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go off and think. He wants them to not bring their e-mail, not bring their cell phone--make themselves unavailable. And I think it's a really smart management strategy.
You say fear can really rev up ADT? How so?
Hallowell: When you're in a state of high-level fear, your brain devotes much of its resources to surviving. You go into survival mode. The lower centers of the brain recruit the higher centers of the brain to make sure you're not going to get killed. And you get a big volt of adrenaline and cortisol, and you go into very much black-and-white thinking, on or off, up or down.
You lose the functions I was talking about earlier: flexibility; ability to see shades of gray, deal with uncertainty, have a sense of humor, entertain new ideas. All of that goes out the window, and you're just wanting to fix it, lest you be annihilated. That's good if you're being chased by a sabertooth tiger. It's not good if you're in your average daily work environment at IBM.
Is it possible for an organization, as an entity, to have ADT?
Hallowell: Sure it is. You can have a whole stock brokerage.
They're all running around, working their tails off. But they're really at the whim of the market. They think they're working hard, and they think they're being productive, but they're not. They're busy, but they're not thoughtful.
Are certain professions more susceptible to ADT?
Hallowell: I think anything in the corporate world is, particularly these days, with the forces you just mentioned of global competition. Doctors are, in their own way, because we live in a sea of data and a sea of patients and sea of paperwork. Lawyers are, in their own way, for the same reasons.
Even moms are susceptible, but it comes in a different way. They're taking their kids from one activity to another, making all these play dates, supervising homework and supervising soccer, and doing laundry and shopping.
I assume that high-tech companies, which are themselves such avid consumers of tech gadgetry, are rife with ADT?
Yes, but they're also--and this is why I love those people so much--able to say no to it. They're playful. Play is one of the best antidotes to this. They're able to rise above it and get around it. The ones who suffer the most in that field are the ones who don't have the creative powers of the techies, and they just kind of slog along.
Do you think this is a generational thing? Kids now are growing up with e-mail, cell phones and so on. Maybe they'll be able to cope better than we do?
Hallowell: I think maybe they'll be more adept with these tools when they get to the workplace, but I think the same principles will apply. How you allocate your time and your attention is crucial. What you pay attention to and for how long really makes a difference. If you're just paying attention to trivial e-mails for the majority of your time, you're wasting time and mental energy. It's the great seduction of the information age. You can create the illusion of doing work and of being productive and creative when you're not. You're just treading water.
See more CNET content tagged:
attention, workplace
What were we talking about now?
Seriously, I actually went to the doctor for this thinking I had ADD. He didn't think I had ADD.
I did suspect that it was because there was too much static in my life from work tasks, e-mail, cell phones, cubicles, those stupid radio commercials, web popups...they all take brain cycles and at some point, your concentration gets perforated and you are just touching lightly on a great many things instead of focusing on just a few.
Well, I guess I just said what was the solution to my problem.
Now to finish that article and go back to work.
of preparing an invoice for a client. I heard the beep notifying
me that I had an email, so of course I left my initial task
midstream to find out what it was. Such a Pavlovian response!
For obvious reasons, I was intrigued by the CNet piece, got to
the end of the first page, and realized I hadn't finished writing
the letter! Bouncing between two computers, I wrapped up my
business communication, scrolled to the second page of the
CNet interview, got half way through and started laughing! I
can't even make it through an 3 page interview!
Then there's memory...
How much do you remember of the television show(s) you watched yesterday? Last week? Are they a gray screen to you?
Focus!
When you read, concentrate on it. If nothing else, say the words you're reading in your head as you read, and don't 'skim' an article, glancing at clumps of words. Most people aren't Renshaw trained, so they can't memorize pages at a glance, but if you allow yourself to concentrate, you'll retain a lot more, especially if you visualize it at the same time. Isn't that what you do when you read, say, a science-fiction book? Try doing that with other things, and see how much information you retain after you've read it. If you try the skimming method, you're going to miss things, like typos in what you wrote. Hint, hint, Alorie Gilbert. Re-read your article slowly.
Oh, Rhyss Leary: If you want to turn off those pop-up ads, just turn off JavaScript if you're using something like Netscape, Firefox, or the Mozilla Suite, or if you're one of those silly people who Web-surf with Internet Explorer, set your Internet security level to High. Trust somebody who's been making Web pages for ten years. ;-)
Details on how to do it, here, if you're interested: www.cyberwolfman.com/internet_help.htm#popups
Not a real commercial site, btw. I just hate ads, so I got my own domain name for my personal pages. LOL
- CyberWoLfman
Multitasking is a kind fashionnable characteristic.
But not only bosses are like this. i can bet everyday life is going this way with people eating , surfing the web and viewing tv at the same time . Of course they go on speaking with others without understanding that the message doesn't get through.
having a laptop and always feeling like I should be working and
doing something productive. My schedule doesn't help, but I too
fall into the trap of checking e-mail, surfing and so on. Plus with
the iPod, I've always got something to fill my head with.
I guess I'll try maybe talking walks at lunch, without the iPod, to
see if I can clear my head easier.
But it's ironic that I can across this article because I was just
complaining to my wife that I had similar affects. Hopefully cnet
will do a follow-up article with the guy to find out his
suggestions for managing the problem.
No wonder coffee shops aren't going out of business like lemmings off a cliff. Caffine is the great equalizer to the internet.
After reading Driven in '96 as a full-fledged first-year academic, I have to admit that while the terminology is changing slightly, it still misses an important and perhaps crucial point, one that as a now full-fledged "tech-ademic" more of us may be aware of. That is, whether this "condition", this specific behavioral pattern, is really a feature or a bug?
