Slashdot Mirror
PC Users Fight Distractions to Work
prostoalex writes "When someone buys a computer, they expect noticeable increases in productivity and ability to perform routine tasks more efficiently. At least that's what the commercials say. The New York Times talks about the dire reality: software applications do an excellent job of distracting us from doing the tasks. An e-mail notification here, an application popup there, a sound effect telling you the download has been completed and a popup window asking whether you would like to download the latest updates. Much of this distraction is self-enforced, such as taking a break from work to check the weather forecast, read the news headlines, or yet again check the e-mail inbox. NYT talks about various ways people are fighting distractions and points to some cognitive technology research done at Microsoft."
The worst one for me is this little app called "Firefox"
So now I have one distraction providing an article about other distractions?!
is there something ironic about me reading this article while I am at work?
When did this start happening? What year is it? 1992? Cause that's when this started for me.
I've noticed the same thing, but I turned the distractions off, the little sounds, the popups, the notifications.
;)
Some people can focus in a crowded busy lecture hall, some people can't even focus alone in their rooms.
People are as focussed as they want to be it seems, take this with a grain of salt, given that it's the middle of the work day, and i'm posting on slashdot.....
Error 407 - No creative sig found
Well, If this isn't preaching to the choir...
Really? I don't think so...
Any chance that MS will actually pay any attention to the research being done there in this field? I highly doubt it...
I'll turn into a supernova and burn up everything. Well I'll turn into a black little hole and you'll turn into string.
I'd say the biggest distraction is access to the Web.
For example, posting on Slashdot.
I had an incredibly witty thought that I wanted to share with the rest of the world, so I launched ecto, my blog client. An update was available, so I downloaded and installed it. That reminded me that I hadn't run versiontracker pro for a while, so I proceeded to launch that. Of course, an update to the software I use to check for updates with was available, so I downloaded and installed the update. Then Acrobat, BitTorrent, LimeWire, Poisoned, etc. While everything was downloading, I checked on the make install status of glibc on my Pepper Pad. Halfway done.
Why the heck was ecto open again?
PepperHacks - Hacking the Pepper Pad
I'd have to agree that all those little popups that you get from different applications are really a bother; you get side tracked from what you are doing, and then getting back to what you were doing takes a minute or 2, or longer depending on what you were doing. This time tends to add up quickly.
I make it a point, with any program that has popup or notifications of any kind, I do my best to turn them off. Like Outlook 2000. It has a sound beep and an Icon that appears in the systray when you get new mail. Well, disable the sounds, and set Windows to always hide that new email icon (You can't turn off the notification in Outlook 2000, but you can in 2003).
The information the provide is nice, but I'm busy right now, get back to me when I'm not trying to figure out why this code is seg faulting 56 hours into a a 72 hour test.
Its not what it is, its something else.
This is why I use ratpoison+screen, that and because keyboard input is much faster and more efficient than the rodent.
This is also why I stopped using multiple monitors, just too distracting and not a huge benefit.
"The United States has no right, no desire, and no intention to impose our form of government on anyone else." - Bush 05
Mac users, however, appear to be afflicted with amusing juxtapositions of the aforementioned situation.
A programmer is a machine for converting coffee into code.
Firefox makes it too easy to multitask... check email, read news, etc... all at once. The one task you're supposed to be doing never gets done.
definitely read it.
/. do you think to type this i need 20secs?>
<and
"...cognitive technology research done at Microsoft."
Anybody want to BSOD their neurons? Or have Clippy be like, "hello. you would like to create a new memory. let me help you create a new memory. please, select a memory template from the available options:"
1. Good memory
2. Bad memory
3. Romantic memory
[next poster insert memory option here]
echo '0.0.0.0 slashdot.org' >> /etc/hosts
...can someone fill me in? I was going to RTFA but work keeps distracting me.
I haven't had any trouble with distractions since instal-- hey, hang one sec, I got an IM...
Letter
Was when I changed every audio program event on my system to play the original Star Trek red alert klaxon. I have been on state assistance ever since.
