In 2008, I was busier in my average day than ever before. But I’ve got less to show for my effort. I wrote less posts, produced less design, met less people, worked less, lived less and even smiled less.
A web world of distractions
I noticed a great increase in the distractions I made part of my day last year.
Live and direct to my screen and phone, my hundreds of Twitter friends post dozens of messages and links to articles and sites and photos and videos being updated as I load them.
In Contrast, a Tweet about or by any of the team or about our apps comes right into our Campfire room, with an attention-grabbing ping and a warning-red coloured indicator to advise me how much I don’t know about the past 10 seconds.
Links I miss in Twitter get linked by those I subscribe to in my reader. I’m subscribed to a couple hundred feeds; Google Reader gives me the keyboard power I need to quickly scan but not really read or really think about them. But it humours me anyway by marking them “read”.
My Fluid apps for different e-mail accounts flash their little unread indicators too, while Google Calendar announces with its bouncing icon at 16:25: “Meeting with [new client] at 16:30” and Skype pops a little chat screen in my face from [old client]: “Hi Eoghan. Can you chat for 5 minutes?”
First thing in the morning, after I step from the shower, before I go to work, en route to work, at work, at lunch, at meetings, at dinner, while I get ready for bed and last thing at night I check: e-mail, Twitter, feeds, stats, Campfire.
What the hell have I become? I’m a wholesale consumer of useless information I already know about five minutes ago; a genuine data glutton. But what’s worse, I’m not just some freak specimen of the modern man that went wrong, I’m a typical web worker “keeping up-to-date”. And I know far too many people with this same problem. In fact, you’re probably one of them.
A real world of distractions
But that’s just what you get for being a web worker; for everybody in the 21st century, we’re expected to process so much more. A quiet mind is not “normal”, so we fill it with junk. Many streams of junk.
For example, Sky News, in addition to a newscaster, has a ticker with the top headlines for you to parse. And if that’s not enough, they have a “breaking news” ticker too. And if that’s not enough, their bulletin has gone from “on the hour” to every half-hour to every fifteen minutes. So don’t worry about trying to actually comprehend any of the crap they’re feeding you, because you’ll get it again in another fifteen minutes, then fifteen minutes later, and so on. I remember fondly how dentist’s waiting rooms used to be havens of quiet, serene nervousness; now my dentist has Sky News in the room. And on the ceiling in the clinic! And “Brown Thomas” have little screens with Sky News on them over their urinals; because taking a leak is boring, I guess.
A distraction-free year
I believe that procrastination feeds on these distractions and that my personal productivity has decreased due to the time, energy and thoughtspace I’ve given them. I believe that a distracted mind is no place for innovation, problem-solving and creativity. And happiness.
This year when I walk to work, I’m going to… walk to work! And relax.
When I get to work, I’m going to… work! And do it really, really well.
When I read books and blogs, I’m going to… read them! Really read them. And learn from them too.
When I eat my dinner I’m going to… eat my dinner! And enjoy it.
I’m going get happy by killing distractions and getting more done. I suggest you try the same.
23 Comments
This phenomenon was also referred to as continuous partial attention, but guess what? I can’t remember where I saw that!
Yet here I am commenting when I should be eating my lunch.
I’ve also committed to something similar. Twitter is off during most of the day. Facebook is for Fridays and for any new feed to make it in to my reader, I have to delete three.
Posted by Lar Veale at 12:44 pm on 9 January, 2009.
Yep twitter especially can be a great big timesink even if it’s incredibly useful. I find I always try to read blogs to see how I could be doing things better as opposed to actually doing them in the first place. I need to get the right balance there. Need a good read on time management.
Posted by Matt at 1:00 pm on 9 January, 2009.
Great post Lar. I’m totally the same - these distractions are the bane of my life. Reminds me also about a quasi-study that showed that multi-tasking lowered your IQ more than smoking dope. I do genuinely believe that my memory is weakening as a result of constant flicking between tasks. And despite this, corps encourage multitasking as the holy grail and a skill to treasure.
I’m almost finished developing a little Mac app which helps with this distraction problem - it basically blocks out everything other than the app you’re currently working on. I might even tweak it so that you can’t leave your current app for 20-minutes or so.
If I can remember, I’ll post a link to the app (it’ll be free) once I’ve finished.
Posted by Keith Mander at 1:34 pm on 9 January, 2009.
I meant great post Eoghan - but your comment Lar wasn’t half bad
Posted by Keith Mander at 1:35 pm on 9 January, 2009.
Great post Eoghan. I think we’re all guilty of this at some level.
I love that you’ve committed yourself to removing these distractions from your life, but I know it’ll be extremely hard to do (I’ve tried it myself, yet here I am commenting on yet another blog post during work hours).
Maybe you could follow up this post in a couple of weeks with another one outlining how your new uber productive and quiet life is treating you? I’d love to hear how you get on with it. I’m guessing it won’t be easy.
Posted by Iarfhlaith Kelly at 1:56 pm on 9 January, 2009.
Eoghan,
what you describe is exactly what has been going through my mind for a while, too. I feel that following all that microblogging stuff and not rationing time spent on newsfeeds can make yourself not only overloaded, but restless, too.
Thanks for your thoughts!
Posted by Thorsten at 2:43 pm on 9 January, 2009.
Great post Eoghan. I realized yesterday, twitter has actually become a source of distraction.
Yet here I am commenting when I am one hour away from my exam!
People is another source of distraction. I am in college lab right now and I keep getting distracted by others from studying. Unfortunately, I can’t “kill” these distractions
Posted by shekman at 2:43 pm on 9 January, 2009.
Thanks for this post. This and your previous one, I feel, are really important.
