Last week I lost my phone, and discovered why going off the grid (by intention or accident) isn't necessarily a good thing. Riding a trike, my Nokia 1100 slipped out of my loose pocket. Ironically, the day after, I discovered those pants had a hidden pocket-with a zipper that kept it shut!

I'll confess that I enjoyed the first few days when I wasn't constantly interrupted by incoming calls and texts. Balancing a full-time job and freelance projects requires being in touch, and with no way for people to contact me when I was out of the house, I was at peace.

Yet I was brought back to reality when I finally checked my mail. I already consider ten unanswered messages a backlog, and here were 50 staring at me. Even now I'm busy trying to clear the build up of unfinished work.

What's my point? I'm sure all of us have illusions of not answering e-mails, taking the phone off the hook, and keeping our smartphones and PDAs off. But living in an urban environment simply demands you stay connected; refuse to do so and you'll be left behind, as I was when I had no phone.

Sure, there's nothing wrong with shutting yourself off from the outside world for a while. If you insist on disconnecting indefinitely though, you will pay. Some people may see smartphones and PDAs as another sign of how technology's taken over our lives. But I see them as a tool for survival: they allow you to stay in the game in an ever competitive world. Because if you don't use all the mobile tools at your disposal to get the job done--whenever and wherever--then someone else who can will take your place.

There's Another Way, But I'm Not Considering: Of course, you can always go rural, and leave behind the requirements of the urban world. But as a young man, I still have a life to live, and before growing old, I plan to squeeze every ounce of productiveness out of everything I do.

So What Do You Use? Thanks to Sasha, I'm using her old (but still reliable) Nokia 7650. I'm really interested in the Treo 680, and when it comes out here on November, I might just buy it.