Interruption Management

Monday, September 26, 2016

20 Year Forecast: Data Smog - Interruption Management

In his 1997 book, Data Smog: Surviving The Information Glut, David Shenk remarkably predicted our current state of social affairs:

"The law of diminishing returns, applied to the growing speed and abundance of information, will produce infoglut that will no longer add to our quality of life. Infoglut is already beginning to cultivate stress, confusion, and ignorance," he said. "Information overload threatens our ability to educate ourselves, leaves us more vulnerable as consumers, and less cohesive as a society, and diminishes control over most of our lives."

Here are Shenk's first 12 Laws of Data Smog:

1. Information is now plentiful and taken for granted.

2. Silicon circuits evolve more quickly than human genes; a future information overload disease is called Nerve Attenuation Syndrome.

3. Computers are neither human nor humane.

4. Putting a computer in every classroom is like putting an electric power plant into every home; education cannot be fixed with a digital pipeline of data.

5. The sales goal of the information industry is information anxiety; by 1995, computer users considered their machines obsolete in just two years.

6. Too many experts spoil the clarity; the paralysis of analysis.

7. In a glutted environment, the most difficult task is finding a receptive audience.

8. As info supply increases, our common discourse and shared understanding decrease, and people turn to niche media and specialized knowledge.

9. The electronic town hall allows for speedy communication and bad decision-making; government is too responsive to an ill-informed citizenry.

10. Personal privacy has replaced censorship as the prime concern of civil liberties.

11. In our increasing distraction and speediness, the lies will move so much faster than the truth, they will too often become the truth.

12. On the info highway, most roads bypass journalists, reducing the power of the press
and enhancing the power of public relations.

Labels: information overload, productivity, quality of life, stress, technology

Thursday, September 15, 2016

Do One Thing at a Time - Interruption Management

What is the fastest, most efficient way you can handle all the things competing for your attention? Prioritize them, and then handle them one at a time. It sounds simple enough, but this goes against the grain of society, which "says" do many things at once to be more efficient.

You see this every day: someone jogging down the road listening to an iPod or somebody doing work or reading while eating lunch. People double up activities, as if somehow that is going to make things easier, better, more rewarding, or longer lasting.

Consider some of the greatest people in history: George Washington, Gandhi, and Martin Luther King. Were they in a hurry? Sure, they acted urgently because the things they did were important, but did they walk faster, talk faster, try to do any of the things we do today to be
"efficient?" No -- they had mastered the art of doing one thing at a time.

The daily information and media shower leaves each of us incapable of ingesting, synthesizing, or applying the data before tomorrow's shower. You've got to break out of the mindset that society has imposed upon you. Sometimes the best way to be productive is to sit at your desk doing nothing, at least nothing that looks like anything to people walking by.

Labels: focus, information overload, mastery, multi-tasking, one thing

Saturday, September 10, 2016

Way Too Many Distractions - Interruption Management

We are surrounded by far too many choices and distractions. For example, in supermarkets there are double the items now as compared to 25 years ago. In a few more years there will be even more items; how can we effectively handle such an onslaught?

No matter how many items the supermarket stocks, you can continue to buy what you have always bought and tune out much of the distraction. However, even that could get a little tedious since everyone likes to try new things.

I recommend exploring one new area – in the meats, fruits, cheeses, frozen foods, whatever – each trip to the supermarket. If you shop once a week, in the course of the year you will have tried at least 50 new products without expending mental effort or consternation in the process.

If you are up for adventure, load your entire supermarket shopping cart with all new products that you've yet to try. Either way, whether you choose to take on a selective number of new items per week or load up your whole shopping cart with new items, you are not investing time or mental effort on the onslaught of thousands of products competing for your attention.

Labels: attention, choice, choose, distract, effort, onslaught, shop

Monday, September 05, 2016

Planetary Health and Your Monitor - Interruption Management

Do you web surf endlessly as a procrastination technique? An article in the Vancouver Sun reported that "depending on how long you took and what sites you visit," your search caused "the emission of one to 10 grams of carbon into the atmosphere, contributing to global warming."

"Sure, it's not a lot on its own -- but add up all of the more than one billion daily Google searches, throw in 60 million Facebook status updates each day, 50 million daily tweets and 250 billion emails per day, and you're making a serious dent in some Greenland glaciers."

'The Internet has long promised a more efficient and greener world. We save on paper and mailing by sending an email. We can telecommute instead of driving to work. We can have a meeting by teleconference instead of flying to another city."

"Ironically, despite the web's green promise, this explosion of data has turned the Internet into one of the planet's fastest-growing sources of carbon emissions. The Internet now consumes two to three per cent of the world's electricity. "

Labels: carbon, ecology, electricity, emission, planet, pollution

Monday, August 22, 2016

Distracted While Driving - Interruption Management

Nine years ago and the problem remains: NBC Channel 10 in Philadelphia reported that "New Jersey legislators pushed forward a plan to make it illegal to text message while driving. The Assembly Consumer Affairs Committee voted unanimously to release the proposal after several legislators admitted frequently firing off text messages while behind the wheel, even though they know doing so is dangerous."

"Assemblyman Paul Moriarty acknowledges doing it himself, but he's not proud of it. 'It's very, very dangerous,' he said. Citing that risk, the Democratic assemblyman wants to stop motorists from sending text messages while driving."

"'It's more dangerous than talking on a cell phone because I believe you can keep your eyes on the road when talking on a cell phone,' Moriarty said. That's not the case when typing and sending text messages, he said. 'I only assume they're using their knees to drive,' Moriarty said."

Labels: car accident, cell phone, driving, freedom, government regulation, insanity, madness, safety, text messaging, traffic