The $12 Alarm Clock

The beauty of single use devices

This past weekend, I decided to get away from the city and spend a wonderful time with 12 of my favorite people. It was my last real “trip” before the real life trip of getting surgery on the 13th of November.

Late Saturday night about ten of us were sitting in the hot tub talking about astronomy and contemplating the size of the universe, when the conversation shifted to discussing how each of us managed our technologically dictated lives daily.

People talked about email work flows and digital detox and so many really interesting and successful strategies. And when I was asked how I handled the approximately 200 emails I get every day.

“A $12 alarm clock,” I replied.

We live in a world where our greatest accomplishments are shoving massive functionality into single devices. Th is Radio Shack ad has over $3,000 of equipment advertised on it. Today, it all fits in your iPhone. In your pocket.

I blame the printer. The multifunction printer. All of a sudden it was no longer enough to just have a printer. No, it had to scan and copy and fax. It had to allow me to connect it to the network wirelessly, or print directly from my iPhone.

No longer were we happy with a printer that just printed.

We began to expect that everything would be multifunction. Our knifes, our applications. Our TVs now had internet. The XBox was also a cable box. The cars we drove become hybrids, using multiple types of fuel to operate.

Even the companies we have long touted for their simplicity, such as Twitter, have become enormous applications with Swiss Army Knife functionality in their hunt to figure out how to attract and activate users.

Photos? done. Wait, your photos don’t animate? No problem, animated gifs. You want video? We bought Vine. Somewhere, the simple simplicity of a 140 characters got lost in a quagmire of hashtags, @signs, photos, videos, and twitter cards.

Multi became king!

Yet, in our world of multi, we forget that the most successful among us are amazingly singularly focused.

Every day, we lie to ourselves about how we are able to multitask more effectively that everyone else. But, it turns out that multitasking is a myth.

Let’s get back to the $12 alarm clock.

Eating within 30 minutes of waking up will help you lose more weight. It’s a signal to your body that it will not starve. That you have decided to start the day by ensuring that your body will have food, and in its happiness, it keeps your metabolism working at a high rate.

But what about our brains? Our well being?

When we use our cell phones as alarms, the action to stop the alarm is to swipe open the phone. Which leads to app tempation. Why not just check email real quick? What if there is a fire at the office? Or Facebook? Or Twitter? I mean, its only a DM?

The moment we do that, we are telling our brains and well being that we aren’t going to care for ourselves, but rather do what’s best for whomever is on the other side of that email.

An MRI Scan of the human brain (see link)

The emotional lift, the feeling of anticipated accomplishment we get from the dopamine that gets released as we check email tricks us to feeling that it’s a good thing. But as the day wears us out; as we skip lunch because we just have one more email to write; the realization sets in that our actions are the exact opposite of positive.

The $12 alarm clock removes the temptation. Put your phone in another room. And when you wait up feel the satisfaction of walking over to your dresser and smashing that alarm clock. After all, its only $12. Buy ten.

As soon as you turn the alarm clock off, look at the time. Add 30 minutes. And spend those next thirty minutes on you. Tell your brain and well being that they should expect this focus, this treatment, this support all day. Feel your shoulders relax. Your jaw stops clenching. Your brow stops furrowing.

As those 30 minutes elapse, go make yourself breakfast. Tell your body the same thing you just told your mind. Be amazed at how awesome your day becomes as you are neither hungry or tired or stressed. Take a shower.

And, then, about 90 minutes after waking up, go check your email. Guess what you will find out?

The world didn’t end.

All from a $12 alarm clock.

(Ok, this one is $15. But its very, very cool.)

Listening to: With A Little Help From My Fwends, Flaming Lips.