“Think for a moment about how many times
a day you break your train of thought or stop
what you’re working on to check your e-mail,
answer voicemail, Google something insignificant,
or check an online news site. I must admit that
I’ve been guilty of all these productivity infractions
in the past — and most of the times I wasn’t even
aware that I was doing it. It just naturally happened
because it was there. I can even recall some instances
where I interrupted my interruptions.”
“According to Dr. Donald Wetmore . . . the average
person is interrupted once every eight minutes. Eighty
percent of these interruptions are rated as having little-
to-no value, creating approximately three hours of
wasted time per day.”
in the middle
of the distraction –
an interruption
“It’s alright not to be plugged in 24/7. I’ve person-
ally improved my own productivity and ability to manage
large amounts of information with this lesson. Some
of my best articles were written in a quiet cafe with my
cell phone off and laptop offline. . . . Maybe if we
spend a little more time improving our own abilities to
organize our tasks and digest incoming information
we’ll actually improve the manner in which we use the
technology. Unplugged shouldn’t have to mean unglued.”
update (Oct. 16, 2005): I just interrupted what I was doing
to tell you to take a look at today’s NYT article on the new
by Clive Thompson, Oct. 16, 2005). It asks:
“If high-tech work distractions are inevitable,
then maybe we can re-engineer them so we
receive all of their benefits but few of their
downsides. Is there such a thing as a perfect
interruption?”
update (Oct. 26, 2005): Over at MyShingle, Carolyn Elefant
interpreted the NYT article “Meet the Life Hackers” to mean
we can blame technology rather than ourselves when we seem
to get nothing done, despite spending the entire day on the
drew the more useful insight from the Times article, when he
noted that we seem to get more done in the off-hours, when
there are far fewer interruptions.
But, I think Chin’s “Unplugged” article has the more truthful and
helpful message, when he states we do have to discipline ourselves
to resist the interruptions that are unproductive or non-urgent:
“If you don’t already possess the basic skills to manage
information, technology might become a hindrance more
than a help — it becomes a liability, a part of the problem.
Not only will you be overwhelmed by information, you’ll
have to wrestle with the software as well. “ and,
“Information overload is a human problem that needs a
human solution. Before we can design better software, we
first need to understand and address our own abilities (or
inabilities) to manage information and organize our work day.”
“If you’re inefficient to begin with, no amount of technology
will fix that. It will just mean you’re inefficient with an expensive
toy. A true solution is based both on behavior and technology;
it’s based on three factors which need to be addressed in proper
order:
- Individual productivity and efficiency (behavioral)
- Corporate culture and environment (behavioral)
- Software applications (technology)
“When you rely solely on the technology to dictate the infor-
mation you receive, how to put it to use, and when to put it to
use, we slowly lose our own mental abilities to do the same.
It’s a sort of mental atrophy similar to physical atrophy. If you
don’t exercise your muscles they waste away over time. And if
you don’t work on your own mental abilities to organize, prioritize,
and focus the technology becomes a mental crutch. You stop
running the technology, and the technology starts running you.”
I wish I could absolve myself for my inefficient use of technology (such as checking
emails and weblog-referrers far too often), but the main culprit is indeed the guy whose
image is reflected in the glare of my computer screen.
