I Left My Cell Phone at Home! Can I Live a Whole Day Without It?

Image from Mashable.com

By Rose Strong

Every morning I pack my lunch into my L.L.Bean Boat and Tote™ bag, get my travel mug of coffee, give the cats their treats and back out the door, making sure it’s locked.  Starting my car, I adjust the radio, put on my seat belt and off I go.

Then there are the mornings when I feel I’m forgetting something.

I start driving down the road, bopping my head to the music or listening intently to a story on NPR that caught my ear. I’m halfway to work when I realize I’ve forgotten my cell phone. Suddenly, I begin to panic...I mean, really start worrying about how I’m going to get through the day without it.

What is wrong with this picture? I have only started carrying a cell phone regularly for about six or seven years. Much of that time, I didn’t have good service, so it didn’t matter much. I live in a somewhat rural area in Pennsylvania where cell phone service was spotty at best and only in the last couple years has it been good enough that I don’t have dropped calls when at home. Point being, I have lived a lot of years without a cell phone, so what is the big deal?

I don’t make many phone calls or send many text messages, but it does keep me connected to my family and friends. I carry a smartphone that, of course, comes with a data plan for using WiFi and 4G, however, I use it as my home phone as well. I have a land line, but it’s only used for Internet purposes since I live far enough from others to not be offered something faster than a high speed DSL service.

There have been many important messages that have come through that cell phone to make me want to keep it on my desk every day: an ultrasound video of my great nephew, an update from my sister-in-law about our oil tank spillage in our basement at home and the scary texts from my partner when she thought she may have been having a cardiac episode and was being taken to the hospital. It was that day I realized, I would never be without a cell phone. The visit to the emergency room took more than 13 hours and I had to communicate with family quickly about what was happening.

So, what do I do on the infrequent occasions when I leave my cell phone at home? Since I live 18 miles from the office, I bite the bullet and turn around to retrieve it and hope I don’t get a speeding ticket on my way into work to make up for the lost time. Of course, I send an email to the Furia Rubel staff from my driveway that I’m running late before getting back on the road.

I’ll admit, I’m on my cell phone a lot. It’s mostly for the social networking and fun stuff: Facebook, email (both work and personal) Words with Friends, Solitaire – I am addicted to that silly card game – and my camera. I take photos all the time, some I share and many I don’t. I am hooked on Instagram and Pinterest and a Craigslist app comes in handy for my yard sale fun on weekends which I combine with a MapQuest app to find my way around unfamiliar neighborhoods. I use my phone when I’m in the car as a passenger. I am not addicted to it. Really, I’m not. I know because I took this test  and I don’t suffer from all of the symptoms!

Cute great nephew photo!

With that said, as a rule I don’t use my phone in the company of others at a dinner table or during social events unless I’m showing off a photo of my adorable, four-month-old  great nephew or scenes from a day trip my partner and I took recently or a client affair that the Furia Rubel team attended.

I believe in giving my time to those I’m with. I think it’s still important to show appropriate social skills and find myself worrying that the youth today aren’t going to know how to manage communicating face-to-face if they can’t look up from the glowing screen in their hands.

I am sure I could manage to go without my phone for a day or two. I choose not to. What I do choose is a balance between being connected to others through wireless signals and making connections face-to-face. 

What do you remember about the days before cell phones?  Do you also panic when you leave the house without the magic box in your hand? Let me know your thoughts in the comments of this blog. I’d love to know that I’m not alone.

Remember Faces, but Not Names? You're Not Alone

 By Rose Strong

I have never felt completely comfortable in social situations. Be the event for business or pleasure I’m not always at ease, although you’d never know it. I can move around a room and make conversation with everyone and seemingly enjoy the occasion. All the while, my brain is spinning about what to say next, if what I said last was appropriate and witty or if I’m making a total fool of myself.

I can keep my distress so under wraps that I am able to introduce myself to those I don’t know. Then, I immediately forget their name. I can meet someone and only minutes later when introducing them to my coworker, partner or friend -- whoosh…………..the name has flown out of my brain and I’m left feeling completely embarrassed.

For years, I’ve heard and even made use of the cliché myself, “I’m great with faces; I just don’t remember names.”

As I am getting ready for two local events where I’ll be representing my company, it has occurred to me that perhaps I need to do a bit of research on how one can recall someone’s name after meeting them.

The all-time big tip you find doing this research is: repeat, repeat, repeat. I knew this from talking with others and reading it in books and magazines like this article from Forbes that suggested you do repetition of the name of the person you’ve just met both internally and vocally.

