09.30.09
Out Of Focus
I have become convinced that technology has done more to hinder focus and excellence than it has done to help. Technology injects our lives with too much information at once and forces us to switch gears quickly and frequently. Neither of those things are known to be healthy or productive in our everyday existence. But, I can’t blame technology. It’s simply the tool. You can’t blame a hammer for your clumsiness when you miss a nail and hit your finger.
I recently took a step back and examined the way I use technology. I realized I was contributing to my own lack of focus by always trying to accomplish several tasks at once. Email, checking a website, writing some code, writing a score, updating social media sites, IM, twitter, et al. I was attempting extreme multitasking, and it really wasn’t working. As we all know, multitasking is a simply doing several things poorly rather doing one thing well. So, I had to ask myself why I was doing this to myself. Unfortunately I didn’t have an answer other than “because I can”.
I decided to end the madness. No longer to I leave my email client running all day. I check email when I have time to check it, read the messages waiting for me and then respond (or act accordingly) to the messages. I even turned off the scheduled email check on my iPhone. I no longer let a phone call interrupt my flow. If I can’t stop to take a call I let it go to voice mail and will call back when I can focus on the conversation. And being both technical and creative I have found that they are mutually exclusive brain modes. I no longer try to code while trying to design, write or compose. It simply doesn’t work. I set aside time for each and focus solely on that task.
In the 2 weeks I’ve been doing this I have found it to be very liberating. I am more present when I am doing any single task and I find that the organization that is imposed by a single task approach has made me more productive and has helped give me more time for myself.
Perhaps Albert Einstein was right when he commented that, “technological progress is like an axe in the hands of a pathological criminal.“.
