lauren's library blog

Let me start by saying I love Twitter. I adore Friendfeed. I check in with Facebook a few times a day, live by my reader, and have several email accounts. And with all these accounts (not to mention Flickr, Slideshare, and the host of other places I put my stuff) I am tempted to check in multiple times a day.

I’m really productive, so I haven’t noticed a toll on the amount of work I’m doing. If anything, I’m doing more. And, I really, really value the friendships I have made through these mediums. I wouldn’t trade that experience for the world. But lately, I’ve noticed I’ve not been feeling like myself.

I can thank my book project for that. When I sit down to edit I get about seven minutes into it, then I want to check in with Twitter, which inevitably sends me off to look at an interesting website, which reminds me of something I wanted to follow up with in my reader, and all of a sudden it’s 45 minutes later. I’m not saying these tools have this effect on everyone, but I can say (unfortunately) with confidence that they are impacting my ability to work on cognitively challenging tasks for extended periods of time.

It’s not just the technology, though. When I look at my work day it’s a lot different from my day as a student. Back in college-and before-we’d sit in classrooms for hours at a time, listening to someone who often wasn’t all that entertaining. We practiced at concentration and focus. In the “real world,” we’re often in a take-care-of-things-as-they-come-up atmosphere. We run from meetings to meetings, get phone calls and emails that interrupt the flow, and run into people who need help right now.

Between the work and online environments, it’s no wonder I’m having a hard time focusing for more than a few minutes at a time. (Again, this isn’t necessarily the case for everyone, but I am finding it is absolutely true for me.)

And, as a philosophy major (who, for most of my life, carried a notebook for all those thoughts that arise throughout the day), I miss my old self. So, I’m going to attempt to reclaim the ability to focus for long periods of time and to think about complex things. Here are the steps I’m taking:

1. I’m going to restrict Twitter, Friendfeed, my reader, Facebook, my personal email, and social sites in general to Tuesdays and Thursdays. They’re valuable enough that I need to focus on keeping up with them, but just not all the time.
2. I’m going to start checking and answering my work email 4 times a day. I’d like to get that down to two times, but I’m afraid that if I did that at this point in time, those two times would last for a really long time!
3. I’d like to work on spending at least one hour every day in sustained reading/writing/working/etc, with no interruptions. (Like exercise, but for the brain!)
4. I’m going to keep up with yoga and meditation practice, maybe for longer stretches at a time.

So, I’m going to see how much I can reclaim my focus, while still making space for all the tools and online activities that have provided so much meaning for me in the past five or so years. Is anyone else thinking about this? Adapting their practices in light of their attention span? Do you find yourself exactly as you were before? If so, do you have any secrets for keeping lifestreaming from interrupting your life throughout the day?

I also wonder if it’s really a problem. Back in the day people questioned the wisdom of writing for all kinds of reasons. But most people would probably say that worked out in the end. Maybe attention and concentration for long periods of time is overrated. Maybe I’m just old fashioned in this one way.

Related posts:

1. Passion Quilt Meme: Systems Thinking
2. Twitter Updates for 2007-08-14
3. Twitter Updates for 2007-07-31
4. Twitter Updates for 2007-08-06
5. Twitter Updates for 2007-08-08