Talk about your softball article/flipant comment, sheesh.
Custom-build the worker's PC to have only apps that the job requires.
Back when I was in the army, in the computer department, everything was removed but the programming language and the simulator we were working on. And when I say everything, that included things like defrag and scandisk, that people used to use all day long to pretend they had time to go get a cuppa and slack off. Similarly, the secretary only had Office, and email was internal-only for everybody
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
Yes, let's eliminate all distractions so that 5 seconds of happiness that you receive from an email popup regarding a personal email doesn't become a problem. Eliminate checks on weather sites to see how the weather will be when traveling home and planning accordingly. Eliminate everything that could possibly take away from becoming a machine that probably takes no more than 20 minutes in an entire day.
We are not machines, we are people. Doing repetitive tasks all day is the work of machines and can cause injury in humans. Should we not have that brief hallway chat with our friends and colleagues to satisfy the need of humans? Or should our interactions also become that of machines: necessary and nothing more.
The distractions listed here seem rather silly and mostly harmless to most people. If a particular person is distracted too much, then fix the problem for them. For example, if someone has a window office and can't stop staring outside all day, stick them in a cubicle or something. For the most part, however, these sort of distractions are what humans often require - a quick brak.
So I took a look at the link to the M$ study on What We're Doing About It, and I can easily say without naming names:
Every SINGLE solution they came up with is something Some Other OS already has or does. While that's nothing new (M$ being late to supper), what's disturbing about it is that with all of Bill's money, they will get public recognition for identifying the problem and creating solutions.
Bill and Steve would make EXCELLENT Republican Presidential Candidates.
What about Slashdot?
That thing sucks so many hours from my daily job that I do not even want to count them.
One time I was running some 20 min simulations and I realized that 20 min were equivalent to a "brief" review of Slashdor.
I wish I could turn it off
What a lack of self control damn
//Begin HOSTS
slashdot.org 127.0.0.1
You see? You see? Your stupid minds! Stupid! Stupid!
How ironic, of all the times I haven't RTFA, I chose to read this one at work.
What distractions? I thought checking my email and clicking popup boxes was my job.
(+1 Funny) only if I laugh out loud.
Much of this distraction is self-enforced...
That should read:
Much of this distraction is self-imposed...
Neopets - the best free game on the Int
I never get distracted by my computer at - wait let me answer my IM.
k back, well anyways, there are no distractions at all... Oh and did you see the ad for vonage VOIP? it's 25 bucks a month pretty good deal, i'm paying verizon 70 for the same deal..
oh, anyways, about the distractions, there are none, and hotmail yet again put a piece of spam in my inbox, as msn messenger said.
whatever, this is becoming a distraction, i can't get my work done when slashdot always posts new articles when i'm working.
isn't it ironic that this post has been getting replies at a rate of more than 1 per minute since being posted?
sometimes i get distracted at work with actual work... i try to avoid it as it interrupts my surfing...
truthfully the only thing preventing me from going "all out" surfing is the fact that the it team is monitoring me.
hey just cause i'm paranoid doesnt mean theyre not out to get me...
this sig has been discontinued.
I've been supposed to FIGHT these distractions all these years?! I must have missed that memo. Sorry. I'll get back to work now.
If someone says he and his monkey have nothing to hide, they almost certainly do.
I think it is more than just a change in technology, but a change in the way we work.
I don't know whether it is the result of offshore outsourcing or just business pressure to have fewer people do more tasks, but a given individual is now called on to do a wider variety of tasks and expected to respond quicker.
In the old days one could sit in a quiet corner and work a project in relative isolation until completion. But these days you wear more hats and thus have to deal with more issues from different directions.
Table-ized A.I.
Funny MS does this research.
The latest version of outlook pops up a little window on the lower right with a little bit of the body of the email. Extra linefeeds at the beginning show nothing.
That, and there's the mail icon in the systray. When you get tons of email at work, it gets a bit annoying.
