Also, go on a vacation.

I am a consumate list maker and my lists are on my BB all in one place. On a recent visit home to the UK I switched off my data services and just used it as a PDA. It was great for journaling my holiday and jotting down ideas on the fly - and I didn’t pay roaming… We had high-speed in our hotel.
Addicted? I don’t think so, but I wouldn’t want to be without mine. It’s far too useful.
Before my BB I had an HP Ipaq pda, and vowed I’d never get a BB. Then I began my business and my BB is excellent for that. Never say never.

It’s possible to control your tools usage - that’s all down to the user. And as for losing contacts from company owned Blackberries… if those workers had backed them up regularly to their personal contact lists or they’d still have them.

I do not have a land line at home, do have a Treo with email from home and office, a laptop at home and another at the office…voice mail and inboxes abound and I only listen to and read on my terms and in my time.

Time management experts recommend reading e- and snail-mail two times a day. Voice mail I listen to more frequently but still on my terms.

It is not the tool, it is the use.

I saw this video awhile back and finally found it again. It’s with Buck Rizvi and how he dealt with a breakdown while on vacation through the use of his cell phone.

I say as long as you have the self-control to manage the use of your gadgets, you shouldn’t be in danger of becoming addicted. Now, when the teenagers of today become the professionals of tomorrow - that’s another story. *grin*

Video - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lszLPUAAGJc

It’s on youtube.com which isn’t working well for me since their maintenance last night. It might be just on my end though.

No BlackBerry, BlueTooth or wireless laptops for me. I do use my cell phone when I’m out of the house and on those rare occasions that I’m on the road to stay in touch with my office. I use my trusty old Palm Pilot to keep my To Do lists and appointments. Otherwise, like you Bob, I’m chained to my desk 10-12 hours a day working on laptops and desktops.

I would be out of business without computers and the Internet. My PDA is more convenient than a paper Day Planner. Cell phones can sometimes become your only connection to the outside world as I recently experienced having survived Hurricane Ike. I live in Houston and for five days, we were without power, landlines, water and only spotty cell service. Still I feel blessed having come through relatively unscathed compared to those who lost a lot more in Galveston and other cities along the Gulf Coast.

A glimpse of the future?

Personally, I try not to use my cell phone too much. I get much grief from family, friends and business associates for being so difficult to reach. I like that.

No Blackberry for me. While some think it is convenient and productive to get e-mail 24/7, I feel it defeats the purpose of e-mail. E-mail is made to be dealt with according to MY time frames, and I don’t want to raise the expectation that I have it in front of me at all times of the day. I do use a cell phone exclusively, I got rid of my office phone 3 years ago, but I actually work hard to train people to communicate with me via e-mail, so my phone usually rings very little during the day. I want to keep calls coming on my phone and e-mails on my computer as long as I can. I will probably purchase wireless broadband sometime in the near future though, just as a convenience.

I’m also taking online classes, so I bring my computer downstairs after work to do school work. But when I’m not working, I switch off from work, and often don’t even check my e-mail outside of work hours.