I know, for me, when I’m really busy, I just have to shut down twitter, close my email, shut off the phone, or else I’ll never get anything done. There’s that initially freak-out moment of ‘what if something happens and I need to know about it!’. But, once you get over that it’s awesome.
I like the idea of really doing whatever you’re doing. Or, In other words, if you are somewhere, be there ( …and not everywhere else via new communication tools).
Sweet work. Thanks for writing interesting, meaningful, and important stuff.
Posted by Andrew at 2:49 pm on 9 January, 2009.
I never jumped on the Twitter bandwaggon and I’m proud I never did. But I print out stuff to read while having lunch and I am signed up for half a dozen news feeds.
More can be damaging, thats so true. People gotta realize that.
Posted by Skythe at 2:56 pm on 9 January, 2009.
Having said what I did before, I find that by reading blogs there are some very useful things to be picked up.
Posted by Matt at 5:07 pm on 9 January, 2009.
Best thing I did all year was delete my Gmail Notifier and turn off the new mail alert count on my blackberry (the number that tells you how many unread).
Now I check my mail when I think to myself, oooh I wonder if I’ve any mail. Rather than it disturbing me.
Posted by Robin Blandford at 9:43 am on 10 January, 2009.
I used to be a big sucker for reading comments. I found that sapped most of my time, particularly on things like Digg, Slashdot etc.
Er.. actually, I’d like to say that I didn’t read the comments here, but eh…
Great post Eoghan!
Posted by Eamon Leonard at 11:49 am on 10 January, 2009.
I feel sorry for you, Eoghan! Why not replace that pretty but ultimately pointless iPhone with something a bit more classical? Ditch all task management software and buy a nice notepad and pen. Use Windows 98 at work. Throw that iBook in the Liffey. Write down your to-do lists. Don’t answer work calls after 5pm. Don’t fear your voicemail. Don’t do any work when you’re travelling between appointments. Prune those feeds to a maximum of 30. No-one really minds if you don’t answer them immediately, or if you don’t work after 5pm. That’s (kind of) my experience.
Posted by Leon Paternoster at 3:55 pm on 10 January, 2009.
Seems like Cory agrees:
http://www.locusmag.com/Features/2009/01/cory-doctorow-writing-in-age-of.html .
Amazing how hard it is to use a computer for actual work. I remember, back when I was using WordPerfect 4.2 for DOS, that I got a huge amount of work done. Every technology generation since that has been a step downhill as far as personal productivity goes. I’ve probably learned a broader set of things, but it’s gotten hard to just buckle down and focus.
I wish you much luck in the coming year, Eoghan! Let me know if you find some good shortcuts and get more of your life back. Maybe we could have some coffee with phones turned off to discuss.
Posted by Breandán at 3:18 am on 12 January, 2009.
Thanks so much for the comments, tips and support. Great to know I’m really not on my own.
Now that I’ve made such a big deal about it (”been there, written the blog post”), I feel a little jolt of shame every time I go to check feeds on my phone, check mail when I don’t need to, check Twitter when my concentration starts to slip. And bit by bit, I’m disconnecting. And… I’m loving it!
My only recommendation at this early stage to those interested in trying the same is to very seriously decide you’ll be a better person without the distractions and learn to hate yourself for getting caught-up in the steam of bullshit information. It sounds odd, but I guarantee you wont change if you just “wish” you could concentrate more. Killing habits is one of the most difficult things to do. The only way to erase them is to write a new one on top. I remember reading somewhere that it takes about 20 days to form (or overwrite) a habit or routine…
Also, I recommend you check out the link from Breandán about writing, if that’s an area you find difficult due to certain distractions.
Thanks again, guys, and good luck if you’re sharing this resolution with me!
Posted by Eoghan McCabe at 12:29 am on 20 January, 2009.
Eoghan,
I am really appreciating your posts, in particular this one and another on the user experience. Glad I found you, and please know that you are not alone in seeking to eliminate distractions and more fully engage in the here and now–whether it’s work or leisure.
Posted by Kimberly Ratcliff at 4:26 am on 21 January, 2009.
Great post. Take a media fast. Live in the moment.
Posted by Marcie at 6:04 pm on 27 January, 2009.
Superb post. I am getting more done since I moved to email twice/day (sometimes more, sometimes none).
No twitter (well I have a play account now for occasional broadcast and to test to see if this is something my clients should be using), no RSS reader, no email notification. No chat apart from Skype and I only use Skype with internal team. Don’t answer my cellphone most of the time.
Less is more.
After hearing what happened to you, I am even more determined to cut back. Where you are is where I was going before I stopped.
PS. Your template is superb. All the white space your life doesn’t/didn’t have.
Posted by Alec at 3:52 pm on 31 January, 2009.
Well said, man. I’ve been doing similar cutbacks. Good stuff.
Live a life worth tweeting about, don’t tweet about a life worth living.
Posted by drew at 4:46 pm on 3 February, 2009.
Thanks. Your post is distracting me from doing my job.
But good things to think about. I find that I am less present, wherever I go, when I have my technology with me.
Posted by Rich at 2:09 pm on 13 March, 2009.
Very good post and you are so right there are some many INTERNET distractions and as you put it TWITTER. I myself have not joined this social network and the way you have spoken about it I don’t think I need the distraction thanks:)
Posted by Wendy @ Gopher Promo at 11:18 am on 29 July, 2009.
Somehow, due to all the distractions at work yesterday I did remember this article…Just wondering..it’s been 10 months now since you posted this, how are you holding up and what conclusions or recommendations have you come to.
Posted by Arturs at 3:17 pm on 10 November, 2009.
How has it gone?
Posted by Paul M. Watson at 10:17 am on 22 November, 2009.
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