Excuse the interruption

I am having trouble avoiding interruption.

I first began not simply noticing this, but focusing on this over the past week. I realized that I was spending far too much of my day checking email or performing some other technology tool task. While out walking my dog, I am checking email. When I first wake up I check email. While writing or working I am checking email. I find it is more than a bit distracting. Maybe it is the nature of my career over the many years where things were always moving so quickly. Or, as those of you who have been reading this blog for some time remember me posting, it is because my iphone or whatever technology toy it might be makes it so easy. At that time it was me singing praises to my iphone for all it allowed me to do and how easily it allowed me to do it.  Be careful what you wish for, you might get it.  Now my habit of welcoming interruption is becoming too much.  And it is something I want to change. A lifestyle that promotes focus without interruption can be a very good thing.

My first steps took place this past winter with the revolutionary idea of not taking my cell phone. For a few peaceful hours I didn’t keep checking my messages or answering my phone. Meanwhile this was the typical discussion I heard around me…

PHONE: “Ring Ring” (actually it was probably some song but this is easier)

PERSON ON SKI LIFT WRESTLES WITH THEIR GLOVES, THEN THEIR COAT POCKET, TRYING TO REACH THEIR PHONE

PHONE: “Ring Ring”

PERSON ON SKI LIFT: “Hello…. Hey dude…. Yeah I am skiing in Vail… I am just riding the lift up…. Yes its great up here today”

PERSON ON SKI LIFT’S FINGERS ARE STARTING TO FROSTBITE AS THEY TALK

PERSON ON SKI LIFT: “I am not sure what we are doing this weekend, lets totally grab a beer on Saturday… No I didn’t hear if Sue was going…. really….. she was looking good on Tuesday man…. Okay….. Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha….. um yeah I love that show…. Okay later”

PERSON ON SKI LIFT PUTS PHONE AWAY WITH CRAMPED, FROZEN HANDS AND THEN GOES BACK TO LOOKING AT THE PRETTY SNOW

Of course this is the simpler version. The funniest is the person in the act of skiing who stops to take the call. Not only does this throw off their rhythm but it totally stops whatever Zen moment with nature they might have been having. I respect this works for some. It is just not the choice for me.

So now I am trying to bring this philosophy off the slopes.

The New York Times had an article this past week “Lost in Email, Tech Firms Face Self Made Beast” discussing the new trend for technology companies to be building tools to combat the “beast” of their own creation. I thought this was an especially interesting quote…

“A typical information worker who sits at a computer all day turns to his e-mail program more than 50 times and uses instant messaging 77 times, according to one measure by RescueTime, a company that analyzes computer habits. The company, which draws its data from 40,000 people who have tracking software on their computers, found that on average the worker also stops at 40 Web sites over the course of the day.

The fractured attention comes at a cost. In the United States, more than $650 billion a year in productivity is lost because of unnecessary interruptions, predominately mundane matters, according to Basex. The firm says that a big chunk of that cost comes from the time it takes people to recover from an interruption and get back to work.”

Now I am not sure how this translates to me personally, but I believe my habits ensure some greater level of productivity loss in what is most important to me. And I certainly don’t want to miss any of the company or scenery around me during something as simple and nice as an early morning dog walk.

Yet most people I know or observe are busy scrawling on their electronic devices while out at dinner with friends, enjoying happy hour with their team, or simply in a public and social setting. I can’t complain, I do it too. Now I am trying to stop, slow down, smell the roses along the way and save my email catchup for a specific time and place. So here are a few tricks I am trying to break my interruption habit:

1. First, I turned off my email accounts (yep, not just one) on my iphone. I can always turn them back on when I go out of town but do I really need updated email every fifteen minutes, twenty-four hours a day, three hundred sixty five days of the year. This is probably the single biggest change.
2. Next is to break the habit of constantly checking my phone. I am periodically leaving my iphone (this is going to sound like blasphemy to some) hidden away charging versus having it on me or right next to me. I want to focus on the task at hand without interruption, or temptation of interruption. Barring an expected call I need to wait for there is no reason to not create some “quiet time”. That goes equally for a non phone zone while joining friends for dinner, or taking my dog for a walk, or many other brief tasks. I know that there is the risk of an emergency. Fortunately, everyone around me will have a phone I can borrow. And this doesn’t have to be a long term strategy, just long enough to break the habit of constantly checking my device. But I think being out of touch for a couple hours at a time will still allow the world to keep turning. I can barely remember, but I am pretty sure I lived without a cell phone at one time.
3. I am turning off that little flag that tells me every time I have a new email on my computer/laptop. The darn thing goes off every 30 seconds it seems, and they are never critical. But of course…. it might be really important so I have to stop what I am doing to check it. Enough!

Do you have any other suggestions for how you prevent interruptions? Or do you have a pro argument for the virtues of an interruption rich life. That has been my habit for quite some time.

What about your habits? Here is a poll to ask that question and see how the populations checks in on this one.

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By the way, in the few minutes it took to write this my email box is showing a red alert flag that I have three new messages. I better hurry and check them!