How deeply are we now connected to each other? Before I explain why that’s a trick question, take a moment and consider the number of ways you interact with people across the world at any hour of any day.
- cell phone
- text messaging
- web pages
- social or business networks (Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.)
- chat or messaging platforms
- Skype
Can you plan a full week without access to any of these things? Don’t forget to add television, radio and newspapers to the list. Can you conceive of a week like that?
I’m fortunate that I have a place I can go (the cabin above), where I can be unplugged. There are no cell phones, no televisions or radios, no internet connection at all. It’s sometimes difficult to plan a day or two there, let alone a week or more. I went there recently for a full day, to work on the first draft of a novel which has been plaguing me, with only the sound of the wind in the trees, the lapping of water on the dock, birds, and the occasional critters running through woods. In a mere six hours, without any technological distractions, I was able to accomplish more there than I had in the previous three days.
We can only concentrate our attention on one thing at a time. When we multitask, like texting someone while talking to someone else, or working on a blog entry while watching Criminal Minds, we are only alternating our attention from one thing to another. While we can often do this very quickly, we are still only able to concentrate on any one thing at one time. If in the span of an hour you’ve spread your attention across a dozen emails, a dozen web pages, a half-dozen telephone calls, and a dozen text messages, you’ve just divided your hour forty different ways. Throw in a cup of coffee, a face-to-face conversation or two, and a television or radio playing in the background, and you’ve just diluted your hour even more.
So how deeply are you connected to the world around you? If your hours are divided a dozen or three different ways, your connection is not deep at all – it is painfully shallow.
Does this affect the way you think, the way you are able to concentrate? Absolutely. If you haven’t asked yourself such questions yet, then ask yourself if you have actually read each sentence of this blog entry. Do you find it a bit long compared to what you’re used to reading? It is longer than most, yes.
As for me, I’ve decided to begin using the network connection icon on the top of my computer screen a lot more than I’ve been. I’ll be deliberately unplugged for two hours minimum each day while I’m working on the computer. I’ll only be opening my email four times or less each day, rather than keeping it open non-stop all day.
What about you? Has constant connectivity had an effect on your work, or on your ability to concentrate on the tasks in front of you?
For the record, this entry is 523 words long.
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523 words to me is a short post. And you are interesting, whether it’s 300 or 3000 words, so exceptions to gnat-like attention spans must be made. May I please have the red cabin when you’re done with it? It looks divine. I’ve found I can edit with my email open, etc., but cannot write unless I shut down everything, including the radio. But I must admit, I do love receiving emails. Except junk.
I’ve said it many times before – to you once or twice, if I’m not mistaken – “I’ll get back to you as soon as I can focus on it.”
If I know that I can fire something off quickly and not lose anything in my haste, I will do so. Without even thinking about it.
But when I know that something is going to take time and thought; when it’s something that I need to or want to focus on, I will hold it off until I can give it my full attention. If it can’t be held off, then everything else is so that I can devote what I need to the matter.
I can always tell when people are communicating with me half-assed, and I know how it makes me feel.
I don’t want to do that to anyone else.
Just one of the things I love about you Lori. I have a friend who takes being focused to a ridiculous degree. As an example, if she is talking to someone, she will never answer the phone, never even look at it, regardless of how often it rings… her whole life is like that. And everything she does just blows her friends and clients away.
Come up to Ottawa Alexandra and you can have it for a week.
The trees you see there surround the whole place. Unfortunately no single picture or group of pictures can do the place justice.
It’s funny the “how you should blog” people used to say never let a blog run over 700 words. Now they’re saying 500 words, and I’m finding more and more blog posts being capped regularly at 300 or less.
hi david..
i seem to function so much on self-awareness that often what seems like to me…..
okay, let me start again.
what i am saying is that i just listen to my frustrations while multi-tasking…
when i am juggling a tweet, a comment, a text, along with reading, or whatever, i automatically stop. it really comes naturally to me: this connecting, multi-tasking, disconnecting, stillness, quiet, sound… like a dance with the rhythm of the wind….
my mother is always tell ALL of us not to check email the first thing in the morning. so, sometimes i don’t do that. some mornings, i feel i must do that. i feel when i resist i am more frustrated….. so i just listen to what i feel like i have to do….
my still sundays posts—it used to be that i would “talk” on the phone about that stuff with my mother or a good friend or email them that same stuff…..
it is so much about channelizing our energy not just trying to not to this or do many things at same time…..
we can only really do one thing at a time. don’t know why we think otherwise. this full response required not looking at my text messages or email. no multi-tasking there, right? : )
it’s tricky but the sound of silence is constant if we listen closely.
~a.
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