July 2, 2010
By Richard McCormack

Remember the “old “days – this means roughly between 15 and twenty years ago- when if you were not near a landline no-one could get hold of you? Ah bliss, you might think. Some alone time at last!

But then you would probably start worrying about that long term yet very difficult client of yours or whether the new guy in your office can handle that very lucrative AND very recently landed account, right?.

The difference between now and the, ’old days’, is that in those days you knew you could not get hold of someone. Well, not unless you got in the car and started hunting them down like that ex-intelligence guy in Taken. Everyone else knew it too.

Now, because of mobile technology, we have a different expectation level. We EXPECT to be able to get hold of someone or at the very least their voicemail, email or SMS. They know it too and even if they are in a meeting will be monitoring and certainly responding to any messages that sound urgent enough. Unless of course they work for certain public institutions in which case, best of luck.

In fact therein lays the key in finding that fabled work/life balance, namely filtering out of the ongoing messaging and data stream what is relevant to you alone with the least fuss possible. Push technology has been useful here by taking relevant emails off the Web and forwarding them directly to your phone for you to peruse at your convenience.

Anti virus programs take out most of the spam rubbish you don’t want to bother with as well, e.g. “Want to meet someone new?” etc. Just digressing for a moment but do advertisers even think to target this stuff? Does my grandmother, who is over 90 by the way, really want to meet someone new at this stage of her life?

Anyway, moving ahead, technology that helps us achieve the work /life balance or semblance of it any way, is certainly to be valued in this spinning carousel of modern living.

Nokia recently launched a consumer push e-mail messaging service which allows users to mobilise up to ten personal e-mail accounts on one device. This allows you to combine both business and personal emails and messaging into one service and forward it to one device.

The Nokia Messaging service supports most consumer email solutions including Gmail, Windows Live, Hotmail and Yahoo as well as local email service providers like M-Web, MTN Play and Webmail. Users are able to read, send, forward and reply to emails, as well as download and attach files directly on their mobile phone. This service combines your business and personal emails together and delivers them to you so you don’t have to look for them and can give each one the priority and attention they require.

This service is one of the tools you can use to manage your communications and help maintain that fabled Shangri La state of a work life/balance. It is achievable, isn’t it?