Driven to distraction by technology

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its marketing department. The move came at the behest of Jeremy Burton, an executive vice president who was finding his in-box stuffed with 400 messages a day, many from his own department.

In Burton's department, employees can't e-mail one another on Friday, but they are allowed to e-mail customers or other parts of the storage company if they have to. The result? Workers spend more time connecting face to face, and Burton finds his in-box is only half as full.

And when it comes to finishing up a big project, many workers are unplugging altogether--something that Microsoft's Capossela says should not have to be the answer.

Well-written software could offer a better solution, he said. It should help employees stay connected but enable them to receive only messages they want to get--from a boss or family member, say.

"Think about blocking off your calendar for work time," Capossela said. "If you were to say, 'Hey, this is work time for Project X,' you can imagine us getting smart about not bothering you about anything that is not related to Project X."

Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates has tried to make the case that however overwhelmed workers may feel, they are actually suffering from "information underload." The problem, he says, is that today's software doesn't do an adequate job of filtering information and presenting it in more useful ways.

Microsoft has not fully outlined its plans to ease the burden, but Capossela said a new version of Office due out next year will offer some help.

"With Office 12, we will do things to make it a lot easier for people to be more effective in the way they manage all of these communication mechanisms," Capossela said.

Different tack
IBM researcher Russell said that Big Blue is also working on better ways to manage scheduling for the next version of Lotus Workplace, part of IBM's collection of software that rivals Office.

But better software is not a cure-all, Capossela said. Although technology can and should make it easier to slow down, part of the change needs to be a different set of priorities.

"Technology has kind of turned the tables on us," Honore said. "We move to its speed and its rhythm."

And in addition to sapping our creativity, some studies suggest that we may not even be getting anywhere by trying to send an e-mail, talk to a co-worker and send instant messages to our boss at the same time. Russell says humans just aren't that good at doing many things at once.

The problem, Russell said, is that there are only certain types of tasks that humans are good at doing simultaneously. Cooking and talking on the phone go together fine, as does walking and chewing gum (for most people). But try and do three math problems at once, and you are sure to have a problem.

"The paradox of modern life is that multitasking is, in most cases, counterproductive," Russell said.

[usamoxie]

Turn them OFF!!

The solution to this problem is very easy. Turn off the devices and do your work!!! I used to work for CSC a few years ago and was being interrupted constantly (by managers, supervisors and the like, until one day, trying to meet a deadline, I turned off my "Cell phone" & the "email". Well it didn't take long, later that morning the Department Head came in to see me, ticked off because I hadn't responded to his many messages! I simply said, "Do you want me spending all day responding to you & everyone elses messages OR do you want me to complete the projects that I'm assigned too complete on-time & on-budget?", he paused, said "Get the project completed" and walked off.

After that I informed the staff that I would check my email 3 times a day & my phone messages 5 times a day, or they may reach me at 8:00am, 11:30am and 3:00pm.

Guess what. . . I got my work done (& so did they) and we all completed the projects more effective!

Have a great day,

Larry

How importand are you?

you must have to be the head of the CIA if you are that important. TURN IT OFF, WE ARE NOT THE BORG!

[JLBer]

Nice.

>"Do you want me spending all day responding to you
>& everyone elses messages OR do you want me to
>complete the projects that I'm assigned too
>complete on-time & on-budget?", he paused, said
>"Get the project completed" and walked off.

I would have paid just to hear you say that and see the look on his face. Nicely done!

[Nael]

Use common sense.....

The beauty of not having a computer at home is quality time to yourself reading from a REAL BOOK, not online. It's amazing how much at peace you are with yourself. Just like the previous posting stated, TURN IT OFF. It works.

Technology is not everything, there is more to life then always being connected. I've learned the hard way after losing a couple realy GOOD jobs dude to my personal habits.

Also, the policy of the firm is not to be big brother so we as workers should use common sense. Who is paying your bills? Being on the internet, on your cell phone, or doing your projects on time and on budget.

Dude the previous post made me laugh so hard. Like the last, post I would like to see that guys face. It would of been a classic.