I just really wish the Outlook rules system would get RID of the icon for a new type of mail message (in my case, the tons of out-of-the-office emails) that I have set to auto-trash.I have to empty my trash folder to get rid of it.
is any app that steals the cursor focus from where I'm currently typing (or clicking) in order to show me some alert or dialog. And when I get 2 or 3 follow-on alerts yanking me back for more clicks, I want to put my boot throught the keyboard. I think whoever came up with that scheme did some bad human engineering.
Evil is the money of root.
I think the aspect of Firefox that keeps me so distracted is the "Bookmarks Toolbar". I will load it up with some specific purpose in mind, and just open a few tabs of my favorite sites. Before I know it I have totally lost track of what I am doing and I have wasted a good 30 minutes browsing my favorite sites.
:O
Bear in mind this is at home, not at work. However I am seriously considering disabling the "Bookmarks Toolbar" for no reason other then it is simply too convenient. I just can't keep myself from losing track of everything in it.
Is it possible some features are so useful, so accessible, that they are actually harmful?
Heck, I just hit 'preview' to see how this would look, and while it was loading I instinctively opened new tabs at a pair of regular websites, and started reading. I just used up 5 minutes.. Oy
--- "End Of Line" - MCP
At our office, lots of people use computers for other things than office business. Using car and football talk forums, using Word to do hubbys sales meeting notes (for another co.), all whilst on work time. Once someone who doesn't really give a fuck about working can use a computer and gets a job, they think that's it, nevermind distractions, they are there to do at most 2hrs work a day out of 8 and then waste the rest of the time on their own business. The answer isn't to persecute those of us who use IT, or those who are getting into it enough to need wizards e.t.c. IMHO we need something like a 'solitaire guy' wizard from an earlier /. article to alert those able to come down on time wasters like a ton of bricks.
I remember the good ol' days when we would goof off by walking over and talking to coworkers.
Table-ized A.I.
"Take a tour of windows XP..."
"Turn off the animated character?"
"Turn off the paperclip?"
"Are you sure you want to show 'system' files?"
I think you forgot the regular Windows updates and the re-activation when you add new hardware, which can happen quite often, for example when it's your job to upgrade PC hardware.
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
1. Get a laptop. 2. Go to a library without wifi. 3. Work. 4. Go home, spend evening reading comments on /.
MarkTAW writes about procrastination that may grow from distraction like this slashdot post ;-)
5 05
http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2005/1/18/153331/
Precisely my point. How many users out there (not /.ers, obviously) ended up signing up for a Passport account just to make that MSN Messenger thing stop bugging them at login?
I'll turn into a supernova and burn up everything. Well I'll turn into a black little hole and you'll turn into string.
When I need to get work done, I go to a text mode console and use vim -- many fewer distractions that way :)
I mod down anyone who says "I will be modded down for this", regardless of the rest of their comment
Then I was about to get back to work, but decided I could reload slashdot for the 9th time today...
I should probably get back to work now, but I think I'll check out the headlines on google news first...
How I appear busy at work while fulfilling myself with my "distractions":
1.) Keep a floating command prompt open running netstat. It makes it look busy and important.
2.) Once in a while, ping 127.0.0.1. This makes me look like I'm typing something really important and examining very important output.
3.) Fire up a new browser window that opens the company website, then randomly click shit with an intense frown on your face as though looking for something important.
4.) Keep random sticky notes and papers sprawled around your keyboard, and randomly look over at them as though for reference. This is particularly useful when typing messageboard posts where people can hear your keyboard clacking away. You're not slacking; you're doing something important. You have scattered papers you keep looking at!
5.) Keep a spindle for your paper messages. Collect them on this spindle and situate it beside your monitor for a quick and easy "busily cluttered" look to your desk that makes you look slightly more busy.
