to here are my daily actions I need to take and supplement those dailies with technology.

This will help us be in control of technology rather than having technology control us. Shouldn’t that be the goal anyway? None of us truly desires to be controlled, we ultimately desire the ability to control our own environment.

Integration Will Set Us Up For Success

The choice is ours. Integrating technology into our life rather than integrating life into our technology changes everything. When we are growing a business, we must be intentional about everything we do otherwise the business will not thrive.

From strategic planning to media engagement to the products and services we offer, using technology wisely will set us up for greater success.

Do you have a technology plan? Your business plan should include a piece on technology… not just what you have or use, but how you are going to integrate it into your business.

If you don’t know how you will integrate technology, technology will ultimately integrate you.