Our gadgets make life easier. Now you can get the address of that new Caribbean restaurant with your smartphone. You can instantly tell all your friends about your new job through Twitter and Facebook. If you don’t have enough time to watch the news, you can read it en route to work on your tablet. But occasionally our gadgets distract us from the “real” world. And sometimes they decrease our productivity. When we should really be working or thinking, we’re checking our e-mails and sending texts. The New York Times recently asked the big question: Would we all gain from brief technology breaks?

 

Techies agree

The answer, according to the Times: Yes. And the notion of a tech break has some unlikely proponents: high-use tech fans. As an illustration, the Times profiles a former Twitter employee who, while writing a book, found that he struggled to concentrate amid the constant ringing and beeping of his iPhone. So the author took the big step of ditching his tech. The result? His productivity, and creativity, greatly improved.

 

Growing support

This techie is far from alone. The author of the Times column shines a spotlight on himself. Today, when he and his friends get together for dinner, they immediately toss their smartphones in the center of the table. The first one that reaches for a phone has to pay the price: That person covers the tab for dinner.

 

Your turn?

Is it your turn to follow these examples? Do you need to go on a technology break? Take a look at your days: Do you spend hours playing with Words with Friends or Angry Birds? Can you pass an hour without logging into Facebook? Do you text more than you talk? If so, you, too, might benefit from a technology break. And you could be surprised at how productive you will be.