6.) Have an old keyboard or other computer peripherals lying around at home? Bring them to the office and place them out of the way but in visible sight around your office/cubicle computer. Various important-looking computer parts, like an old non-functioning printer or a second keyboard "connected" to nothing, make you look like you're doing lots of crazy and important computer shit. For an added bonus, occasionally move your chair over and start clacking away on the non-functioning keyboard while looking at your monitor. Do an intense frown, say "hmm" importantly, and move back to your real keyboard and browse Slashdot some more.
7.) Try walking around a lot in a hurry. This makes you look busy and determined. The best strategy is to go the bathroom a lot and just pace for a minute inside. My strategy is to go to the water cooler a lot. Not only does this saturate me, but I'm seen moving all over the office busily and importantly when really I'm just taking a mental break at the water cooler and fantasizing about a life that doesn't so closely resemble Hell.
I have more tips, and I'm sure you do, so let's share.
We're becoming more and more of an ADD society... EVERYTHING has to be right here and right now. Streamlined.. Perfect! Why don't we compare our ability to do tasks today compared to ten years ago? No, in the future, it will be worse. Our attention spans will all be shot to hell. We won't be able to watch shows more than 10 minutes long. Television networks like E!, VH1, and Mtv will be the highest rated... oh.. crap.. it's all ready happening.
"hey, could you pass me a paper towel? er.. I mean... DEPLOY ABSORBTION PANEL!"
Sorry if this is a little OT, but this is why I like to boot Ubuntu Linux (on my old dual G4 Mac) when I am working (design, programming, writing) and OS X for fun (editing video, pictures, reading RSS feeds, etc.)
:-)
I keep my Linux system tidy - just the tools that I need to actually do work (and FireFox to post to Slashdot
I find that it also helps a lot to not check my email frequently while working.
I'm a historian, and I've learned that this kind of interupted work flow is nothing new. In fact, for most of our history, humans have worked this kind of "interuptive" work flow as opposed to straight working. Rural work often meant short periods of hard work punctuated by frequent but shorter periods of rest. Many times, another task demanded priority, and the workflow would change again . Labor historian Herbert Gutman has written some fantastic essays on how people carried over these agrarian work habits into industrialization. For example, workers would pool money to hire someone to read the newspaper to them while they worked, they would drink on the job, or sing songs while on the line. Here's a typical work day for a New York City dock worker in the 1840s that Gutman dug up:
Begin work about 7:00am?.
8:30-9:30am - "Aunt Arlie McVane" arrives selling baked goods. (Work stops or slows during her visit).
10:30-11:00am - "Johnnie Gogean, an English candyman arrives to peddle his sweets. (15 minute break to consume candy),br> 11:00am - Whiskey break for the majority of the crew. (Length of break is not specified)
3:30pm "Uncle Jack Gridder" shows up to distribute a "cake lunch" to workers. (Length of break is not specified)
5:00pm "Johnnie Gogean" returns with more candy. (10 minute break to consume)
Continue work until sunset
The basic problem is that in a postindustrial society, we are told to associate this kind of workflow as unproductive or even lazy. It's not. It's how humans have been working for thousands of years. To work uninterupted, straight for 8 hours, is hard for us to do because it's an abnormal practice.
Sitting here at work reading the posts to this article and I get the Outlook new mail beep. Oh got run. Just got a meeting pop-up...
END OF LINE
It is very much a work in progress. It is designed to fight this very problem in an educational setting. http://tiotha.sourceforge.net/
I will not mourn that which I never had to lose. - Unknown
Internet workstations definitely provide new kinds of distractions, but don't forget that people get distracted by lots of lower-tech things, too.
These distractions are multiplied if you share an office or work in a cubicle farm.
I Am Not A Psychologist, but managers have to manage. If you remove all computer distractions from the environment, bored people will just walk down the hall and chat with others. Conversely, if people are highly motivated (positively or negatively) they will ignore all kinds of distractions and focus on work.
org.slashdot.post.SignatureNotFoundException: ewg
Maximum Productivity is achieved in many many different ways. Not engaging the brain, or allowing it to wander like it wants, for many jobs is tantamount to less productivity. Particularly in jobs that require creative thought, and or, mental acquity.