Is it an asset or liability/disability?
Personally, I have posited that any of the following terms be considered to more accurately describe it and the people that possess it:
- Parallel Attention [Style] (PA) [http://vs. Serial Attention (SA); Hunter vs. Farmer|http://vs. Serial Attention (SA); Hunter vs. Farmer]
- Parallel Attention Ability (PAA)
- Parallel Processing Style (PPS)
- Wideband Attention Style (WAS)
- Broadband Attention Style (BAS)
- High Bandwidth Attention (HBA)
- Multi-Tasking Mindset (MTMS)
- Multi-Channeled Attention Style (MCAS)
- Multi-Focus Attention Style (MFAS)
- Attention Dilution Disorder (ADD) [where it is in fact a debilitating disorder]
- Over-Active Attention (OAA)
- etc.
As our knowledge and understanding and body of experimentation and research grows on this, we may actually come to understand it a personality and HR feature, instead of necessarily as a dis-ability or bug or problem. It may in fact turn up as a *requirement* or *skill* for certain job candidates, for positions where people possessing this/these trait(s) excel. At the least, I believe our conception of it will be a little more akin to other neutral "traits" much like our conception of a car can be that of an enabler for travel, sustenance like getting groceries, protection from the elements, and culture like carrying books to libraries for children or in other hands a machine of destruction to property and life and atmosphere as a polluter. The car itself is neither here nor there, but the driver makes it so as do the varying methods one powers it with i.e. fossil fuels, hydrogen, electric, solar, hybrid, et cetera. The same with this attention style or "trait", some can learn to use it for great benefit while others are reckless with it or at its mercy.
Sincerely,
Jason M.W. Zawadzki
No, I'm not joking.
I believe the end result will be that people will simply freeze up and not be able to move from in front of the monitor. Only after a bunch of people die from starvation this way will corporations finally wake up and take action - not before.
I love travelling ( and does as often as possible) because then I don't feel any pressure - the same when I'm on holiday. I'll try with my wifes help (she is clever) I just told her yesterday about my ADT to help the condition by leaving my laptop behind when we're off for X-mas - on holiday or travelling. I guess there are only one cure and that's doing one thing at a time and not a dozen.
Bye from a newly recognised case of ADT
He change subject if confronted - mostly to good things he did himself like buying sweets or helped someone to solve a problem due to his skills. He has difficulties looking at you when you speak to him ( eye-contact). Being bored if you try to tell him something which happend during the day - Will usually leave the room before I'll finish the small talk. Freezes and doing nothing if having a problem- like need him to slap my back, if I swallow wrong Becomes very angry with me, if doing things wrongly on the PC. Told me once : Don*t ever get better on the Internet than me !!!!!
He did not want me to return so soon from the Clinic after a hernia operation. He admitted to me that he did not know what to do - was scared and could not cope. Even though he left the next morning (Saturday to take a small trip - and returned late afternoon).
He never tells me a compliment , for example if the food is good - or the house is decorated nicely for X-mas or the like. But he surely will tell you if there is less sugar in his coffee. Or if an outfit he thinks looks bad on me. He loves to speak about himself - BUT only the positive things - never about him having a problem. His standard phrase is : I want to enjoy !!!
He is very intilligent and highly educated and a sort of lexicon. He knows a lot and can remember a lot except the daily" small "things. I can write dow on a pc of paper what he has to remember to do ( his personal things ), he forgets even to look at the list. An I could go on and on. This is nearly costing our marriage of 20 years - but for me it was a big step that he told me he thought he was having ADT. What can I do to HELP ? and how can he improve ??
Thank you
PS. He is very liked bycolleagues, friends and family . He has a very good heart and loves animals a lot. He acts also at times very childish and wants to be treated like a child at times.
- by Sureshstrasbourg December 17, 2008 12:29 AM PST
- Wife writes : I forgot to tell that he also has much difficulties in getting ready whenever we are going somewhere. I have to repeat over and over again please do hurry . Also mornings he takes a very long time to wake up and always wants 2-5 min more before very sour gets his coffe in bed - and all his clothes are laid out for him - as he always will ask : What shall I wear today ? I'm not allowed to disagree and whenever I say this is like that he will always reply NO - at first even et's so. Always contradicting me. I'm not having as much education as him - though rather educated. He at times says : You're not an Acedemic and I know better - even he does not, but he wants to be right and will not admit if he's wrong but excuses it with a lame excuse why he said so. Should I be wrong which of course I am at times- all humans are wrong at times and I have no problem admitting it - but he triumphs like it was a victory won - and likes to remind me that I was wrong.
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(23 Comments)When I read this it sound like he's not such a nice person - but he is- but this is really a problem which I'm not sure I can take much more.
He wont talk to the Doctor about it - it's not the time. It's always not the time. Other of his standards phrases are Not now - or wait or later.
The latter is also when doing work - he has difficulties finishing it - and gets upset if I mention it.
He has so many good intention to send a card/note if somebody celebartes or the like . He buys the card but will nearly never write it, so mostly I'll do it for him. Anything which has to be fixed in our house I have to do. He can't or are too lazy to do it. He is very good at making others to work for him. Called for example a collegue to clean the sink which was stopped.( I was away visiting my family). He's very fluent in Enlish and if I write he searh to see if I have made any mistakes. It's not my mother tongue
Well, that's a lot but surely not all.
Do comment on the above Please if you have any suggestions to help this huge problem.
Thank you !