Salam (PEACE)
Nael Mohammad

[201293546946733175101343322673]

You Are In Control

Nobody says you HAVE TO check your email every minutes, you HAVE TO answer a phone, you HAVE TO reply that IM ASAP. After all I have a TV in my house, that does not mean I have to watch it 24/7, right? :)

[Bill Dautrive]

Well,

Given your totally unintelligent and inarticulate posts, you either spend most your time in your parents basement watching TV or hanigng oaround AOL chat rooms.

[Andrew J Glina]

EMail Filters

It isn't that hard to solve the EMail problem. I am only bothered when certain key words are in the message.

Opting Out

I don't want to be always connected. I want to be always informed.

[annjolie]

too much communication

I completely agree. Americans are fighting this information overload and taking it too lightly. People are getting so many diseases- all related to stress. Then the Yoga and meditation fads come in and take over. Hey - take some time for yourself. Give yoruself a break from 'information', and try to hug the cat or do what you 'really' want to do. Finbd outdoor hobbies and for heavens sake- cook healthy real food for the kids (no frozen or canned food)....

There's more to life than communication.(email, phones etc.) Communicate wiht those that really matter- and make eye contact when you do it.

Dont shoot the messenger

E-mail, instant messaging, phone and voicemail are simply conduits for communication. They do not author content & they have no say so in the timing of communiqués. I argue the tools are not the problem, but rather the misappropriate use of these tools for non-valued added purposes. Placed in the wrong hands, these tools become weapons of mass distraction.

[jasonemanuelson1]

Balance

It is all a matter of balance. With everything in life becoming so
competitive, people strive to be more communicative every day.
The market answers wit tolls that will communicate in almost
every scenario. I know people that have telephones built into
their bathrooms, or take their cell phone into the bathroom.
There are valid points by the author, but there are valid points
that technology is not to blame, the user is, but then there are
arguments that people need to be that way in order to survive.
The big question is whether we are all willing to stop and really
observe whether or not all of this impacts us or not. To some it
will, to some it will not. But, we all really have to make a point of
noticing things like this in order to keep from going crazy.

[Bill Dautrive]

I agree

I only check my email twice a day and refuse to ever have a cell phone. Problem solved for me. With people who need a cell( or think they need one), need to ask themselves why they have it and does it help them.

I do think that adding the ability to block most of the calls coming in at will would be useful. A parent that is on the move a lot at work and constantly harrassed by pointless phone calls all day would not want to turn it off for fear of missing a call from their kids school. Also, shutting your boss out, usually isn't a good idea.

[e-mailman]

Bill Gates, himself, said, "The problem, he says, is that today's software doesn't do an adequate job of filtering information and presenting it in more useful ways." Capossela follows with: "With Office 12, we will do things to make it a lot easier for people to be more effective in the way they manage all of these communication mechanisms."

Well, almost - as usual. The truth is that Microsoft is too caught up in softwareworld to understand the basic challenge. And let me be clear: We do not get too much mail. We do not have too many interruptions. And we do not have too little time. Allow me to explain:

The issue is very simply that we are depending on our toys to keep us disciplined when they are the very things that provide the distractions. We all need to realize that effectiveness relies on priority and efficiency relies on focus. If we do not maintain priority and focus we open ourselves to uncontrollable conditions.

Our problem is not e-mail overload just as we can't complain that there is too much information coming at us. The challenge is filtering. If a diamond fell from the sky with each trillionth raindrop, someone would figure out a way to catch the diamonds. That which is critical is the ability to quickly filter out the unimportant and then prioritize the important - and then (and this is key) maintain the priority, i.e. high or normal, throughout the life of the mail. So rather than working "last in first out", you act upon high priority mails before normal priority mails - no matter the date they were received. Did anyone ever sort their snail mail by date received?

E-mail does not interrupt us. We interrupt ourselves. We lack the basic discipline to refrain from opening the "cookie jar" because we live in a world of micro-moments and our conscious does not register the ill effects of 30.000 micro-moments as 1 mega disaster.

We all have the same amount of time. No less, no more. Those who say: "I don't have the time" are really saying: "I can't prioritize that right now". The trick is prioritizing. We'll never get it all done so at least get the most important things done. Those of you who don't have a system for ensuring that you do first things first are living in the same world Microsoft is: dreamland. If priority and focus are not the fundaments of your systems, you will always teeter on failure.