Treating people humanely, and creating a sense of comradary has shown since the concept of work has begun has always led to maximum productivity.
Pushing people slavishly has always been the downfall of dull and dense managers.
How exactly is actively clicking refresh "fighting" distraction ?
I embrace distraction at work.
Its not just computers anymore, and thats starting to worry me.
People everywhere are walking around using a vast array of strange devices, which all distract everyone a LOT, if not completely prevent them from accomplishing anything usefull at all.
Cell-phone-talking, listening to portable music-players, dawdling about on a PDA. You can escape a computer quite simply; leave the room. Out of sight, out of mind, etc. But those cell phones, PDA's, etc, mask themselves as devices you use for work, AND play! That presents a problem right there; you take it with you for the work aspect, and you just end up playing with the damn thing instead! Forcing yourself to NOT play with the goddamn thing is harder than just using another device to do the same work-related job in the first place!
This is why i like specific task devices (gameboy, old PDA's, old cell phones, pen & paper, etc.) - theyre easier to deal with.
I do not, nor will i ever, own a cellphone. For the price versus distraction, its worth it to use a payphone instead. Similarly, I usually prefer email to "instant messaging".
Good choice of words.
could it be?
My current tabs are gmail, /., Yahoo Calendar (because it looks like I'm orginized,) 5 google searches, and 2 remote desktops. I should be using the remote desktops and not posting this. Oh well, such is life!
rm -rf
but I gotta check my email first
Thanks to file sharing, I purchase more CDs
Thanks to the RIAA, I buy them used...
I don't want to toot my own horn too much, but I wrote a tool against distraction. It's silly, but it works for me. Sometimes.
5 1&tid=185&tid=133&tid=1
http://thomer.com/lockout/
It was also featured on Slashdot a while ago:
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/08/24/21282
/. archives are not cooperating with me just now so I can't give you the link....
but we went all over the "distracted computer user" stuf prompted by a post concerning an article by David Levy at U. of Washington's School of information.
SLASHDOT: news for people who can't concentrate on work or have no life at all and got tired of yelling back at the TV.
I spend several hours a day doing things to be more efficient.
Right now I'm looking at laptops. Yesterday I was looking at new apps for my palm. The day before I was setting up playlists on my mp3 player so I waste less time looking for music. The day before that....
I think the periodic switching off of alerts, particularly from email and IM, would be a lot like this, and very beneficial for concentrated periods of time. Kind of like a 'news fast' (in which you deliberately avoid taking in news from any sources), but call it a 'notification fast'.
Turning off Feedreader is going to be the hardest part... :)
---------- It tingles because it's working.
1. Window tip of the day appears. (You can choose not to be bothered again).
2. These icons aren't being used. Would you like to clean up the tray icons?
3. Wireless service is available. Several dialog boxes pop up and then one big window pops out to help you select which network you want.
4. There are new updates for your computer.
5. If you have an OEM installed machine it comes with DirectCD or Sony Updates....
6. Inserting a USB thumbdrive requires three different dialog boxes.
On a Mac OSX system. You application icon can leaps up and down in the dock if it needs attention (reasonable). I switch of animate opening applications. It does annoy you about joining some wireless network if you are in some coffee shop (although it does require as many distracting and redundant message as windows).
On other Unix (Irix, HP-UX, Solaris) systems nothing bothers you. Then again, I would argue that the pop up windows from the OS and wizards are trying to be helpful. Personally I find it annoying because I know how to use my computers. Well, I get paid to administer computers, so I better know. I find Mac OSX the most useable, yet helpful and gets out of my way to let me do my work.
Now I just open Thunderbird, and I just open FF when there's a topic that interests me. I don't browse anymore.
I also put FireForcaster into FF so I never check the weather anymore.
I'd rather have someone respond than be modded up.
