Friday, February 08, 2019
Too Many Choices, Too Little Focus - Interruption Management
If making product purchases was as simple as choosing supermarket items, we could all cope. But the tyranny of choice extends to large products, as well as services like insurance, retirement options, investments, and frequent flyer programs.
By the time we absorb all the rules and regulations, we heap on more stress to our already stretched-thin composure. I recommend that you judge the merits of any product or service on two criteria:
(1) the intended benefit, and
(2) the ease with which you can understand and enjoy those benefits. Labels: choice, cost-benefit analysis, decision-making, information overload, shopping
Friday, February 01, 2019
Doing Nothing at All - Interruption Management
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.
Friday, January 25, 2019
Handling 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.
Labels: focus, information overload, mastery, multi-tasking, one thing
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
|
Subscribe RSS Feed
.jpg "Jeff Davidson - Expert at Managing Interruption Overload")
