s inhabitants of a high-tech world everywhere we go there is ringing, beeping and keypad punching. But, sometimes there can be too much technology. The tools that were supposed to make our lives easier and more productive actually make life more cumbersome and waste time.

Many high-tech tools allow us to be too available. This is especially true in the sales profession, in which we are taught to be available every minute of every day and to respond immediately.

Many times, we believe we are serving a client when really we are doing all our clients a disservice by not maximizing our time, talent and resources. We spend our time responding, rather than planning, thinking and executing.

Following are some ways that technology steals bits of our time. If you recognize yourself in any of the following habits, make efforts to remedy them:

• Checking personal e-mail at work.
  Sure, once or twice a day is OK, but every hour is just interrupting your work.

• Giving your work number to friends.
  If you give your work number to friends and family it invites them to call you at work. Will that really help you to get your tasks completed any faster?

• Using instant messenger.
  Do you use an IM? Do you keep it on all day? Do you get messages all day? If you answered yes to any of these questions, IM is probably stealing valuable minutes from your day.

• Failing to ask for help.
  Did you just get a new gizmo, perhaps a cell phone or PDA? Do its features baffle you? Chances are someone has used them before. Asking someone how to use them will save you time and frustration. Ask for help. People like to be needed; it makes them happy that they were able to help.

• Using the wrong tool.
  Only use a tool or device if it saves you time. If a pencil and paper will do, use that. Many times it's faster than the latest gadget.

• Responding immediately.
  If you can, respond to all your e-mails and voice mail messages in one period of time. Doing so will limit interruptions of your work and thought process. It will also allow you to give the callers and e-mailers your undivided attention, which reduces the chance of mistakes such as e-mailing the wrong person in your address book or forgetting an attachment.

• Storing documents in multiple areas.
  Do you have an organized system for storing digital files, or do they sometimes get saved on a hard drive, sometimes on a disk and sometimes in an e-mail program? Create a system and always store the same types of files in the same place. It will save you time searching for missing files.

Failing to use all the features of an e-mail program. Did you know your e-mail program can automatically sort messages and reply to messages? Did you know you can be alerted to e-mails from specific people, and not others? Let the PC do the work for you.

High-tech tools can certainly help us to be more successful in our careers. The trick is to control them, rather than to let them control us.