While wrapping Christmas presents, around the time Uncle Billy mistakenly dropped $8,000 in cash into Mister Potter’s lap and George Bailey’s Christmas Eve began to unravel, I realized none of the gifts in front of me needed to be charged.

Not one of them required firmware updates. No batteries. No charging.

While I didn’t intend it, I wound up gifting those closest to me a tech-free holiday. Fantastically, I received no tech in return and loved it.

What does it say about this moment when even me, a guy who spends an inordinate amount of time working with AI and thinking about personal tech, neither gave nor received any technology this holiday?

Simply, we have no confidence that anything is going to work the way we expect it should.

Why Are We Unsure?

What we’re all dealing with is a natural byproduct of the hidden costs present in every online system and tool we try to use. It’s endemic.

Need an email to sign up? You’re going to be marketed to.

Provide a social account to sign up? Your profiles will be crawled to line data brokers’ pockets

As an example, I received a new boardgame for Christmas; Ticket to Ride: Europe. I registered the game online in hopes there might be some benefit for providing an email address.

Is there a benefit? Yes. I get to play the game online on Board Game Arena free for six months.

To claim the reward, though, I had to set up a new account on a website named Asmodee. Aside from sounding more like a new virus than something I want to sign up for, Asmodee required me to leap through some terms-of-service hoops:

I didn’t even go read the privacy agreement because the site forced me to agree to it to register. I could not pass go or collect $200 unless I checked all the boxes.

Baloney, and a perfect example of why we don’t trust anything new will work.

Doing anything with technology requires thought and energy to get any benefit. It often involves a value exchange something like:

• I give Asmodee an email address.
• Asmodee sends me emails to sell me something I neither want nor need or, just as likely, sells my information to a data broker.
• To avoid that takes time, energy, and a better plan.

But how do you protect yourself without turning into a recluse who refuses all technology? You build systems; simple, repeatable habits that put you in control.

A Mindful Approach Is Best

What would that look like? One example is how I approach my inbox.

According to email industry figures, almost half, or 46.8%, of all emails people receive today are spam. That’s an incredible amount of unwanted messages people wade through every time they check their inboxes.

Me? I get two or three spam emails a day because I manage my inbox like its sacred ground. Nobody is granted access unless I deem them worthy.

Through a system which includes using masked email addresses and dealing with spam emails smartly, I don’t wince when I check for new messages.

By the way, a masked email is a unique address which forwards messages to your regular inbox. Some people use Hide My Email from Apple. I use a mix of it and Fastmail.

Because I do, Asmodee can take the email I gave it and try to match it against any other online activity. It won’t find another digital breadcrumb because their website is the only one on which I used it.

How I do that, and how I can help you run your inbox and digital affairs like a fine oiled machine, are exactly what my personal tech coaching is all about.

Regain Your Confidence

Technology should make your life easier. Too often it just adds frustration.

Whether you want helping wrangling your inbox, syncing calendars, organizing photos, or learning how to use new devices, after we work together you will be more in control of your tech.

We’ll work together one-on-one at your pace using your actual devices. No jargon. No judgment. Just clear, supportive help tailored to your personal tech setup.

There’s two ways to get started:

1. Book a 30-minute call with me to talk through your goals. Then we’ll identify one frustration to tackle right away.
2. Answer five questions about your relationship with technology. You’ll get one email from me as a follow-up, and I will not add you to a list for later marketing.

Whichever path you choose, I will be in touch within a day. Whether you schedule the call or answer the questions, you’re under no obligation to go forward unless you think it’s worth your time.

Whether we work together or not, you’ll walk away from our conversation with at least one concrete step to take control of your tech. That I guarantee.