
How does technology impact your daily life & how do you use it to achieve work-life balance?
Here comes….A girl who radiates determination, intelligence, and confidence all at once in a calm, unspoken way. She is well-equipped with knowledge in abundance, talented and is tech-savvy. As an IT professional having travelled the world, she welcomes the challenges and with the power of technology makes the very best use of her time, efficiently utilizes the resources and maintains work-life balance. Inadvertently, making the best use of technology in her professional life she is able to accomplish tasks at a quicker pace and boost productivity. In all other spheres of life, be it hobbies, writing, cooking, reading, blogging, technology plays a key role as she stays connected with different people in different parts of the world. Living in the age of Facetime, Sametime, LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and a million other applications, how smartly she traverses between her work and life, be updated, passionately pursue her hobbies, bond with family and celebrate being a woman in every moment???
“Technology and Me”
I start my day – jogging in the park listening to music on my iPod. Meanwhile, the Nike-iPod sensor embedded in my shoes is on its way tracking the calories burnt, calculating the heart rate and miles covered, and displays instant iPodreport making me smile.
After my morning rituals, listening to devotional songs playing on my iPod on a dock, I complete cooking, and pack lunch. With the help of soft phone on my laptop I talk to my offshore team and get the updates. I make quick notes on my ipad, draft emails and get ready for the commute to office.
On the way to work, I ponder how much technology has occupied every aspect of our busy lives. It is an integral part in this information age which intertwines work and home. I am so fortunate to be living at this time, wherein I can fly from one corner of the Earth to another, seamlessly integrate multitudes of lives, contribute, enhance creativity, reach out to people and stay connected. The possibilities of making use of technological advancements are innumerable and beyond words.
I drive my Corolla Sport car with automatic transmission, speaker phone, radio, Bluetooth etc. I take teleconference calls. I dictate the meeting minutes to Siri and is captured on my iPad, all I need to do is attach it to an email and click send. Making use of the Good application on my Android phone I respond quickly to my Sametime messages and customers are happy. I don’t need to wait to get to my cubicle to accomplish all the many tasks that I do en route, thereby saving time and multitasking which is competency by default. In the course of the day, I attend meetings, record live meetings, share presentations and documents, co-edit them on Jive with multiple teams from different territories, use many applications on my laptop which enable me to work and deliver quality output at a quick pace. I firmly believe in the famous words of Francis Bacon – “Knowledge is Power”. Adding to this, having the right access to knowledge at the right time with the help of technology can work wonders to your profession and personal life.
Technology enables me to work faster and more efficiently, and it facilitates flexible and remote working (fitting in with childcare or avoiding a distasteful commute).I am connected to the corporate world and a number of groups on LinkedIn, share experiences, answer questions, subscribe to RSS feeds that gives me updates on technological advancements, IT world, provides access to the wise mentors etc. Social networking enables me to keep in touch with friends. Using a cool feature, within a few moments I can link my blog site or photo galleries to Facebook, instantly deliver to LinkedIn and Twitter status boxes.
On the weekend, I go out to explore. Once inside my car, insulated from the noise of the city, I turn on the music and allow myself to be surrounded by pure audio pleasure. GPS navigates me to the places of interest, giving me an avenue to relax, recreate and also giving me a taste of the various cultures and cuisines. I nurture and enhance my knowledge, feeding my soul with adventures, concerts, movies. I play Wii games with the kids, fix their electronic flying machines and controller devices. Those moments are incredible when I appreciate how technology impacts every walk of life. Tasks become relatively easy. I can fix a quick meal with the aid of microwave oven. I am able to take care of my parents and the advances in medical technology enables me to get reports from the doctors and lab. I am able to spend quality time with my dear ones, have dinner table chats, play scrabble and Sudoku and organize parties.
At night I type my journal on iPad, read an ibook and call it a day. I hear the air conditioner humming in the background, feeling comfy and grateful to a beautiful day and technology I drift off to sleep. Mission: Work-life balance is an important element, the interconnection of quality of working life and productive workplace – Accomplished. – Vimala Paran