For an interesting and somewhat humorous take on various forms of PC feedback, check out Alan Cooper's famous thesis on the subject.
my favorite part of microsoft's group description "There are many redundant ways of interacting with Windows and Office applications today. We intend to devise elegant solutions to reduce visual clutter and interaction complexity without causing problems for users of legacy features. In this way, we will invent methods for simplifying the user experience given the on screen objects and devices available. Simplifying the UX allows us to map novel gestures and interaction techniques to better information visualization of information." uh - blackbox
You can always use freedos
Freedom or George Bush
an economics is often characterized as the study of how groups allocate scarce resources.
Today information is anything but scarce; why people decided to call it the "information economy" is beyond me.
What's really scarce, now that information availability has exploded, is the *attention* needed to perceive and process information. That's why the fad today is "attention deficit disorder".
"Attention economy" would be a more descriptive term.
When computers were computers were computers, they were there to automate the processing of information so that we could conserve our attention for other things - like communicating with others. Now, the Internet has turned computers into something entirely different - they're now *communicators*, not "computers". When your average net user says they get online mostly to "surf the web and check their email", they're talking about communications, not computing.
The computer just happens to hang on because it happens to give those in control of it (ie, the people who write the software - NOT the user) a more efficient platform for managing users' attentions than they ever had before.
Would be nice if you had a button always on the screen in some discrete corner labeled "Do not disturb" to turn off reminders, popups, bells, clicks, animations and network access (yes, that too). Would be nice to have it all under control again without all the hassle of unplugging things. Sometimes you just want to write, design, and compute.
Do not mock my vision of impractical footwear
Actually studies show internet/information addiction creates ADD like symptoms.
But the reason 10 years ago people were more productive was because there were less distractions.
TV networks have always been like what you said.
If something is available to ease their mind off of work, people will use it. Nothing big about that.
http://saveie6.com/
In addition to those fine 7 points, I'd add that to sucessfully web browse (or whatever) while doing those tricks you should keep Firefox un-Maximized, with whatever important-seeming app a mere task-switch, or quick mouse click away. Failing that, remember in Windows you can quickly minimize any app (Firefox, IE if so unfortunate) with a quick ALT+SPACE+N. Practice it. Get good with it. You'll be able to minimize that browser without the tell-tale mouse "wrist jerk and click" that people can see as they approach. (Everyone knows ALT+F4 but sometimes you want to finish what you're reading later, so you don't necessarily want to close the browser.)
I was at a knowledge management conference where someone talked about how knowledge workers spend their time. A study of Microsoft software developers uncovered that they spent 75% of their day using Outlook. I kid you not!
Although timely communications and collaboration are essential to massive distributed development projects, I wonder about the human capacity to prioritize and handle the barrage of incoming communications created by e-mail, IM, etc. I wonder if companies could create scoped-communication tools that intentionally filter and limit connectivity to some "optimal" level.
Two wrongs don't make a right, but three lefts do.
The 40 hour workweek began in T. Roosevelt's time. Lot's of labor-saving devices and methods have been introduced since then. Since many of us have demonstrated in this article that we now have lots of slack time (or is it Slashdot time?) then isn't reasonable that the work week should be shortened to 32 hours. I'm sure that I'd get just as much work done in 32 that I now do in 40.
This would create new jobs in a couple of ways. One would be that new activities would be created to fill the increased leisure time.
I think the mods are trying to help the dude out by getting him closer to his stated goal of IP banning.
...by turning the computers themselves off. Turn off the Mac, turn off the PC, and I have a couple or three hours of solid cube-cleaning, paper-filing, list-making, etc. Of course, after about a half hour, it's off to the bathroom, then the water cooler, then wander around looking for people I haven't visited with in a while... eh, it's a start. :-)
Dear Slashdot: next time you want to mess with the site, add a rich-text editor for comments.
(although it doesn't require as many distracting and redundant message as windows).
This was off-topic, but I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Can we get rid of my boss? He keeps distracting me from reading slashdot!
