I can be reached in so many ways these days:  my trusty land line where you won’t actually be likely to find me, but you’ll never know that with the many features it has these days, like “follow me” and “find me.” If you leave me a message on my land line it can be emailed to me and that email can appear on my cell phone. You can try texting me or calling my cell phone directly – if that doesn’t work you can email me directly- or <GASP> call the main office line and talk to a receptionist and ask him or her where I am.

I’m so plugged in I can never get anything done. My calendar is full of meetings, time slots, and reminders – all synced to my laptop, my PC, my PDA/ my cell phone and my head – OUCH! I already have a headache and its only 8:47am Monday….

Recently I started work on a proposal to implement a new phone system for a potential client. PBX or OCS? That seems to be the question of the year. My notes said the client’s needs are the basics in communication: phone calls, IVR’s, Voice Mail to Email, find me, follow me, IM, video conferencing and all the other typical bells and whistles. Below the notes was a comment from the client –“I do not like the idea of this presence thing you’re talking about. I don’t want anyone to know the best way to reach me.”  

That got me thinking… So why do I want presence?

Then it hit me like a stack of voice mail emails and texts coming in – because I want to cut down on the clutter of all the messages of people trying find me and get an instant answer to the question they have.

Presence not only allows people to see where I am or where I am not, it not only gives them the information for the best way to find me; it only gives them that information IF I WANT TO BE FOUND.

That’s the trick – using presence correctly, I can effectively give myself the needed breathing room to work uninterrupted by filtering the information I’m putting out there for others to see. I can filter my IMs and have them sent to my inbox; I can have all my cell calls go to my VM – which goes to my inbox. I can have my land line and my extension sent there as well. All I have to do then is to look at my inbox!

Of course the next trick I plan to learn is “How do I not look into my inbox when I am trying to have some needed downtime?” Maybe create an auto-blocker on my Android that matches my calendar that uses my presence to turn on the “blocker” because I have set a time in my calendar to pray – God help me – I need a time slot for you, too.