Ever wonder if you embarrass your computer? You know, the way kids find their parents hopelessly embarrassing?

“OK, you can drop me off here…no need to come in. And when you come to pick me up, just call my cell when you’re here and I’ll come out…”

When you connect to the network does your computer take advantage of unused cycles to gossip to other computers about what a hopeless klutz you are? Computers are getting smarter and faster every year, not to mention slimmer. And their users? Probably better not to ask.

Dell: Why, if I am getting his work done so fast, is he still staying at the office until 8 p.m. Doesn’t he have a life?

Vaio: My guy spent three hours Googling work-life balance issues, then got a bunch of angry calls from his wife because he was still in the office at 7 p.m. trying to catch up with his...

ToughBook: And don’t you love those 15-person conference calls where half the people mute their phones and drift off to do email or chat with colleagues? Then when they do get a question, they have to ask for it to be repeated.

Faster computers, broadband, email, SmartPhones, and still we seem to fall further behind. Can we ever catch up to our technology?

The Times reports that an entire industry, and the predictable slew of books, has grown up around how to keep meetings from taking over the world. A friend who used to consult at Citigroup said the running joke was that they hired consultants to get the work done while the staff held meetings.

In its excellent January special issue, “Managing Yourself,” the Harvard Business Review attempted to launch a new term, “attention deficit trait,” to describe office workers who lost any semblance of linear thought in a jumble of wired and cell phone calls, email, and personal interruptions. Edward Hallowell, a psychiatrist with experience treating ADD in children, says he is seeing similar symptoms in adults.

“All too often, companies induce and exacerbate ADT in their employees by demanding faster thinking rather than deep thinking. Firms also ask employees to work on multiple overlapping projects and initiatives, resulting in second-rate thinking. Moreover, organizations make the mistake of forcing their employees to do more and more with less and less by eliminating support staff.”

As an example of a firm that runs counter to this, Hallowell cites a software company – SAS Institute – with its on-site day care, a gym, and a seven-hour work day.

Will we catch up to our laptops? After blowing the dust from the keyboard, gently wiping down the screen, and making sure its battery was fully charged, I ventured to ask mine. Not a chance, it said, and the gap between the capabilities of people and computers is growing each year. But, it added charitably, instead of trying to think as fast as a computer, I should figure out how to use the growing power of computers to create more time for doing other things. Unfortunately, it didn’t explain how.

For more information, see the January 2005 issue of Harvard Business Review at www.hbr.org. You might also want to read “Take Back Your Life – Using Microsoft Outlook to get organized and stay organized,” by Sally McGhee, from Microsoft Press.