Operation Bob

Most days I feel like I have been ‘busy’ during every waking moment.  Meanwhile the list of what I’ve gotten done seems short compared to the effort.  For the most part, I blame this on the world outside my desk.  But, after reading Darren Rowse’s artcile about how dial-up made him more productive, it made me look internally. 

As I read about Darren being temporarily without broadband in the midst of a move, I got to thinking what it was like in the days before e-mail, IM, even cell phones.  That’s when it really struck me: I allow or invite most of my distractions in.  For instance, my e-mail inbox is open all the time.  When a new message arrives I see a (1) there and immedately click over and read it.  It’s never anything that couldn’t wait a few hours, or days, but if I know it’s there I feel compelled to look.  That e-mail often turns into some task or at minimum a reply from me.  Once I’ve spent a few minutes or hours dealing with whatever it was I have to re-focus on what I was working on in the first place. 

Same thing with the phone, I always answer it.  Worse yet, if I put it on silent I end up looking at it every few minutes to see if I’ve missed a call!  Go ahead and laugh, but I bet I’m not the only one! 

In light of this realization, I’m doing my best to completely close the e-mail inbox for a few hours at a time while I do other things.  As for the phone, we’ll that’s next!  It will either make me more productive, or drive me insane.