Sometimes what it takes is to look at oneself in a figurative mirror.

People hear me lecture about Information Overload and the absurd behaviors it makes us adopt, and they light up with recognition; many come to me afterward to share excitedly how they saw their own life in my descriptions. Which is fine and good, but I like to think that at least some of them go on to change their actions and attain a better life as a side benefit of having had this mirror put in front of them.

I first saw this effect long ago when my daughter, then six years old, was in the habit of watching a great deal of television (we were living in the US at the time, where TV cable channels were abundant to the point of absurdity). At some point I grew concerned – there is after all more to life than sitting through commercials to get at programming that was itself of mixed value. So I had an idea: I asked the kid to make a list of all the programs she was in the habit of watching routinely, and how long they ran.

Guess what: the list was indeed worrying in its extent, but I didn’t have to do anything about it: the girl took one look at it and resolved to cut back on her TV time. She hadn’t realized how far she’d gone into couch potato mode. She’s a smart one, then as now; all she needed was this mirror to see what she was doing.

People who succumb to addictive email checking should take a hard look at their behavior pattern – how much time they’re putting into this, how little value results from it, and what they’re giving up in exchange. Then they should draw the conclusions like that six year old…