[General] Recovering time and attention
- From:
- Pradeep Gowda
- Date:
- 2010-07-31 @ 01:41
Some of the practical steps I've taken to recover time from the
always-connected lifestyle.
At Work:
* Do not carry laptop to work. Having mulitple machines only
distracts from your primary task.
* Block all social networking sites, blogs and other websites that
you know to be time syncs. That is, put `127.0.0.1
www.facebook.com` in `/etc/hosts` file and get your system to serve a
motiviational page on port 80. I have a single word "Focus." in 40
size font staring at me from localhost. When the fingers type
reddit/facebook etc., without my conscious motive, i'm presented with
the "Focus" page.
* Restrict connecting to social networks and personal email to 1 or
two times a day. Lunch hour and just before you leave for the day are
the best times.
* Sitting for long stretches of time is bad for posture and health
[1]. So, take frequent breaks. But, you already knew that. Making it a
"formula" will make the idea sticky. So, follow the "20/20/20" rule --
get up every 20 minutes, stretch, walk 20 steps and look away for 20
seconds. Or you can even try the "pomodoro" (italian, tomato), method
[2]
At Home:
* Avoid plopping in front of the computer/TV as soon as you return
from work. Your tired body wants to "relax" even though you have been
in the chair/ car seat for better part of the waking day. Instead
change as soon you reach home and head out for a brisk walk/gym.
* Shutdown laptops and computers when the task is done. This helps in
avoiding "browsing by cruising"(eh?). Basically, you see an active
screen and something on it draws you and in no time you have spent an
hour infotaining yourself.
On the move:
* Uninstall facebook, twitter and other social media apps from
iPhone, and laptop.
* Remove Mail.app icon from the home screen. And disable automatic
email notifications.
* The above two steps should help you getting you off the "checking
email/twitter instead of talking to the person in front of me" rude
behaviour. It also removes a phantom excuse not to engage in
conversations with people.
* Leave the smart phone behind when there is no real need for a
phone where you are going. Eg: when I step out for a jog, take the
baby for a stroll, I leave the phone behind. I also leave the phone
behind during the evenings and weekends if I'm going out with my wife,
because one phone is enough to reach people and vice versa.
[1]: http://aje.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/kwq155
[2]: http://www.pomodorotechnique.com/