Hi, my name is David and I can’t pay attention
I’ve been noticing that my ability to pay attention has been deteriorating since university. This blog entry is a perfect example. I was reading this article half way before I started to blog. I’ve got ADT.
What is ADT?It’s sort of like the normal version of attention deficit disorder. But it’s a condition induced by modern life, in which you’ve become so busy attending to so many inputs and outputs that you become increasingly distracted, irritable, impulsive, restless and, over the long term, underachieving. In other words, it costs you efficiency because you’re doing so much or trying to do so much, it’s as if you’re juggling one more ball than you possibly can.
Email, SMS, RSS, IM - the list of distractions is endless. In the office, you have bosses that want to see you at any minute, phone calls, and all that stupid silly tasks that get in the way of doing your job. And when you are able to sit down for 15 minutes to work, your mind just isn’t there.
That’s why I started practicing GTD, or Getting Things Done, a productivity practice by David Allen. It’s not been that great. I think I’ve since realised that it’s not about being more productive or being more organised. What’s more imporant is being mindful, being here in front the task that you have to do, and do it in 10 minute spurts.
If you’re like me (and I’m sure many of you are), read Merlin Mann’s 43folders. He’s got a great way of getting to the root of why this is distracting or why that is unproductive and putting everything into words.
Now excuse me, I’ve got a report to do. But before that I need to go back to finish reading my article.
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This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 11th, 2006 at 12:02 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.