As a digital well-being coach and trainer, I often get rather blank looks when I say what I do for a living. "Digital well-being? Sounds interesting, but what does it mean?"

To me, digital well-being is the intersection of the things I believe in and that get me out of bed on cold winter days (like today); making the most of digital, work-world balance, and having freedom and flexibility in my business.

I believe that the World Wide Web and internet have given us unprecedented opportunities as business owners, workers, and people, but that we do not always make the most of them. Digital Well-being is about harnessing the awesome power of the internet to fulfil your work and life objectives and to design your business to suit your lifestyle.

Even since I picked up Tim Ferriss' The 4-Hour Workweek, I have been convinced that it is possible to create new business models and new ways of working from digital. Businesses no longer need their staff to be sat behind a desk from 9 to 5 yet this still remains the status quo even through flexible working improves employee productivity and happiness.

With digital we can increasingly choose who we work for and how we create value and meaning in our work. It's never been easier to use the social web to set up your own microbusiness - all the tools are free, you just need a good idea. A digital microbusiness can enable you to work on something you are passionate about rather then having to leave your values at the door when you go to work.

With digital we can choose where and when we work. With faster broadband speeds, cloud computing and communications technologies such as Skype, you can choose to work from any where you like - your front room, your local cafe or another country. After the success of Amsterdam last winter and as someone who tries to practice what she preaches, I am relocating to Lisbon for five weeks in December/January to write, hang out and get a fresh perspective for 2012.

In the UK, we seem to be working longer and longer hours and our digital friends of mobile, laptop and iPad mean that we are never far from our work. When you receive hundreds of emails each day, it's tempting to spend our evenings on the couch head buried in our device instead of being with our family. Digital Well-being is using the web to work better, not longer; making smart digital choices that work for you. It's about taking control of your email inbox, making your social media into a fun habit not a time suck, and using the right digital tools and platforms so you can be super effective.

Digital Well-being is about recognizing that we live in a world full of ‘screen time’ and having the awareness and skills to balance our on and offline worlds. Getting offline is essential, for our health and for our relationships.

If you want to learn more about how you can improve your digital well-being, then do join me and a small group of friends for a cosy morning at The Hub Islington (with it's roaring wood fire) on Thursday 1 December. It will be 100% offline and great coffee is assured!

Early Bird tickets end today at midnight.

Last night I attended a fascinating debate at the RSA in London to launch the new book by Steve Fuller, chair in social epistemology at Warwick University. The book, entitled Humanity 2.0: What it Means to be Human, Past, Present and Future looks at the question of what does it mean to be human in the 21st century? 

It was an extremely enjoyable evening with contributions from Dr Rachel Armstrong, co-director of AVATAR (Advanced Virtual and Technological Architectural Research) in Architecture & Synthetic Biology, author China Miéville, and Dr Sarah Chan, deputy director, ISEI (Institute for Science, Ethics and Innovation). 

Human beings have always been very good at re-making the human and the natural world to suit ourselves and to reflect our position as fundamentally different from other life forms. Historically, this can be seen in technological advances such as animal and plant breeding, to genetic modification, to the development of prosthetic devices such as glasses or artificial limbs.

Humanity 2.0 is not in the future, I would argue that it is already here. We use computers on a daily basis to enhance and amplify ourselves. I outsource my spatial knowledge to Google Maps on my iPhone, my memory to Evernote and my knowledge to Google Search.

But some would argue that we have already started to lose our humanity.

Many of us lead complex online lives with profiles and personas to cultivate and augment (I am including myself in this group!). We place huge importance on these online interactions and feel valued when we are retweeted, linked to or name checked online. As the number of our connections increase through social networks and email, we feel busy and important. 

We can become addicted to our screens and neglect our bodies, our family and ourselves. We are no longer present but are constantly drawn towards our online world. I found it amusing last night that the first thing we were asked to do was to tweet about the event. But what's the point? Anyone who has tried to tweet and listen to a debate will know it's pretty tough to do, so why would we take away from our enjoyment and learning to send a few sound bites to our followers? When did having your head down in a screen become a social norm at events?

There are also issues of access and ethics. We can already see a digital divide between those who have access to the internet and those who don't, but this will be nothing compared to the divide when the rich can enhance their brains and the poor cannot as envisioned in Steve Fuller's future.

For me, the benefits of the technological advances of the Humanity 2.0 we already have far outweigh the costs. But we need to retain our humanity and make the most of new advances without being overwhelmed by them. 

We are still in a learning stage. The Internet, social media and smartphones are still relatively new technologies - we are still figuring out how to use them and I am sure we will be experiencing teething problems for a while yet. 

The web and social media allows us to find our tribe and connect with others, reducing social isolation and expanding our social circles. As businesses and individuals we can connect with a global market and audience. But let's not get caught up with valuing online connections more than the person in front of us.

