In an April 2009 Harvard Business Review article, Lincoln Biographer and author of Team of Rivals, Doris Kearns Goodwin comments on the Civil War era.

As a historian she relies on heavily on the personal correspondence of people of the day to learn what was going on. She goes on to say that the time between the rise of the telephone in the 1940s and email in the 1990s may prove a tough time for historians in the future because letters fell out of favor.

She admires the Civil War leaders who were running the war yet still had time to mediate on the events of the day in a letter home. There was no television and, she asserts, the leaders were not consumed with cable TV and their blackberry. They weren’t multitasking; they had time to reflect. It’s a luxury many leaders just don’t have today and that’s a real loss.

Years back I read that Jeff Bezos of Amazon.Com didn’t schedule meetings on certain days of the week. He didn’t want to be overscheduled and wanted to allow time for reflection. I don’t know if he still does that but his practice mirrors those of the Civil War leaders. Allowing time to think.

In an increasingly connected world where the computing cloud surrounds us with an ever present connectivity we risk never being able to power down. I like being able to access the web when I want to for the information I need when I need it. I have learned to use my cell phone to get directions to the nearest (fill in the blank) and I like that. However, I must work to turn it off. I must work harder to step away from my desk to read and reflect.

We don’t watch a lot of TV in our house but there is still plenty to do and work remains ever present. Yet, I know I work better when I do disconnect from time to time. I took the day off yesterday. I didn’t turn on my computer (I did check my Blackberry a few times) at all. It was nice. I should do more of it.

If the leaders during the period of our Civil War benefited from time to reflect, I suppose we can too.

This entry was posted on Sunday, July 5th, 2009 at 5:13 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.