Driven to Distraction by Technology

Ant writes "CNET News.com says 'The typical office worker is interrupted every three minutes by a phone call, e-mail, instant message or other distraction. The problem is that it takes about eight uninterrupted minutes for the brains to get into a really creative state. The result, says Carl Honore, journalist and author of "In Praise of Slowness," is a situation where the digital communications that were supposed to make working lives run more smoothly are actually preventing people from getting critical tasks accomplished.'"

That sounds right.

[duncanbojangles]

That sounds about right where I wor...

Hold on, I just got an IM.

Whereas reading Slashdot...

[zenmojodaddy]

... hones the creative brain to a razor's edge.

Actually, that doesn't sound right

[teslar]

Or at least, it's distorting the facts.
Work keepy interrupting my IMing, not the other way around :)

exactly right

[justforaday]

That's why I just ignore all of it and sit in my office playing Nethack and reading slashdot. Occasionally somebody will pop their head in, but I just tell them I'm busy and I'll come find them in a few minutes. They usually just go bother someone else.

hmmmm... three minutes...

[The Jabbit]

...is the average time between each time I read /.

Exactly why one should not own a MAC

[Anonymous Coward]

Every Mac user I've ever met spends about 60% of his/her time doing useless work because "its so pretty!"

Get rid of the icons and stupid gurggling noises, f11 view everything key and low and behold users might do more work.

Re:Whereas reading Slashdot...

[Scoria]

Whereas reading Slashdot...

hones the creative brain to a razor's edge.

Basically, then, you're saying that Slashdot gradually turns a creative brain into grey, thinly sliced lunch meat? Hannibal Lecter would be delighted! ;-)

Distraction or Destruction?

[RandomRob]

This strikes a chord with me, too...

I had an employee a few years ago who didn't seem to understand the idea of uninterrupted work. I regularly close my door and get work done - research, coding, whatever - and the rule around the lab is, if the door is closed, you leave the person alone. This one guy didn't seem to understand this - I mean, he didn't WANT to have this apply to him...

He would come up with really annoying ways to interrupt, like hammering on my door really hard, or standing in front of the door talking loudly. The final straw, that resulted in his near-decapitation, was one incident where he emailed me, emailed me five minutes later to complain I hadn't responded, then borrowed a security key to let himself in to my office to ask why I wasn't answering email.

Sigh.

Stupid geese!

[Anonymous Coward]

Stupid Canadian geese. With thier honking and lying and thier tasty flesh. They're going back to Canada to plot agaist me that what!

When I code..

[Fr05t]

I wear ear plugs, and a blind fold.

tetris

[c0n0]

ohmmm...not now Lumberg...I am real busy
Besides, I've got a meeting with the Bobs in a few minutes.

Re:Problem pretty easily solved

[dreemernj]

I do tend to shut off all bells and whistles in my office, and when people stop by I will usually show them a thinkgeek.com t-shirt I think suits them and they don't come bothering me any more after that. Roses are #FF0000 Violets are #0000FF Then your Co workers will think, There's something wrong with you.

I just ordered the book on Amazon

[joshv]

I just ordered the book on Amazon. One of the options was to have it rush shipped to me by tomorrow.

No Problem Here

[Anonymous Coward]

While I'm at work, I don't seem to have any problems focusing on Slashdot for a couple hours at a time.

Re:It's not the technology, its the people!

[WallyHartshorn]

we must have really high tech phones here because of this funny button called "do not disturb" I use it all the time.

Yep, I'd say your phone is pretty high-tech. Allow me describe to you the features of my phone. My phone sports a 12-key user-interface, stylishly arranged in a rectangular shape. Ten of the keys have a numeral on them, allowing me to quickly and easily enter a phone number. There is also a * key and a # key, which excitingly serve pretty much no purpose whatsoever, for maximum flexibility. This allows me to press them pretty much anytime I want to and pretend they are doing whatever I want.

Re:That sounds right.

[Anne_Nonymous]

Additionally, getting an IM while you click copy/paste is still a lot more efficient than having undistracted monks copy your document longhand.

Re:Open offices

[colinrichardday]

So Slashdotters don't have a word for sex?