Wednesday, January 16, 2019
Answers From Within - Interruption Management
Years back, I had immersed myself in a sea of self-help books and audios to the point that I had no time left in the day for myself. Practicing ten minutes of this person's technique and 30 minutes of that would literally not even allow time to eat.
Why is it that we so often continue to seek answers from others when, if we relied on our inherent abilities to handle most things, that would be the shortest destination to our goal? Labels: ability, answer, books, find, goal, seek, self-help
Tuesday, January 08, 2019
Too Much Information is Disruptive - Interruption Management
Information can only become knowledge when it's applied. Before you can absorb and apply yesterday's intake, however, the explosion of new information floods your receptive capacity.
Such constant exposure to the daily information and media shower leaves each of us incapable of ingesting, synthesizing, or applying the data before tomorrow's shower.
The eruption of information renders us over-stimulated. The more information you try to ingest, the faster the "clock races," and your sense of breathing space is strained.
As yet, few people are wise information consumers. Curiously, there is only one party who controls the volume, rate, and frequency of information that you're exposed to. That person is you. The notion of "keeping up" is illusory, self-defeating, frustrating and harmful. The sooner you give it up the better you'll feel. Labels: breathing space, consumer, disruption, information management, over-stimulation, personal space
Thursday, January 03, 2019
Opportunities Lost via Distractions - Interruption Management
"For all the hand-wringing about Generation M, technology is not really the problem... It's not so much that the video is going to rot your brain, it's what you are not doing that's going to rot your life."
-- David Levy, PhD., University of Washington, Information School Labels: accomplishment, achievement, American culture, distraction, leisure, productivity, success, technology
Thursday, December 27, 2018
Cut Through Distraction - Interruption Management
To break the grip that too many distractions and too much information has on you, I suggest the following:
* When you get home, practice sitting in your TV room for 30 minutes without the TV on.
* Skip reading the newspaper, anytime you feel like it.
* In general, be more thoughtful when deciding what to read. Just because there is an abundance of interesting articles to read, doesn't mean you have to read them.
We're all taking in more information than we can expect to absorb. You can only remember -- and act upon -- so much anyway; so be selective! Labels: distraction, extraneous information, reading, selectivity, television, tips
Wednesday, December 19, 2018
Deciding Amidst Distraction - Interruption Management
'Sleeping on it' is best for complex decisions: February 16, 2006 New Scientist (Vol 311, p 1005)
“ Complex decisions are best left to your unconscious mind to work out, according to a new study, and over-thinking a problem could lead to expensive mistakes. The research suggests the conscious mind should be trusted only with simple decisions, such as selecting a brand of oven glove. Sleeping on a big decision, such as buying a car or house, is more likely to produce a result with which people remain happy than consciously weighing up the pros and cons of the problem.”
“Thinking hard about a complex decision that rests on multiple factors appears to bamboozle the conscious mind so that people only consider a subset of information, which they weight inappropriately, resulting in an unsatisfactory choice. In contrast, the unconscious mind appears able to ponder over all the information and produce a decision that most people remain satisfied with.”
Ap Dijksterhuis at the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands says “We found that when the choice was for something simple, such as purchasing oven gloves or shampoo, people made better decisions – ones that they remained happy with – if they consciously deliberated over the information.”
“But once the decision was more complex such as for a house, too much thinking about it led people to make the wrong choice. Whereas, if their conscious mind was fully occupied on solving puzzles, their unconscious could freely consider all the information and they reached better decisions.”
Expectation counts
The unconscious mind appears to need some instruction. “It was only when people were told before the puzzles that they would need to reach a decision that they were able to come up with the right one.” If they were told that none of what they had been shown was important before being given the puzzles, they failed to make satisfactory choices.
“At some point in our evolution, we started to make decisions consciously, and we’re not very good at it. We should learn to let our unconscious handle the complicated things,” Dijksterhuis says. Labels: choices, complexity, decide, decision-making, deliberation, focus, mind, sleep, study, think
Wednesday, December 12, 2018
Supporting Caregivers - Interruption Management
Bottom Line Personal, a publication of Boardroom Reports, offered a most useful list: a Caregiver's "Emergency Kit"
* Personal basics:
Social Security number (original card or a photocopy).
Keys (home, car).
* Health information:
Photocopy of Medicare cared.
Copy of Medigap policy or policy number and agent contact information.
List of current diagnoses.up-to-date list of current medications with dosage schedule.
Primary care physician and specialists with phone numbers and which conditions they are treating.
* Legal documents:
Living will (if they want extraordinary measures taken in a medical emergency).
Power of attorney for medical and/or financial decisions.
* Financial information:
Co-signing power for bank and brokerage accounts and safe-deposit box
Savings accounts numbers
Investment information
Stock broker
Loans information
Pension, etc. Labels: accident, care, caregiver, death, emergency, health, healthcare, safety
Monday, December 03, 2018
Less Clutter, More Concentration - Interruption Management
Here's a useful article on CNN.com about "How to sell or get rid of your old gadgets."
Labels: cell phone, donate, gadget, iPhone, mobile device, recycle, sell
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