Disconnect me, please

Bond investor Bill Gross interviewed in Fortune about his work habits: “For a portfolio manager, eliminating the noise is critical. You have to cut the information flow to a minimum level. You could spend your whole day reading different opinions. For me, that means I don’t answer or look at any e-mails I don’t want to. Other than for my wife, I’ll only pick up the phone three or four times a day. I don’t have a cellphone, I don’t have a Black-Berry. My motto is, I don’t want to be connected — I want to be disconnected.” (Usability warning: horrible pop-up frameset needs to be negotiated to get to the individual profiles.)

We certainly all need a way to recover space for uninterrupted thought in our lives. I love connection, but there are chunks of my day — and certainly my week — when I need disconnection. Next time someone asks for your instant judgment, respond, “I’ll sleep on it.” Chances are it’s an expression they haven’t heard in at least a decade.

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