Do you take your laptop on vacation? Do you sometimes "hate" to your cell phone or Blackberry? Harris Interactive recently reported that one third of the tourists take their laptops on vacation. During a Sunday lunch in a restaurant recently, I noticed a man sitting with his family talking on your cell phone - obviously, about business. He was not happy - not his family!

To paraphrase Charles Dickens, "It's the best. It's worse than ever." Certainly applies when it is "connectivity." Stories of 11.9 victims the ability to communicate with relatives in the last minutes of their lives warms my heart, while the story of my friend told his mother answering your cell phone in the delivery room during the birth of his grandson refrigerated my soul.

How grateful I was on my cell phone when I met a young man stopped at an interstate highway, without one, and immediately I could help. How comfortable you are on holiday to use the Internet to explore options for entertainment in the area on a rainy afternoon and get directions to find it. How comforting to know that my family can contact in case of an emergency - or something to celebrate! - Regardless of where I am in the world. The same is true of my colleagues.

So here's the question: Should you take your laptop on vacation? If your cell phone on 24 / 7? Customers often ask, "What should I do?" My response: "That's the wrong question. The question is" What are you doing? "Perhaps a better question still would be" What would you do? "Perhaps the best question of all is" What action will bring the better results? "In order to answer that question, you have to take the time to answer" What are your best? "

I have repeatedly insisted that a definition of "organization" is "control of the things you can control, so you can deal with things you can not." In the complex world we live in, especially with the level of connectivity available, it is easy to fall into the trap of thinking that we are victims of others. I cringe when someone complains of having to answer his cell phone. Who says so? If you do not wish to receive notifications, you can "turn off". If you have to be accessible because their job requires, then the question might be: "Am I in the right job?" Or do people just trained to be "always available". Customer service is excellent, but does not require 24 / 7 response. It requires good communication. It's very frustrating to leave a message and get no response for days, but some situations would be affected if the answer came back an hour later which could have lunch with a colleague without interruption.

Connectivity can be addictive. My daughter, who has a doctorate in counseling, reminded me that an addiction is something that reduces the quality of life and people around you.

So what does this have to do with productivity? My passion is to help individuals and organizations create and sustain a productive environment for everyone to do their work and enjoy their lives. When used properly, connectivity helps you comply with their work and allow you to play. You can also undermine their priorities at work, destroy your health, and poison their relations misuse.

The question is not if you take your laptop on vacation or out of your cell phone 24 / 7. For some people, the ability to check email once a day on vacation brings peace of mind and can be done when others are sleeping or swimming. For others, the idea of ??a vacation is not to take your laptop. There is no "right" or "wrong." The question is whether your choice is to increase or decrease your life and the lives of people around you.

Therefore, "Power Off" or "Power On?" - It's really up to you!

SOMETHING TO THINK PS: Your ability to make any connection more valuable is being able to find the information you need when you need it. Are you wasting valuable time looking for what you need? Could you find what other people in your office has if needed? If not, fill out our scorecard Productive Environment (www.ProductiveEnvironment. com) and give a 30 minute phone consultation to identify the specific steps you can take to ensure that everyone in your organization is taking the right action at the right time with the correct information.