I recently went to the Slow Food Festival in San Francisco and was inspired by the idea of S-L-O-W. Born in Italy in the 1980s in opposition to the fast food industry, the Slow community eschews 1-minute rice, instant oatmeal, and microwave ovens in favor of acknowledging a garden’s long, slow path to fruition; allowing the natural ripening of an artisanal cheese; basking the gradual process of sun-drying apricots... It was a pleasant counter to the fast-paced, technologically advanced world of high-tech publishing. And it raised some interesting questions for me about the role of technology in our modern world. We are surrounded by tech tools that are supposed to help make our lives easier, which they undoubtedly do. But do they make us freer? We are ostensibly plugged in 24/7, 365. The iPhone allows us to retrieve our messages almost instantly from wherever we are. We can take our laptops on vacation and try to resist the temptation to “check-in.” We are definitely free to roam, but are we choking on our electronic tether?

Admittedly, I am not immune to the need for speed. After returning from the festival, I wanted to buy movie tickets online, but my husband’s old iBook G3 was so painfully slow, I immediately turned it off and tried our other old-school PowerBook G4, which was excruciatingly slow compared to the up-to-the-nano-second rig that I am so used to at work. We made it to the show on time, but it was momentarily frustrating. All of this to say, the Slow festival was a welcome reminder that some things just take time... like reading a good book, roasting a whole chicken, listening to a symphony, or watching a movie. And technology should be just the thing to free us up so that we can enjoy the good things in life.  

Here are eight ways to free up your time to enjoy life’s slower pleasures:

1 - RSS feeds: No time for endless Web trolling? Let your computer search your favorite sites for pertinent topics with criteria that you define. You still have to click or scroll through the various articles gathered on your behalf, but it can be a real time-saver for anyone who needs to stay abreast in their particular field.

2 - Aggregators: When you don’t want to check myriad RSS feeds, you can subscribe to an aggregator Web service that will group your favorite sites on one page. For comprehensive information on your favorite topic, you should search for your area of interest and see if there is and existing aggregated site. For all things popping up on the Web that are Mac related, for example, check out macblips.com!

3 - Evernote: Need an external brain? Capture all your experiences, ideas, memories, and save and synchronize as you will. Check it out at www.evernote.com. The iPhone app is free in the App Store.

4 - TextExpander: Save time and countless keystrokes (although, if you do want count, TextExpander will tell you exactly how many keystrokes you’ve saved) using customized abbreviations for frequently used text strings.

5 - Voice recognition software: Obviously typing takes time, and for some professions (medicine and law, for example) this technology is already invaluable. For the rest of us, it will most likely be incorporated more and more into our daily lives in the near future.

6 - Organize!: Sounds like work, right? Well, it is, but once you’re done, you have your life back. Number 1 priority: Email Productivity. Organize your contacts, set customizable filters to prioritize your inbox, and automate common phrases.

7 - DVR: Admit it. You watch TV. Might as well watch your shows when you want to and eliminate time-consuming commercials.

8 - Automatic backup: This will save time and your hide, when it comes right down to it.