Wednesday 24 August 2011

The best way to deal with distractions....

We all have them, and it seems that they are increasing as we become more technologically connected. They interrupt the flow of work, they take our minds off our jobs, they make tasks take far longer than they should....They are not doing us an favours no matter what the advertising companies may tell us. They are the things that in my opinion have done more harm to work productivity than anything before them....They are distractions. They come in many forms, from the subtle vibration of a mobile phone seductively hinting at that most urgent of events, a text from a mate telling you he has just got back from the shops to the quiet beep of a non work related e-mail landing on your desktop telling you a "friend" is asking for you helping raising a barn on Farmville. The modern working world is hectic and facepaced and pressurised, and there is a requirement to be on top of your game at all times. Add to this the reaserch that has shown tht when we are distracted from an activity, not only do we lose the time spent on that distraction, but it takes us time to get back into the working mindset having been distracted.

I can still just about remember the days when someone out on the road selling had to find a phone box to call back in to the office, when mail still arrived in a big bag into the post room, when phone calls only came to the phone on your desk and were only about work. Now, as I look around my office I see everyone beavering away at their tasks, being productive or creative or effective until.....<PING> an email comes in with an alert that suggests urgent attention is required <RING> a mobile phone goes off, usually a personal call <VIBRATE> a facebook status update appears on a colleagues mobile phone leading to a cross office discussion about last night X-Factor....and so it goes on, and on, and on, and on......

Many companies have chosen to block certain websites from office computers, many companies have a no mobile phone policy on the desk, but all this does is push people to spend the time at break or lunch catching up on their gossip rather than grabbing something to eat, maybe a coffee, maybe preparing for the next work period in a productive way. The purpose of breaks in the working day was a consequence of the rise in use of computers monitors and the need to encourage people to take a rest period to avoid eye strain, not to spend that time staring at an even smaller screen on their phone. I am aware that I probably sound about 80 years old at this point and quite cumudgeonly, but I have to wonder where it will end up, particularly when this post is only about the impact at work and hasn't even touched on the damage that our super-connected World does to interpersonal relationships - couples texting other people over a romantic dinner anyone? - or the safety issues of pedestrians walking out into traffic because they were too busy on the mobile to bather to realise they were walking off the kerb? The list goes on and on, and is only going to get longer and the effects yet more devastating until we realise that we have become to slavishly bound to our communication devices, our distractions.......

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