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
Scientific American just had an article on similar research in their January issue. Although that research seemed more tailored to keep the computer system focused on letting you do your tasks. Like not kicking off the screen saver while you are looking at the screen, without typing. One comment from a researcher was that it is ridiculous that a public toilet knows I am standing in front of it, but my high-end laptop doesn't know I am sitting in front of it.
I'm paraphrasing that from memory so I might have a detail or two wrong. Anyway, it was an interesting article.
"Contrarily the lookaside buffer might not be the panacea... "
Windows key - m
nobody goofs off in a text-only environment
yup
Changa hates change.
They didn't mention the best time-waster of all - Slashdot!
How many are reading this from work?
Snazzier than a Three-Piece Suit: http://kf.rainydaycommunications.net/
Stops all those apps from distracting you.
Has anybody stopped to consider what would happen if we were made to work day-after-day without any distractions?
Productivity would drop-off halfway through the day! I know that I personally need a few minutes to stop programming and do something else every other hour.
:-)
Besides, i'll bet Slashdot is responsible for about 100 million dollars in "lost productivity." Hell, Im typing this post at work!!!
New post: "/. Costs U.S. Companies 500 Million Annually"
There are 10 types of people in the world. Those who understand binary and those who do not.
Why isn't Slashdot on that list?
Join Tor today!
Then its back to the deep dark dungeon where you can really be productive.
Sigh, if only mgmt would sanction the additional computer. Actually a few folks in my company did that and were amazingly productive. As for me, I used to turn off Outlook whenever I was going to get into a deep coding session. Yea, close down instant messengers too - better still dont even have them up in the first place. If you desire a desparate need to chat with that buddy of yours, fire it up, chat with him/her then exit the damn thing. Keep your desktop simple. It aint that hard.
I can see two relevant differences immediately
Pauses are much less frequent than interruptions. A pause each hour or so is often considered appropriate.
Interruptions each few minutes are hell.
It's impossible to get anything done.
physical versus intellectual work: intellectual work suffers from constant interruption.
Physical work also suffers from interruptions(losing rhythm), but probably less.
Admittedly, whenever i think of "history repeats itself" I have this itch.
Allergy of historicism causes that I think.
various ways people are fighting distractions and points to some cognitive technology research done at Microsoft...
Cubicles are now out. Instead they are to be replaced by 'stalls' - which will save space and money in realestate payments. The 'stall dog', as MS likes to call the users in such an environment, would slide into the confines of their 'stall' to begin work (sides fully adjustable depending upon girth) - and plug in the head mounted 'cognitive helmet' which will beam only MS approved content into the user's head - controlling the productivity of the user, as a result.
Lodragan Draoidh
The more you explain it, the more I don't understand it. - Mark Twain
to get a copy of Mouse Ether. I use a 1280x1024 and a 1024x768 screen at work, it would be nice to see first-hand how much better this makes working with dual-screens of difference sizes and resolutions.
Wonder if MS will have this in Longhorn - maybe there are some Linux guys out there that can beat them to it?
Many comments provide examples of some things to do to make you look busy (ping 127.0.0.1, etc)
This automates the issue.
Have fun.
Nyntändo-Schock!
...but then my movie download finished. Was going to start watching that, but then an antivirus security warning popped up, so I had to install that. Now I'm back at slashdot, but this LED is blinking at me and I'm
A train station is where a train stops, a bus station is where a bus stops, on my desk I have a workstation...
"Don't believe anything you read on the net. Except this. Well, including this, I suppose." --Douglas Adams
...no.
Back in my day, when we wanted to slack off, we had to talk to the livestock... and we liked it!
PC-related distraction is the best distraction there is in this modern work environment of ours, second only to a pretty female coworker wearing strong perfume and mini-skirt walking by. Why fight it? Love it. In fact, I advocate looking for it, like stopping work to update your blog or write a comment in Slashdot. I am writing this comment, and someone will read it at work, and guess what? Both of us benefit from this little "distraction". Personally, I crave distraction. Distraction is the grease that keeps this human working machine going. Throughout my day, I update my all-news blog, http://sundroid.blogspot.com/, and think about what to write and create for my graphic blog, http://sunandfun.blogspot.com/. At the end of the day, I still get my work done.
