I very much doubt that nature has prepared the human species for the very fast pace of today’s society. Moreover, we are supposed to have our attention span distributed around a multitude of issues. Not only that, we are supposed to answer fast, interact in real time.
Not only I doubt this is a path to General Human Happiness(TM), I also doubt that there is a real increase in productivity from all this speed increase. Blogging (especially reading) is just increasing the pace of things even more.
During the last couple of weeks I have to put off most of my multiple tasks in order to get work done in time for a presentation next week. I was afraid that I would not have enough time to do half of it. Guess what? Everything is done by now. Of course, no blog reading (ok, little), no blog writing and very little distractions were allowed.
I decide to very consciously reduce the speed of things, especially of interaction and multitasking.
Blog reading? Of course, 1 day a week. Cut the diet in the number of blogs. But not the areas covered: I still read blogs in my areas of interest (bioinformatics, poverty diseases, population genetics, cinema, economy, human rights, fitness and practicing sport).
Answering to interesting blog entries? Of course. But, I can do it in this hour (a.k.a. in blog time) or take a couple of months.
Journals? More or less the same rule applies. The noise ratio is very high. Just digging for gems takes time. I still look at the RSS feeds everyday though.
Mail? 3 times a day max (unless there is an urgency going on. Urgency, means urgency. For now there have been 0). I am also back at using a text-based mail client, it is more efficient, after a learning curve.
Lunch? Not the anglo-saxon variety that is for sure. I am doing the typical Portuguese hour long, away from work. And I am going Spanish: Siesta! Sleep is important. I live 2 blocks away from where I work. I do really see more freshness in afternoon work when I do this.
Whenever possible I respect my biological clock. Want to stay extra time in bed in the morning? Of course (Although, being an early bird, I am normally at work before 8am, to be honest).
Too noisy in the office? I move my work to a quieter place.
I don’t work at home. Home is to rest.
This allows for, imagine, spending most of my day actually working on my core tasks. And less tiredness.
Please share your thoughts
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