One of the things about writing a column like this is that it takes a great deal of concentration. Once you have an idea, you have to -
Sorry, email just came in on another project. Have to deal with that.
OK, back now. Where was I? Oh yeah. When writing, you have to take a singular idea and see how you can flesh it out into whole cloth. That involves -
Wait, text from a client just popped up. Back in a sec.
Apologies, here again. So as I was saying, it's like making a rug. You have to take a thread and pair it with other complimentary ideas, building it all into a cohesive -
News flash. Sorry, had set an alert about this one item I'm following. Give me a minute.
Back once more. And so it goes.
If you're like me, the aforementioned sequence is the state of play all the time. There are so many distractions when you are connected that it's hard to get anything done. We like to think that we are great multi-taskers, able to juggle a variety of items simultaneously, effortlessly shifting from one to the next and back again. But research suggests otherwise.
Several studies have found that the brain doesn't really do multiple tasks simultaneously. Rather, it toggles back and forth very quickly. Each time we jump from hearing music, to writing a text, to talking to someone – to writing a column - there is a stop/start process that occurs in our heads, as one set of synapses goes dormant and another lights up. How long does it take to shut down one task and start another? As Shakespeare said, there's the rub.
One 2005 study funded by Hewlett-Packard and conducted by the Institute of Psychiatry at the University of London found that, "Workers distracted by e-mail and phone calls suffer a fall in IQ more than twice that found in marijuana smokers." And that lethargy adds up: business research firm Basex estimates that interruptions consume 28% of a worker's day. That translates into 28 billion lost man hours per year in the US, adding up to about $588 billion in lost productivity.
So we have a conundrum. We have devices and programs that connect us via multiple pathways to everything and everyone so we can be instantly responsive. And yet being instantly responsive makes us less efficient in every task we perform as we try to juggle them all at the same time. Or to put it in terms of the University of London study, you might be more efficient balancing your checkbook and smoking a joint vs. rectifying your accounts and texting your girlfriend.
This all came to light because I noted my computer seemed inordinately quiet as I was working on a piece. I didn't dislike it: it was actually nice to focus on one thing only without being interrupted. I assumed all was quiet in the wider world for a bit. But when I interrupted my train of thought to look online for a moment, the dam broke.
Suddenly there were emails and alerts galore. Seems I had accidentally toggled an option buried in the last iteration of Windows called "Focus Assist." This little app acts as a gatekeeper, noting when you are working on a concentrated task, and keeps the interruptions at bay. Punch away from your task, and it opens the doors.
At first I was incensed. How dare technology tell me what I should be aware of and what I should not? But then I realized just how much I had accomplished, and how not important those texts and emails were, or more precisely, how they could wait a few minutes for me to get to them. Realizing I was indeed better off focusing on one task, I left it as is and went back to where I was. And finished that one task in far shorter order than if I had been juggling multiple distractions.
On a horse's bridle you sometimes see two leather flaps positioned to the outside of each eye. Called "blinders," they are there to help the animal focus on what is in front of it, and not get distracted or spooked by all that surrounds it. In my case, technology is doing the same. And I don't need to wear a harness. That's the very definition of a win-win.
-END-
Marc Wollin of Bedford is easily - wait, what? - distracted. His column appears regularly in The Record-Review, The Scarsdale Inquirer and online at http://www.glancingaskance.blogspot.com/, as well as via Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.
Sorry, email just came in on another project. Have to deal with that.
OK, back now. Where was I? Oh yeah. When writing, you have to take a singular idea and see how you can flesh it out into whole cloth. That involves -
Wait, text from a client just popped up. Back in a sec.
Apologies, here again. So as I was saying, it's like making a rug. You have to take a thread and pair it with other complimentary ideas, building it all into a cohesive -
News flash. Sorry, had set an alert about this one item I'm following. Give me a minute.
Back once more. And so it goes.
If you're like me, the aforementioned sequence is the state of play all the time. There are so many distractions when you are connected that it's hard to get anything done. We like to think that we are great multi-taskers, able to juggle a variety of items simultaneously, effortlessly shifting from one to the next and back again. But research suggests otherwise.
Several studies have found that the brain doesn't really do multiple tasks simultaneously. Rather, it toggles back and forth very quickly. Each time we jump from hearing music, to writing a text, to talking to someone – to writing a column - there is a stop/start process that occurs in our heads, as one set of synapses goes dormant and another lights up. How long does it take to shut down one task and start another? As Shakespeare said, there's the rub.
One 2005 study funded by Hewlett-Packard and conducted by the Institute of Psychiatry at the University of London found that, "Workers distracted by e-mail and phone calls suffer a fall in IQ more than twice that found in marijuana smokers." And that lethargy adds up: business research firm Basex estimates that interruptions consume 28% of a worker's day. That translates into 28 billion lost man hours per year in the US, adding up to about $588 billion in lost productivity.
So we have a conundrum. We have devices and programs that connect us via multiple pathways to everything and everyone so we can be instantly responsive. And yet being instantly responsive makes us less efficient in every task we perform as we try to juggle them all at the same time. Or to put it in terms of the University of London study, you might be more efficient balancing your checkbook and smoking a joint vs. rectifying your accounts and texting your girlfriend.
This all came to light because I noted my computer seemed inordinately quiet as I was working on a piece. I didn't dislike it: it was actually nice to focus on one thing only without being interrupted. I assumed all was quiet in the wider world for a bit. But when I interrupted my train of thought to look online for a moment, the dam broke.
Suddenly there were emails and alerts galore. Seems I had accidentally toggled an option buried in the last iteration of Windows called "Focus Assist." This little app acts as a gatekeeper, noting when you are working on a concentrated task, and keeps the interruptions at bay. Punch away from your task, and it opens the doors.
At first I was incensed. How dare technology tell me what I should be aware of and what I should not? But then I realized just how much I had accomplished, and how not important those texts and emails were, or more precisely, how they could wait a few minutes for me to get to them. Realizing I was indeed better off focusing on one task, I left it as is and went back to where I was. And finished that one task in far shorter order than if I had been juggling multiple distractions.
On a horse's bridle you sometimes see two leather flaps positioned to the outside of each eye. Called "blinders," they are there to help the animal focus on what is in front of it, and not get distracted or spooked by all that surrounds it. In my case, technology is doing the same. And I don't need to wear a harness. That's the very definition of a win-win.
-END-
Marc Wollin of Bedford is easily - wait, what? - distracted. His column appears regularly in The Record-Review, The Scarsdale Inquirer and online at http://www.glancingaskance.blogspot.com/, as well as via Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.
No comments:
Post a Comment