To make matters worse, research also shows that too much “technology noise” (emails, texts, general screen time) can lead to mental health disorders such as depression and anxiety, a decrease in communication skills, and other health ramifications such as insomnia and back, neck and eye strain. It depletes our creativity, impedes productivity, and hinders good decision-making. It can contribute to memory loss and insomnia. It has been determined that too much noise raises cortisol, heart rate, and blood pressure. When I was a kid and didn’t get my precious quiet time, I can tell you - I got cranky! I was less productive, more agitated, easier to trigger, and usually got into some sort of trouble. So what’s the big deal? Isn’t all that noise beneficial, isn’t it helping us get the work done? Not really… Our days are interrupted (frequently) by rings, buzzes, and dings notifying us that someone or something needs our attention NOW. We are taught to keep up with the noise of email, IMs, texts, phone calls - the busier we are the harder we must be working…(it is never ending). Those who are quiet, must have checked out for the day. We are taught to literally “speak up!” - those people that do, actually brought their brains to work.

The Damage of Missing Silence in BusinessĪs a culture, we don’t do very well with silence. While it is incredibly important to me, I have not found the same value of silence being echoed in the greater business community. This need for silence and solitude is something I have held onto into my adulthood and I have brought it into my day-to-day business life.

I shut out the need to compete and made space to focus on my own thoughts, process my day, and get to know my inner voice. In reality, I had just made a simple decision to say “no” to all of the noise. Quiet was something we didn’t do very well.Ĭlearly, from my Mom’s reaction, quiet meant something was wrong. Granted, it was a shift from the “norm” in our family. I remember my Mom asking me, “Are you feeling okay? You are awfully quiet.” She grew concerned. It was around the age of 10 that I started to retreat on a regular basis to my bedroom and shut the door. And with the increased noise in the system, it meant I had to be louder too. With four growing kids, someone was always trying to get out ahead, have a bigger voice, gain more recognition from Mom and Dad. Over the years, it seemed the decibel level in the family just kept increasing. I sang, I put on shows in the living room, anything I could do to stand out and get my voice heard. I wanted to be seen, I wanted to be heard and recognized as an individual, not just one of four.Īnd boy, did I work for it - I grew into quite the little entertainer. I had three other people who all wanted to literally get out ahead of me, before we ever took our first breath.įast forward to when we were 7, and I was still competing - not for birth order, but for a voice. Now, as cool as that sounds (and it was a blast growing up) if you think about it, I have been competing for “position” in this family since I was in the womb. I grew up one of four children, all of whom were born on the same day at approximately the same time.

Work in silence