Productivity: (A)ttention to (Z)erstreutheit
I love the idea of distractions because I believe they ultimately feed the creative process. But I never want to be accused of succumbing to them while focusing my attention on trying to get to a point (physically, mentally or verbally), or even to get a point across in reading, writing or speaking. As I’ve recently discovered, my continuous partial attention has been an Achilles heel, and I’m just starting to realize the consequences.
In 1890, William James explained attention this way:
“Everyone knows what attention is. It is the taking possession by the mind, in clear and vivid form, of one out of what seem several simultaneously possible objects or trains of thought. Focalization, concentration, of consciousness are of its essence. It implies withdrawal from some things in order to deal effectively with others, and is a condition which has a real opposite in the confused, dazed, scatterbrained state which in French is called distraction, and Zerstreutheit in German.” Thank you, Wikipedia.
This morning I found a great post on multitasking from Anne Truitt Zelenka, one of the bloggers to whom I subscribe via RSS (learn more here). In it, she notes:
“In connected mode, you stay in near-constant touch with colleagues and maintain a broad awareness of what’s available online. You accept multitasking as a fact of at least part of your work life. It’s not necessarily a substitute for single-tasking and dedicated focus, but can be a good complement if you know when and how to use it.”
Therein lies the rub - if you know when and how to use it. As Anne points out, most knowledge workers are in the same boat - multitasking and constant interruptions are a way of life. She cites a study done by Microsoft Research (Tara Matthews et. al.); in it they noted:
“We believe that providing relevant task information in a glanceable, low-attention manner is critical to solving these multitasking problems.”
Ahh… perfect case for subscribing to information, and having it delivered in a low-attention, glanceable manner into a familiar tool - in my case, my Outlook inbox.
I am now free to pay attention or be distracted (my choice of mode) while still being efficient with my tasks. Using the RSS platform from Attensa, I’m able to react quickly to information and
- read it
- share it - by posting or forwarding to my collaboration sites
- blog it
immediately, without leaving Outlook. That’s the kind of distraction that can hold my attention - long enough to make it really useful.