Sun and Fun
Of all the Slashdot articles and comments I read throughout the day, this happens to be the one I end up staring at for 10 minutes straight, while: 1) I am talking to somebody on Gaim and they send me 11 IMs to catch my attention and then sign off. 2) I am in the middle of writing my English paper.
Like OS X.
I am a new OS X user and I notice that when the printer is out of paper or turned off the printer icon in the dock starts bouncing. I can ignore it or open the print job and cancel it.
The focus is never taken from the active window.
Your Average Joe is now using a Mac Mini, why? Mac OS X is the only version of UNIX that your grandmother can use and not get frustrated with.
Your Average Joe
Honestly, I thought would be the first place Micro$oft would "research."
Work is the curse of the drinking man.
"Your average farmer works until he's tired," .
sure,but not continually on the same task.
Plow requires taking care of the animal, repairing equipment, stop to drink some water, stop to eat, etc. .
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
i'm sure with the great invention of wireless internet and the introduction of it to universities, production has gone down.. now even with PDAs you can connect to the internet, and hell even with phones you can instant message your friends or even follow a conversation in an irc channel.. the internet has killed off production :) as has slashdot!
Actually, firefox fails my test - try opening a bad link into a new tab. The popup dialog will interrupt you in your current tab. It makes me think, "what the hell do I care about some page 20 tabs down? I'll get to it when I get to it. Right now I'm looking at another page. Please leave me alone, firefox!"
Spoon not. Fork, or fork not. There is no spoon.
No, I don't advocate smoking, but I've found it rewarding to take breaks along with them, and just bring a coke or a mini bottle of OJ. Why? Smoke breaks (5-7 minutes) tend to be just about the right length for a solid psychological recharge that lasts an hour or so. I'm sure that's quite intentional on the part of cigarette makers. A little time away from the computer works far better in my experience than flipping over to email, slashdot, whatever. I take these breaks with smokers because if you don't have someone to go out away from the desk with, it can be hard not to feel a little silly. It's fun hanging around smokers when they're smoking because they're generally relaxed and chatty, and not quite so wound up in work then. You can relax along with them and NOT be killing yourself slowly. (Argue with me if you must... I do know that secondhand smoke is bad for you as well, but if you're outside and not immediately downwind and you're still worried about the risks, I maintain that you're just plain crazy) Finally, by virtue of smoking becoming somewhat rare in the modern workplace, hanging out with smokers is a way of casting a wider social network. Plus, the people tend to be more fun :-)
A good book about the economics of computing is Paul Strassman's The Squandered Computer. It is a few years old, but still useful (and very prescient for its time). Some examples: "for 55% of U.S. firms, the computer budget exceeds their economic value-added." Or, "there is no demonstrable relationship between computer spending and corporate profits."
$nice = $webHosting + $domainNames + $sslCerts
Every now and then I had applications bounce in the dock when they had a modal dialog appear and I didn't have the application in the foreground, but then I installed Dock Detox from http://www.unsanity.com and that stopped.
What the hell are they talking about?
Not since Marie-Antoinette played milkmaid has looking simple and honest been so fake and complicated.
What distracted me most about this article is how the favicon in firefox for slashdot turned into the shell (gasoline company) logo.
I have learned so much having the Internet available on my work desktop, however it has seriously challenged me to stay focused. It is going on 10 years now and I am just now getting a hang of it. I never thought it would be so hard to change, but I am better off with it.
Cool sig :)
Those who sacrifice security to condemn liberty deserve to repeat history or something. - Benjamin Santayana
I have the same problem! It all started in... I think it was 1997. I vaugely remember a soothing green glow too...
Its really quite simple, the first thing we have to do... oooh World of Warcraft...
If Google really cared they would fix Android Chrome to reflow text, instead of discriminating
Changa hates change.