Through Google, blogs and epublishing, knowledge and learning is becoming democratised. Anyone with access to a computer and the net can learn and improve their situation. What we need to do is to ensure basic access for everyone to these technologies through programmes such as Sugata Mitra's Hole in the Wall project in the developing world and digital inclusion projects such as RaceOnline here in the UK.

In the olden days, writing was uncommon so you would have to use up a lot of brain power just remembering things. I love the story in William Powers' Hamlet’s Blackberry (a fantastic book by the way about balance in the digital age) about Hamlet’s use of the ‘new technology’ of tables – a pocket-sized book that came with specially coated paper that could be wiped and reused. An amazing innovation at the time. Similarly, today by outsourcing our memory and knowledge to the web and our devices, we could leave more space for higher level thinking so let's not waste this potential.

I am optimistic and positive about Humanity 2.0. What are your thoughts?

[image with thanks to garrette via CC]

I've just got back from a wonderful two and a half week break in Vietnam (really recommend it as a country to visit - great people, great food, great places to see).

The trip and my return back to my 'normal' digital life had me reflecting this week on my digital use in a broader sense and specifically my digital use when travelling or vacationing.

Things have changed so much in the last decade for the holidaymaker or traveller. 11 years ago, I left Dublin to go travelling around the world for as long as funds permitted. Then, no-one I met on the road had a laptop or smart phone. On our short trip in Vietnam I met many backpackers doing the well worn South-East Asia trail and everyone had a laptop or smart phone. Whether you are travelling for pleasure or for business, it has become incredibly easy to take your digital life with you on the road. As a fan of location independent living, this is a huge benefit - being able to live and work wherever you wish.

However, there is a danger, especially when on holiday, of never really unplugging from the matrix.

So how can we strike a balance? Here are some suggestions based on my recent experience.

Email

On previous trips abroad, I have refused to look at my email while I was away and have come back to an overflowing inbox that takes days to clear. For this trip, especially as it was quite long, I used my iPhone in wifi-enabled cafes or airports every few days to keep on top of things.

Accessing my email while away resulted in something interesting happening. I realised how much non-important email I receive on a daily basis. Subscriptions to newsletters that aren't delivering value, Meetup notifications for events I rarely get to, and Linkedin digests for groups that I don't interact with.

Why not use your time away to reflect on your email usage? Too often as our email grows so does the value we place on how important or busy we are. Travelling to a country like Vietnam where the people have suffered so much at the hands of others gave me a valuable perspective on how I am spending my time, realising that there are better ways I could be spending my day rather than ploughing through hundreds of emails.

Blogging

Come rain or shine, I have been posting on this blog every Friday for almost a year now. Being away for two Fridays posed an interesting dilemma - to post or not to post? Would anyone really notice if I didn’t blog for a couple of weeks?

Maybe not. But perhaps that is the wrong question. It doesn't matter if no-one reads the blog while I am away. I made a commitment to myself and my readers that I would share a blog post every Friday. Having a regular posting schedule is something I always recommend to my clients for two reasons; writing and posting starts to become an ingrained habit, and your readers know when to expect your content.

So how to deal with this while you are away? Well, there are a couple of options. The first one is to ask fellow bloggers or colleagues to guest post for you while you are away. This is the tactic I used, asking simplicity expert Harry Mylonadis from design firm minimoko to write about information overload and creative coach Lucy Kyle for her thoughts on looking inside for what you need in business. I was thrilled with both posts and would definitely employ this strategy again in the future.

Another tactic would be to use the scheduling feature of your blogging platform whether WordPress, Posterous or Tumblr. Write your posts in draft form before you leave and set them to automatically post while you are away. Posterous even has an innovative autopost feature which will send your post out to your selected social services such as Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook. You could also use the Scheduled Updates feature of TweetDeck or Hootsuite to do the same.

Social Networking

I made a conscious decision while I was away to not access any social sites. No Twitter, no LinkedIn and no Facebook. Facebook is actually banned in Vietnam so that one was easy! But staying away from Twitter was more difficult.

There is a fear with Twitter that if you are not tweeting constantly, you will be forgotten. And as someone who gets a lot of her knowledge and news from Twitter, there is the fear that I will be left behind. Being away gave some breathing space for these thoughts. Did it matter if I didn't tweet for two weeks? What information would I really miss? I could have used the scheduling option to set up tweets for while I was away, but what would have been the point? I wouldn't really be present; my tweets would be a ghost.

Feeling the pull towards Twitter everytime I looked at the iPhone also made me realise that I am a little addicted to Twitter and that I need to stay conscious of my usage. A useful lesson again in perspective.

How are you coping with your digital self on vacation this summer?

