Just because the phone rings, pings or bongs doesn't mean you need to answer it.

How many times today have you answered the phone when you were in the middle of something?

in other words how many times did you allow a piece of noisy plastic to interrupt you?

In the last decade we have not only redesigned the phone but we have changed the rules associated with phone use. Or have we.

For most of us the phone, not us, is in control.

It interrupts us and we respond. It decides when we need to stop doing what we were doing and what we should do next. It decides that the person on the other end of it is more important than the person sitting next to us when we are out for dinner. It decides that the customer in the queue takes second place to the one on the phone. It decides that doing a puzzle with your child can happen while you chat with someone else, that their time is less important.

Is that really what we want from a noisy piece of plastic? For the sake of our sanity, our ability to finish a task, our relationships and our parenting it is time to wrench back control, to challenge our addiction.

So the next time the phone beeps, brace yourself, take control and leave it alone.

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