Continuous Partial Attention Phenomena
As I continue to dig into this NY Times article, Meet the Life Hackers, I find little gems of insight which really do state what I think that alot of us are feeling. Here is one interesting quote from a software executive who calls the phenomena "Continuous Partial Attention."
"The upshot is something that Linda Stone, a software executive who has worked for both Apple and Microsoft, calls "continuous partial attention": we are so busy keeping tabs on everything that we never focus on anything. This can actually be a positive feeling, inasmuch as the constant pinging makes us feel needed and desired. The reason many interruptions seem impossible to ignore is that they are about relationships - someone, or something, is calling out to us. It is why we have such complex emotions about the chaos of the modern office, feeling alternately drained by its demands and exhilarated when we successfully surf the flood."
Perhaps this is why we as lawyers sometimes do our best work in the evenings or weekends when the phone isnt ringing, the emails have slowed to a drizzle and office staff arent sending us phone messages and questions which need immediate attention.
I'm going to link to this at my site, but in the meantime, thank you for this tip. At the end of the day, I often feel that I haven't accomplished enough and I blame myself for inefficiency and lack of focus. Now I see that the problem is not necessarily me, but rather, a broader problem that most people face. I know that this realization does not solve the problem, but at least, it enables me to refrain from being so hard on myself.
Posted by: Carolyn Elefant | 2005.10.24 at 16:56
I'm going to link to this at my site, but in the meantime, thank you for this tip. At the end of the day, I often feel that I haven't accomplished enough and I blame myself for inefficiency and lack of focus. Now I see that the problem is not necessarily me, but rather, a broader problem that most people face. I know that this realization does not solve the problem, but at least, it enables me to refrain from being so hard on myself.
Posted by: Carolyn Elefant | 2005.10.24 at 16:56