The Anywhen Manifesto

Time shifting, what a wonderful concept.

Im with ya. Although I don't have half the people email me as you have email you ona daily basis. Im with ya if I am in the middle of something or working on something and get en email I don't always respond right away and that is the way I work. I usually get back within a few hours. But I am at no one's beckon call and I think that is what some people assume. Because you are always on line, because you have a phone with internet, because I just saw you tweet then you should be answering ME. And is just simply not the case.

Well put, Chris. The troops are with you

That's Anarchy and that's cool.
We take our freedom and hold our responsibilities.
We DO REMEMBER TO TURN OFF our digital devices and concentrate on the ones closest to us.
We do remember to be human.

Huzzah to that Chris! Work and consume where and when you want . . . no limitations, no boundaries! Time-shifting and work-shifting are two things I'm a huge proponent of. It's one of the main reasons I've shifted most of my training to the on-demand model as well. It seems to work best for people as they can choose when and where they want to consume it without being a slave to the scheduled time and date. Love your manifesto my man!

I blur timezones. It makes sense to me. We do business anywhere, it makes sense it should be done anywhen. There will always be those human alarm clocks that want to remind us of time and obligation and fail to see that a lack of conformity does not equal a lack of discipline. I don't feel I need to push back – I'm leaving them to it because in a world of anywhere and anywhen I also get to choose anywho.

I admit that I am guilty of both sides of this coin, but I am consciously trying not to be. You are so right that we have become conditioned to immediate responses. At least I'm fully grown. I wonder what it is doing to our kids brains.

I'm with you. I have to agree with Judy that it doesn't work in all circumstances, mainly customer service. But for many of us working on the web, in different time zones and with multiple projects, it almost becomes a necessity to work on things in pieces, and then to put our piece out there for when our partner, our readers, our clients, etc. can get to it and throw the ball back in our direction.

I don't think this is throwing deadlines out the window, just the urgency of now.

Count me in anywhen.

Anywhening right now, we are doing so much more now than ever before, we need the ability and flexibility to time shift.

Oooh! This really struck a chord with me. Thank you for writing this short (and easy to consume at any time, not realtime) manifesto. Seriously something important to keep in mind for all of us… but especially those of us who do business online. We depend on the internet and the real time nature of it, but we also need to be able to de-couple to really be at peace sometimes.

Amen! ;)

Amen. That is all!

Chris there is only when thing to add… anywhen… but anywhen right bloody NOW for all of us, I subscribe…..!

Whats wrong with “anytime” or “whenever”?

I'm with you, Chris on the “anywhen” concept. The greatest thing the Internet and e-mail has done is allow us to time-shift. We can use time-shifting to stay intimately involved in conversations, without letting it totally interfere with the parts of our lives where timeliness is crucial (like your kids Little League games). If we can get away from the idea that e-communication is the same as a telephone, we might find ourselves liberated in some sense.

The telephone (before voice-mail) dehumanized us – dragged us into a kind of slavery to the ringing phone. Remember the days when a telephone ringing HAD to be answered? Many of us still voluntarily enslave ourselves to the phone even now when it is not necessary. With voice mail, texting and cell phones that surf the web and read our e-mail, it's no longer essential to pick up the phone. With e-communications you get rid of the necessity of even making the decision to ignore the call and let it go to voice-mail. That's even more liberating.

I now make it a practice to contact a person by e-mail to ask when I should call them. I suppose it may be less effective and it definitely makes it easier for a person to avoid me, but it is nicer and recognizes the value of my contact's time and need for privacy. While I realize it makes me easier to ignore, who knows? Perhaps in exchange, such a practice could reduce the number of wasted phone calls I have to make.

Should we work on an “Etiquette of Anywhen”? I like the idea of promoting a new politeness that improves the control of what messages we have to process. I'm going to work on that today (Sunday because I can do that during a break today and post it on my blog this evening). I wonder if such a “Manifesto” for the electronic future wouldn't make a good book? Maybe we should point the way to a new humanity in the electronic age; one that recognizes our human nature, how we communicate, how we process information, identify the trends of the electronic media that enslave us and more importantly identify features of the new electronic world we live in that we can embrace and use to liberate ourselves.

Wouldn't it be great to consciously adopt a new model of polite communication on the order of what Emily Post did with etiquette, only dealing with what is respectful and what is not about the new media?

Sometimes naming the beast can help tame it.

What might be even more fun is if we could create a temporary on-line community (Ning works great for setting something like that up. I haven't tried Google Wave out yet, but it might be better). We could use the community's interaction on this subject to collect data, create surveys to collect further data, collect anecdotal data and discuss the elements of such a new proposed 21st century etiquette of communication. Wouldn't it be great if we could make spamming even more repugnant than it is? Can we do that without cutting off useful sources of “surprise data” that comes to us over the Internet. I'd hate to lose that in the process since it makes for a kind of synergy that is one of the strengths of the Internet world.

What do you think Chris? Interested in collaborating on a book? Say, “Anywhen: Towards a New Etiquette in the Age of the Internet”?

I like this idea……

What's even more cool is the idea of fully engaging Internet and other electronic tools to write the thing using time-shifting to it's max. The writing of the book would be part of the experiment. What works. What doesn't. Can you use the principles of Anywhen to create something of value and importance without allowing it to overwhelm you and enslave you to it. Can you use networking and e-tools to make the process easier and more humane? What about copyrights, intellectual property and how much of this stuff is ours once we throw it up on a website?

These are questions that need to be answered I think. Maybe someone has and I just haven't seen it yet. If I haven't seen it, does that mean, the anywhen concept has not achieved general adoption as a principle of the new communications?

Okay, I'm babbling. I'll shut up now.

Tom King

The Anywhen Manifesto is so great, I just loved it. I will start applying it right away – and continue developing my own manifestos. Thanks!

Thanks for this manifesto. Almost every single thing gets tagged as urgent these days. And communications with one another is getting rather daunting! Practically drowning in emails (huge avalanches), IM windows, text messages and usually when it gets too darn urgent amount to a phone call (which is what I would prefer as a much more effective discussion and clarification tool).

I think you are trying to be too nice. I would suggest that you (we) set our boundaries and let others
have their reactions and feelings about it. You REALLY can't take care of everyone and how they will
respond. I think (could be wrong) that you are trying to get everyone to be ok with the boundaries you set,
and that will NEVER happen:) So it's ok to decide what will work for you and your family and let that be that. :)

Chris

I love this manifesto and I'm all in favor of it. As a social media consultant one of my messages to my clients all the time is – don't let social media rule your life; it's for you to control.

Do you have any objection to me using your manifesto (with attribution and link of course) on my website?

I think the biggest challenge for someone else to follow this manifesto is to truly plan ahead and not fling perfectly avoidable last-minute “emergencies” at those they work with. If more work cultures did this, it would benefit not only those who value time-shifting but also those who value low-stress work environments. There are certainly legitimate occasions when something happens requiring an urgent response, but most of the time crunches I've experienced have been largely manufactured by others mismanaging their own planning. There's that saying, “Your lack of planning is not my emergency.”

I love it! Onboard!

In a world where I often feel that I am drowning in emails and worried that I am not doing all I can for clients by responding quickly enough or with enough attention, your blog post was a much needed read for me.

Thanks for the blog post … thanks for the therapy!

I'm all about asynchronous relationships. For me, it's email and text messages. You'll be hard pressed to catch me on the phone! I'm amassing a fortune in rollover minutes! I just wish I could give them to someone who can use them. =^D

Quite true. Good points, Mark, and I'm glad for your time.

I like this.