Interruption Management

Monday, November 12, 2018

Cellphone Use: Family Life Suffers - Interruption Management

HealthDayNews.com: Cell phones and pagers, part of the technological revolution that was supposed to liberate everyone, is tethering people to their jobs to an unprecedented degree, to the point where family life is suffering. The study limited the blame to cell phones and pages, and not computer-based communication such as e-mail.

Cell phones and pagers were linked to increased psychological distress and reduced family satisfaction for both sexes.

The research, by University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee sociologist Noelle Chesley, appears in the December issue of the Journal of Marriage and Family. "The use of cell phones and pagers was linked to increased distress and a decrease in family satisfaction over time," said Chesley, an assistant professor of sociology. "There is clearly a link between using the technology and experiencing increased access."

Amazingly, this study was done in 2006!

Labels: family life, happiness, health, office, quality of life, stress, technology

Sunday, November 04, 2018

The Web as Social Hangout - Interruption Management

From the AP newswire 12 years ago, in New York:

“The online hangout MySpace got even more popular in November, beating Yahoo in Web traffic for the first time, a research company said Tuesday. News Corp.'s MySpace recorded 38.7 billion U.S. page views last month, compared with 38.1 billion for Yahoo Inc., according to comScore Media Metrix. MySpace's growth was 2 percent over October and triple the 12.5 billion recorded in November 2005.”

“The numbers underscore the rapid rise of a social-networking site that encourages visitors to stay and make friends through free tools for messaging, sharing photos and creating personal pages known as profiles.”

...So, the popular sites have changed but the massive grab of our time and attention has increased markedly.

Labels: American culture, communication, internet, MySpace, social networking, web

Sunday, October 28, 2018

Death by Powerpoint - Interruption Management

Can slides distract fro a a speaker's presentation? What audiences find irritating about Powerpoint:

          speaker read the slides 60%

          text too small to read 51%

          text too wordy 48%

          poor slide color choices 37%

moving text or graphics 25%

          irritating sounds 22%

          complex charts 22%

Labels: audience, presentations, statistics, technology, tips

Tuesday, October 23, 2018

PC Wins Out over Spouse - Interruption Management

Interrupting family life: Demetria Gallegos, writing in the Denver Post Staff, cited a study that indicates most people spend more time with technology than they do with their family. A survey conducted by Kelton Research, and commissioned by www.support.com, a site that offers tech support found that 65% of respondents spent more time with a computer than with their spouse or significant other.

Labels: American culture, computer, family, internet, pc, technology, values, web

Tuesday, October 16, 2018

The Big Picture View - Interruption Management

What has happened to our ability to see the big picture of our careers and our lives? I was focusing a project the other day and getting nowhere. It dawned on me to take a step back and look at the broader context. As I did so, I was reminded of Bob Wendover's book, Figure It Out: Making Smart Decisions in a Dumbed-Down World.

Bob argues that looking at the "big picture" is the key to making crucial decisions. I believe he's right. If you don't take time to understand the factors and personalities impacting the problem, it's easy to make the wrong move and suffer the consequences. When was the last time you did that? Go to www.bobwendover.com/book for a copy.

Labels: big picture, context, decision-making, insights, perspective, Wendover

Monday, October 08, 2018

Friday, September 28, 2018

Not Permiting Distractions - Interruption Management

You can become your own information switchboard. Turn off your information receptors for several hours each day. Do not let new information invade your being if it doesn't promise immediate benefits to you, your family, your community, or any area of your life -- especially if
it comes after hours.

Choose to acquire knowledge that supports or interests you, not that you happen to ingest, or think you have to ingest.

Labels: acquire, benefits, choose, distractions, family, information access, interests, interruptions, knowledge