Far too often these days I run into people that are allowing technology to control their lives when it doesn't have to be that way.

Put bluntly, a blackberry, a laptop, a cell phone or a PDA shouldn't be controlling your life. If they are, it may be time to take the power back.

In fact, I'm only in my early 30's and I can remember a time when we didn't have automated voice-mail or call waiting. And a cell phone was a luxury. But guess what, even back when people didn't have cell phones if the car broke down on that road so far from home, they still survived.

Of course I'm not saying that we should leave our cell phones home or go back to a time when we didn't have cell phones because they (cell phones) have certainly saved some lives and they have certainly made our lives more convenient and easy in many ways.

But unfortunately, far to many people are reacting to these technologies rather than being proactive, and I feel that this can not only hurt our potential for balance but in some cases it can hinder our productivity rather then help.

For example, when I purchased my first handheld device I was so impressed by how much easier it made the process of checking emails, I didn't realize that I was letting it control me and that it was turning me into a reactive business professional.

How was it turning me into a reactive professional you ask?

Well, for starters, as soon as an email would arrive, I would start working on the task associated with that email and soon as I was spending countless hours working on tasks that had no true benefit or effect on my sales career and also tasks that had nothing to do with the plans I'd set for the day the previous evening or week.

Secondly, I didn't realize the power that little device had until I started jumping up to check the email the second the little rig started buzzing.

So yeah, I've been there, but I quickly discovered that rather than adding hours to my day the device was in some ways taking time away from it. And it wasn't the device's fault, it was my own. Now that I use the device in the manner that works for me the device has truly become a time saver and a great device for increasing my productivity, but for me I had to take the power back for the full benefit to be realized.

And here's how I did it.

1) I decided to turn the buzzing off and simply set the device to silence so that I wouldn't know when an email was arriving.

2) I stopped bringing the device with me during non-business hours.

3) Because I didn't no the exact second every email came in I started setting aside time to check and reply to emails (proactive) rather than replying to every email the second it came through (reactive).

I stress that these little modifications may not work for you but for me they made all the difference in the world.

The main thing is that you figure how to put these devices to work for you rather than the other way around.

Just remember this: there were top performing sales professionals long before these technologies existed and so even though these devices may increase your efficiency, just make sure they are not taking from it.

And so, Until Next Time, Yours in Success