For the last week I had to take a step back from health care reform and Twitter for health reasons. This might seem like an inappropriate time due to the "immediacy" of passing a bill to fix the health care system, but be that as it may, I had to do it.
Firstly I was, and still am, completely overloaded with information about health care reform. I can never catch up. This has been going on for a while as I posted in my first Drinking from the health care reform fire hose article.
Secondly, I realized that no matter how much I follow the debate and try to get involved, my voice as a patient isn't being heard. I realized this after reading Cindy Throop's 4th of July blog post. She raised a few good questions, and I quote:
"In addition to an endless barrage of information (and discussions and debates regarding various combinations of information), trying to find a voice in the midst of the chaos is intimidating. Is anyone listening? Does what I say matter? If I spend endless hours of my "spare time" learning everything I can about health care reform, will the effort be futile? Will my opinion be heard?".
Thirdly, my continual checking Twitter on my Blackberry caused a major flair up of my RSI. I've suffered from this condition for over 15 years and this time was definitely the worst I've ever had. I thought this time I might have to have carpel tunnel surgery, but fortunately I think I've avoided that this time.
All of this caused my stress levels to go through the roof and eventually get sick. Getting sick did give me time for reflection, I realized the following:
1) I just don't have enough hours in the day to keep up with everything.
2) I preach that personal responsibility is key in health care reform, but I wasn't practicing what I was preaching.
Does this mean I've given up? Not at all. I'm just going to have to take one step back and take my health into account. This is also a debate that is going to continue past the current impending legislation so I'm going to keep on at it.
So what am I going to do from now on?
1) Monitor twitter, but favorite interesting tweets for further reading in the evening.
2) I won't be reading back past the tweets that are currently on my screen except for a few select tweep's streams.
3) I have to be very careful not to inflame my RSI again, so I'll be using my Blackberry a lot less and not for more than a few minutes at a time.
4) Take regular breaks from the debate.
Hopefully my experience will also help others. I'd also be interested to hear about any other ideas on how to effectively pace myself.
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Dude, its a Crackberry, not a Blackberry. :-)
ReplyDeleteI've found personal guidelines helpful as well. I try not to spend much (if any) time on twitter on weekdays...and lately, I catch myself before I turn on my computer in the evening. Am I getting on the computer to do something specific? If so, I write it down and *try* to focus on that task. Otherwise, I spend hours reading stuff from twitter.
At first, the learning curve was good...but now I've passed the saturation point where more information is not making me any smarter (actually, probably the opposite).
Another thing I'm doing is fine-tuning my "personal mission statement." What do I hope to accomplish within the context of health care reform? How can I accomplish it (e.g., like you suggested last week, breaking things into smaller pieces)? Also, how can I coordinate with others?
I think two of the keys are prioritization and cooperation. Hmmm, and strategy...there are a lot of like-minded folks (and projects and initiatives) out there...we should coordinate efforts...
I've been thinking for a couple of weeks that that our voices are too fragmented and agree that coordination is key. What I'm struggling with is how we do it.
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