One thing Gina Rubel, our CEO, recommended is to immediately add the person’s name to your cell phone notes or even text yourself. One thing she also does when she’s going to an association function, is to review her contacts and make sure they all have photos attached to their vcards in Outlook. That way, the photos of people she’s previously met are on her cell phone when she attends the networking function. She also creates subfolders in Outlook for all of those similarly-situated contacts. That way, she can go straight to that list on her iPhone and scan 100 names as opposed to 3,000.

In looking for additional ways to improve my recall of names, I began to wonder why so many of us have such difficulty with this task. I found some great suggestions, and reasons we don’t remember names.

One thing I can say is that I’m happy I’m not in this boat all alone. It seems when we are introducing ourselves or someone tells us their name, we are often internally preoccupied with how we are handling the social activity or how we may be coming across to others making our auditory perception not as tuned in to the goings-on around us. The article by Kris Hallbom, co-director of the NLP Institute of California explains this more succinctly and gives some great tips on how to recall names.

Hallbom reveals one tip I hadn’t thought or heard of before: the use of touch and imagining using your finger to write the person’s name. Making the actual movements helps to embed their name into your head for better recall.

A tremendously interesting story on the BBC’s website  brought this all into perspective and there’s some scientific evidence as to why so many of us have an easier time recognizing a face, but not recall a name.

So, here’s a brief list to help recall names:

•    Repeat – Repeat the person’s name aloud several times in the course of the initial meeting and internally later.

•    Pay attention – Yes I know, this sounds like a no-brainer, but as mentioned before, we’re often so concerned with how we may come across that we aren’t concentrating on what the other person is saying.

•    Associate – This can be a bit tricky, but use something that will remind you of the person, such as a color or pattern they’re wearing. For example: teal Theresa, leopard Linda or navy blue Drew. If you’re a history buff or celebrity watcher, sometimes associating with those who may share first names of a historical character or celeb is helpful.

This is only a short list, but this blog from HealthStatus.com  has a dozen more ways to help recall names.

And if you’re looking for a way to fake it till you make it, this article by Gretchen Rubin, and author of the Happiness Project, gives you six ways to do just that.

Do you have any special methods for recalling names? If so, share it with me in the comments, I can use all the help I can get!

Maximizing Talk Shows and Roundtables: Philadelphia Media Panel May 16, 2013

Philadelphia Bar Association Bar-News Media Committee - Media Panel Discussion

Co-sponsored by the Philadelphia Public Relations Association (PPRA) and Delaware Valley Law Firm Marketing Group (DVLFMG)

Featuring:

Rachel Cieri
Managing Editor, SmartCEO Magazine

Lynn Doyle
Host/Executive Producer of "It's Your Call with Lynn Doyle" on The Comcast Network

Hank Grezlak
Associate Publisher & Editor-in-Chief, The Legal Intelligencer

Wally Kennedy
News Anchor, KYW Newsradio

Moderated by:

Gina Furia Rubel, Esq.
Chair, Bar-News Media Committee (Moderator)

President/CEO, Furia Rubel Marketing and Public Relations

Other panelists to be announced.

Join award-winning Philadelphia region broadcasting and print trailblazers who will discuss the unique challenges of producing and hosting talk shows and roundtables on legal topics. Our all-star panel will share their experiences and challenges reporting on law-related issues, while providing attendees with insights on how they may become better resources and/or interview subjects.

Date: 
Thursday, May 16, 2013

Time: 

12:00 PM

Location: 
Philadelphia Bar Association
1101 Market Street
11th Floor Conference Center
Philadelphia, PA 19107

Registration Info: 
Lunch is available for $8.00 for members of the Philadelphia Bar Association and PPRA.

Cancellations require 24 hour notice to receive a refund.

Register today for what promises to be an exciting andenlightening conversation between the media and local lawyers.

Mobile Website Design and Development: Font Treatment and Readability

By Laura Powers

Responsive, mobile and dynamic are some of the terms used when discussing the development of websites to be viewed on screens smaller than a traditional desktop screen. Whichever term you use for your company's small-screen optimized website (and method you use to achieve the creation of it), in the end, it all boils down to user experience. You must ask yourself, "Are users being quickly served the relevant information on our mobile site that they are looking for? Are they able to read and navigate the site easily?"

One critical element in the design and development of a mobile site is the treatment of the text to ensure "readability" on small screens. Size, contrast, spacing and placement should all be critically considered during the planning phase when determining how information will be restructured for display. This article from designmodo.com, describes the importance of mobile typography and shows some great (mostly consumer website) examples.

We'll be posting more information on design and development considerations for small screen mobile sites in future posts.

In the meantime, how does your site measure up?