Interruptions & Technology

[tim@taskwise]

With so many interruptions coming at us throughout the course of an average day-messages, email, phone calls, tweets, flashing banners, and on and on-how can we possible stay focused?

Think about these statistics:

•We see more advertisements in one year than people of 50 years ago encountered in their entire lifetime. In 1971, the average American saw 560 advertisements per day. Today, we see around 3,000 advertisements each day-and encounter about 5,000 more messages from phones, emails, IM's, wall posts, tweets and more.

•According to Internet monitoring company Pingdom, Twitter users send an average 27.3 million tweets per day, resulting in an annual 10 billion tweets.

•Also from Pingdom: worldwide, an average 247 billion email messages are sent every day.

•More than 1 billion instant messages a day are sent via Facebook alone!

•The human mind has 60,000 thoughts per day. In 1971, distractions controlled not even 1% of our minds (i.e., thoughts); today, advertisements and other distractions control 13.33% of our minds.

Chances are at least even that you've recently talked with friends and family about problems involving lack of time, a decreased ability to concentrate, a rising feeling that you just can't get it all done. I know I've had plenty of conversations like that, and I'm having them more frequently. I've always been a busy person, but the concept of "busy" changed its pace a couple of years ago.

Now, almost everybody I know is constantly racing to keep up with commitments. In the process, many seem to be giving up time they used to spend reading, indulging in creative (and creatively restorative!) hobbies, day-dreaming, chit-chatting about nothing, exercising...

But is there really anything we can do about the killer pace of modern life?

[Spider]

Yes. Switch it off. Most electrical devices I have have a power switch - you know, like an On/Off switch! If not (like the telephone) then unplug it. If you use the radio as a music source, try working without music (and the constant chatter and advertisements.) try paying attention to your driving instead of listening ot the radio - turn it off. Don't have a television in the office or workplace and don't have the television as background in the home - turn it off when you are not sitting and actively watching it.

I agree that we are constantly being distracted but at least 70percent of it is self-imposed.

[greenoak]

i see this all around...and with little kids!! now, around here, gradeschool ball players go on road trips....i dont see how the moms keep up....
i think i see fewer commercials, with my video set up, roku,hbo,tivo.......and altho im getting tons of messages surfing the web for an hour or 2 a morning....i feel like its more of a zone time , and relaxing before facing the day, so that part is good for me... ...of course im not online during the day or at a desk...i dont surf at work...i do get lots of phone calls tho and totally interupted all day by work issues... my employees dont tweet or surf the web or get phone messages during the work day.... thats store time.......
for business i try to make our store a get away...a zone place for those women who are so busy...where they can just come and wander around and relax and maybe buy ......

[Spider]

....for business i try to make our store a get away...a zone place for those women who are so busy...where they can just come and wander around and relax and maybe buy ......Ah - so it becomes attractive to them for the serenity. Good! Now, Ann - do you have a place for them sit and have a cup of coffee ... chat with fellow shoppers ... compare notes?

I have even heard of a dentist who tore out his reception desk and installed an expresso machine - and doubled his income!

[greenoak]

we do give them free coffee every day......and in warm weather there are lots of places to sit outside.....
dang, spider , thats such a good idea...but i hate to give up the room....hmmmm

[Spider]

I know the feeling, but have you been in a Barnes and Noble book store recently? In those around here, they have devoted a great deal of space to a coffee spot and reading area. Imagine how many books they could be displaying in that area! I cannot see the sense of encouraging people to read the books rather than buy them, but I have to admit that Barnes and Noble is a big comapnyand has no doubt researched this and found it sells more books, not less.

I guess the only way you can find out if it works for your store is to try it and keep tabs.

Thinking further - in your case, every piece of furniture in the coffee spot would be for sale, with prominent price tags. So, it also becomes a "try it, you'll like it" test area! :-)

[Harold Mansfield]

As far as distractions go, I have to agree. You can always turn them off. When I don't want to be distracted by messages while working, I turn off Outlook, Trillian, and Skype...bingo, no distractions.

I hate texting, so people don't text me. I try and schedule Skype calls so that they don't just pop up. Other than that, it's just the phone and I kinda want that to ring.

[Spider]

You mentioned in another thread about being old, Harold. Does your phone still ring? I haven't heard a telephone ring for years - Chirp, yes!, Buzz, yes! Play songs, music and make funny noises, but I don't think they make ringing phones anymore! :-)

[Harold Mansfield]

You mentioned in another thread about being old, Harold. Does your phone still ring? I haven't heard a telephone ring for years - Chirp, yes!, Buzz, yes! Play songs, music and make funny noises, but I don't think they make ringing phones anymore! :-)

Sometimes I'll set it to the electronic equivalent of a ring for nostalgia. But the phones I (we) grew up with actually had a bell in them that made the ring. You could be half way down the street and still hear it ring if you left a widow or door open.

Remember the days of waiting for an important call and "keeping the lines open"?
If technology has done one inconvenient thing, it's that it's taken away all of the good excuses for ducking a call.

[KristineS]

Yes. Switch it off.
I agree that we are constantly being distracted but at least 70percent of it is self-imposed.