[image with thanks to brad.coy via CC]

 

How I would have loved to attend the Wisdom 2.0 Conference last month. A three day event all about living with awareness and compassion in the digital age - it was slightly up my street : )

Finances and time did not lend themselves to a trip to Silicon Valley but thanks to the wonders of live-streaming, I was lucky to catch some of the talks, one of which I want to share with you today.

David Rock is the author of 'Your Brain at Work: Strategies for Overcoming Distraction, Regaining Focus and, Working Smarter All Day Long'. He has spent the past three years working with neuroscientists and workers to discover what happens with our brain at work. David's straightforward ideas about how we can work better with our brain rather than against it echoed with the work I have been doing around mindfulness at work and I bought his book on Amazon before he had even finished speaking (how's that for paying attention!).

Seriously, though the ideas in this talk and David's book might just change the way you work forever.

And that's worth paying attention to.

Your Brain at Work from Wisdom 2.0 Conference on Vimeo.

As knowledge workers we are faced everyday with an increasing stream of digital information. Via our email, RSS, Twitter and Facebook, we graze and snack throughout our day on this glut of digital treats.

But is this making us digitally obese? And if so, what can we do about it?

This was a question posed by a recent Digital Obesity debate in London. Host Kester Brewin was joined by panellists Simon Jenkins (Ship of Fools), Gavin O’Carroll (Digital Health Service) and Jenny Brown (The Awesome Web Company) to debate the issue. Listening to the podcast of the evening this week had me musing over the concept of digital obesity and information overload.

The starting point for the discussion was the recent book by Nicholas Carr: The Shallows - What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains. I will confess, I haven't read the book yet but my impression from passages and concepts quoted from the book by the host and from other Internet sources suggest that Carr takes a fairly negative standpoint towards the Internet as he suggests that the more time we spend online, the more we are “losing our capacity for concentration, contemplation, and reflection”.

Carr argues that the Net allows us consume large amounts of information, but with limited depth or engagement with the material. He quotes studies that show that due to the plastic nature of our brains this could have a long term negative impact on our ability to retain information. While I agree with Carr's premise, my argument would be that with the ability to store and recall data instantly using the Internet and our mobile devices, the need to remember large amounts of data is no longer of value. Indeed, Phil Libin, the CEO of Evernote (my favourite application for information capture and recall) calls the application 'an external brain'. I would suggest that with an 'external brain' taking care of information storage needs, we can use our other brain for more high level activities such as thinking and writing. I would argue further that with content creating platforms such as blogs, podcasting and video sites, we can now actively engage in the creation of ideas instead of just being a passive recipient of them; a great way to engage with a topic.

Another quote from The Shallows talked about the problem of digital addition; an idea that stimulated a lively discussion between the panel and the audience. My viewpoint is that there is a world of difference between real digital addiction and what I would call digital compulsion; I agree that we are compelled to interact with our stream of digital goodies just like we are compelled towards the biscuit tin. Gary Small, Professor of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences at UCLA has found that that the anticipation of exciting interactions in our email or our social media networks charges up the dopamine reward system in our brains which makes it more compelling that the task we are supposed to be concentrating on. But does this mean we are addicted?

Just like the biscuit tin, I suggest we have a choice. We can choose to take a few biscuits and put away the tin. Real addictive eaters would not stop until the packet is finished. In my experience of working with clients and observing people at work, it is lack of awareness and self-discipline that get people into trouble. Being mindful and paying attention to why you are online or engaging with the digital world can go a long way to reducing its hold over your day.

So what strategies could we put in place to ensure we consume digital information in a healthy way?

1. My first suggestion is to go on a low information diet. Take a long hard look at how many types of information you consume on a daily basis. How many email newsletters do you subscribe too? How many people you follow on Twitter? How many blogs do you read or attempt to read? Ask yourself "is this creating value for me or am I just engaging/subscribing because I always have?".

2. Use your Filters (see "F" in my From Apps to Zen ebook) to reduce the number of information streams coming into your day. Filters are experts in your area who read and filter and best information about an area of interest. Find out who these people are and follow them.

3. Set boundaries for yourself for when you consume your digital diet. To take the analogy of the biscuit tin, you could set aside small digital 'tea breaks' for a digital snacks during your day. Twitter for morning elevenses, Facebook for post-lunch and email for afternoon tea.

4. Limit access to your digital devices and temptations. Turn off any email or social media notifications on your computer or smartphone and only open these applications when you want to have your digital snack. When you are finished work for the day, shut down your laptop and keep it switched off until the morning.

What do you think? Are we getting fat from our digital feeds? Are we truly addicted to digital technologies? What other strategies can we put in place to reduce our digital obesity?

[Image with thanks to melanie_hughes via Creative Commons]