I so have to agree with this, Frederick! I don't listen to the radio in the car. My television isn't on unless I'm watching it. A lot of my friends think I'm weird because I can live without constant noise, but I like it that way. It's very peaceful and I can think much better when I'm not distracted by lots of vapid chatter.

[Steve B]

Yes - switch it off or refuse to get started. I only recently started a facebook page for one of my businesses - but, I don't plan to do much of it. I think Twitter is ridiculous - so I hope I never do that. My kids don't own video games, on Sunday nothing but the radio is allowed to be on at our house. My son is not allowed to have ear plugs in his ears when he is in my company.

I also bought my last two phones from Oldphones.com Home Page (http://www.oldphones.com). They actually have bells in them and will be working probably long after I'm dead. They are super solid, do not have caller ID, and even come in a number of "designer" colors from the 70's!

Just so you don't think I'm too old fashioned - two of my three kids own a Touch and my oldest has a cell phone. It's just a mater of control.

It all can be managed if we feel it is important (and I do - obviously).

[Spider]

Bravo, Steve! (I wonder how your kids explain you to their friends!!!)

[Harold Mansfield]

Bravo, Steve! (I wonder how your kids explain you to their friends!!!)

They probably tell everyone they're Amish.
Just kidding Steve.

[Steve B]

They have a LOT of "splainin'" to do about me! They often try to spend the night at other kid's houses on Saturday so they can watch TV and stuff on Sunday. But, they always seem to enjoy their Sundays - regardless of the occasional complaint. My kids actually know how to play checkers.

I'd be VERY surprised if they don't continue this tradition with their kids.

[KristineS]

Sometimes I think we need a day where we turn all the distractions off! I find I feel better on the weekends if I don't spend all day on the computer. I generally read a book or two and it's quiet and simple and very relaxing.

[thewebwriter]

I used to answer every email and phone call as they came in - and my work suffered. I would over run of projects or work into the night to get finished.

Now

I check emails first thing in the morning, directly after lunch and before I shut up shop, apart from that, I don't look at emails while I'm working.
My Skype is set to Away or Invisible, never Online. I may be on Skype with a client most of the day, so I don't answer anyone else till I'm ready.
My phone is set to vmail. I will pick up if its a call I need to answer otherwise it waits until I have some free time.

I do not attached to a digital umbilical cord. I do not have to be online to someone all day long, I can make my own decisions without calling someone else.

Now my work gets done, faster, more efficiently, I am getting more referrals and I have more free time.

[jamesray50]

I have to have noise. My tv is always on. I have a satellite radio in my car so I don't have to listen to commercial radio. I can't go to sleep unless my TV is on. Sometimes I turn it on to one of the music stations, but, if I'm not in the mood for music I put it on a movie station that doesn't switch over to paid commercials in the middle of the night in case I wake up.

[billbenson]

Weird, I can't work with noise in the background. I find it a distraction and it gives me a headache. I wonder what the medical reason for some people needing it and others not wanting it is?

[Dan Furman]

I used to answer every email and phone call as they came in - and my work suffered. I would over run of projects or work into the night to get finished.

Now

I check emails first thing in the morning, directly after lunch and before I shut up shop, apart from that, I don't look at emails while I'm working.
My Skype is set to Away or Invisible, never Online. I may be on Skype with a client most of the day, so I don't answer anyone else till I'm ready.
My phone is set to vmail. I will pick up if its a call I need to answer otherwise it waits until I have some free time.

I do not attached to a digital umbilical cord. I do not have to be online to someone all day long, I can make my own decisions without calling someone else.

Now my work gets done, faster, more efficiently, I am getting more referrals and I have more free time.

I did similar - I used to answer messages right away/etc. I don't anymore - no noticable negative effect, and much positive.

I'm also not putting my phone number on every webpage of my new/redesigned site (coming soon). I really don't like calls looking for quick quotes - I just don't have the time to hop online with someone right now so he or she can show me thier site, their competitor's site, etc. Truthfully, I don't close many "I'm looking for a price" calls, because I'm sure my "short" attitude comes through.

[Harold Mansfield]

I really don't like calls looking for quick quotes - I just don't have the time to hop online with someone right now so he or she can show me thier site, their competitor's site, etc. Truthfully, I don't close many "I'm looking for a price" calls, because I'm sure my "short" attitude comes through.

I do get those a lot. I've learned to tell them that I can't give them one. At all. No matter how many times they ask or how much they try and tell me "I just need...". unless it's just a maintenance problem that I can diagnose on the spot. I have picked up drinking money from 5 minute jobs that come in that way...that I can do and get paid within an hour, or less.

I don't mind the quick look at a website or answering emails on the fly. It doesn't really stop what I'm doing all that much and sometimes the quick redirection of my attention is a welcomed break.
This is where multiple monitors come in handy.

[thewebwriter]

I'm also not putting my phone number on every webpage of my new/redesigned site (coming soon). I really don't like calls looking for quick quotes - I just don't have the time to hop online with someone right now so he or she can show me thier site, their competitor's site, etc. Truthfully, I don't close many "I'm looking for a price" calls, because I'm sure my "short" attitude comes through.

Same here.
"short" attitude? I have to say up front that I don't sugar coat anything
If I want a break, I might read something about "getting the web write" (li'l plug for ya)