Larry Magid really hit upon a growing problem for many of us - one that we might not recognize, nor admit - reduced productivity and less than high quality results.
The distraction of information overload from our email, social networking, etc., can, or already does lead to the deterioration of the quality of our output - lowering performance levels and jeopardizing our path to success .
How many emails are in your emailbox first thing every morning? And as Larry points out in his article, "Struggling with information overload", it's not just emails -
----------Larry Magid's article ---------------
This article appeared in the August 1, 2011 edition of the San Jose Mercury News
Like many of you reading this, I have to deal with a constant barrage of emails along with tweets, Facebook messages, text messages and now Google+ updates. And that’s on top of my landline and cellphone ringing as well as my dog needing attention and the usual interruptions from family members.
I work at home. People who work in an office often have to deal with colleagues stopping by asking, “Do you have 30 seconds?”
Well, even if that interruption really is only for 30 seconds, recovery time turns out to be between 10 to 20 times the duration of the interruption, according to Jonathan Spira, the chief analyst at Basex and author of “Overload: How Too Much Information Is Hazardous to Your Organization.”
Spira, a panelist at a Churchill Club event last week appropriately titled “Information Overload 2.0,” said it “takes time for the neurons to fire and it takes time for you to regain your thoughts and recapture the flow of what you were thinking.” And sometimes, he added, what’s lost cannot be recaptured.
I used to think I could manage my own often-interrupted life by “multitasking.” But except for things like walking and chewing gum, multitasking is a myth. When it comes to cognitive tasks, our brains aren’t really capable of competently doing more than one thing at a time.
While I’m sitting in front of the two monitors attached to my PC, I have a Twitter feed in the lower right corner of my main screen, my word processing document in the center and a Gmail session on the other monitor. What I’m really doing is switching my attention back and forth between these three information sources. Trouble is, every time we switch our attention back and forth, it takes a little time. ....
Read Full Article HERE
-------------be sure to read the rest of the article---------------
How about you - do you see it affecting performance and productivity in your workplace, too?
In spite of work rules set by many employers, nearly every employee with access to a
computer at his work station or office is tempted to go online for a last minute check of their email, a quick peek at their twitter time line, maybe looking for a new post on their facebook wall, and not just during a coffee or lunch break.
According to the expets, the human mind has it's limitations when multitasking is involved - and constant distraction and return to a task at hand challenges outstanding results.
And isn't that what we all strive to achieve - outstanding results from our efforts?
6/15/2011
The Road to Success: How to Become Successful In Life
It is everyone's dream to become successful. Besides, who wouldn’t want to be successful? The only problem is, not everyone achieves their dreams of success. If you want to be successful, here are some suggestion to help you become successful in life.
First of all, every person has different aspirations - different people have different goals. What success is to you may mean something different to others. In fact, your success may even mean failure to some people. It all depends on what you really want to achieve.
For some people, getting rich is what success is all about. Some people wants to be famous, while there are people who see success if they become a great statesman. We are basically different and we have different goals.
So, how would you like to become successful?
To start your journey, the first step is often the hardest. You need to think about how you want to become successful and you need to write it down. It may seem easy to do at first, but when you try it, it is really quite complicated.
For example, what if your idea of being successful is becoming a CEO of a very large multinational company? But the only problem is that you might be employed there as part of the personnel in the mailroom.
What you need to do is think of a goal that is achievable. Another example would be if you want to be a professional tennis athlete with a dream of winning the grand slam tournaments? But the only problem is that you have a physical disability that prevents you from even playing tennis at all.
The point of all this is that you need to make goals that are realistic for you to achieve. Don’t make goals that are very hard or impossible to achieve as this will only end up in frustration.
You also need to get rid of the excuses for not being successful. For some people, not having the money for investing is their excuse. If you take a look at Steve Jobs, who founded Apple, he started out without any money at all.
Not having enough time is another excuse. However, you may want to remember that every one of us has the same amount of time. It is only a matter of how you make use of your time.
These are just some of the many things that you need to know about being successful in life. Setting goals, hard work, commitment to your goals, and being happy at what you achieve are the keys to becoming successful.
.
First of all, every person has different aspirations - different people have different goals. What success is to you may mean something different to others. In fact, your success may even mean failure to some people. It all depends on what you really want to achieve.
For some people, getting rich is what success is all about. Some people wants to be famous, while there are people who see success if they become a great statesman. We are basically different and we have different goals.
So, how would you like to become successful?
To start your journey, the first step is often the hardest. You need to think about how you want to become successful and you need to write it down. It may seem easy to do at first, but when you try it, it is really quite complicated.
For example, what if your idea of being successful is becoming a CEO of a very large multinational company? But the only problem is that you might be employed there as part of the personnel in the mailroom.
What you need to do is think of a goal that is achievable. Another example would be if you want to be a professional tennis athlete with a dream of winning the grand slam tournaments? But the only problem is that you have a physical disability that prevents you from even playing tennis at all.
The point of all this is that you need to make goals that are realistic for you to achieve. Don’t make goals that are very hard or impossible to achieve as this will only end up in frustration.
You also need to get rid of the excuses for not being successful. For some people, not having the money for investing is their excuse. If you take a look at Steve Jobs, who founded Apple, he started out without any money at all.
Not having enough time is another excuse. However, you may want to remember that every one of us has the same amount of time. It is only a matter of how you make use of your time.
These are just some of the many things that you need to know about being successful in life. Setting goals, hard work, commitment to your goals, and being happy at what you achieve are the keys to becoming successful.
.
5/29/2011
Pushing or Laying Back
From Seth Godin's Blog - another way to think about pushing yourself, or laying back from Seth Godin's daily blog posts..
Seth's daily blog is my Number One daily reading - so insightful, thought provoking, sometimes agrumentative, but always brilliant!
How true is his view of this work ethic - "doing more"?
"Underextended"
There is a lot of fear associated with 'overextended'.
Take too much financial risk, expose yourself to the vagaries of the market and you'll end up stressed, bankrupt and overextended.
Stretch your knee too much in the wrong direction after a long swim and the doctor will tell you that the ligaments are overextended.
Brands that get greedy and put their names in too many places in too many ways (as Tiffany's did a generation ago) get overextended and take a long time to heal.
But what about the more prevalent, more insidious and ultimately more damaging notion of being underextended?
The factory-mindset encourages every worker to ...(more here) "
That's my thought for today
Richard
Seth's daily blog is my Number One daily reading - so insightful, thought provoking, sometimes agrumentative, but always brilliant!
How true is his view of this work ethic - "doing more"?
"Underextended"
There is a lot of fear associated with 'overextended'.
Take too much financial risk, expose yourself to the vagaries of the market and you'll end up stressed, bankrupt and overextended.
Stretch your knee too much in the wrong direction after a long swim and the doctor will tell you that the ligaments are overextended.
Brands that get greedy and put their names in too many places in too many ways (as Tiffany's did a generation ago) get overextended and take a long time to heal.
But what about the more prevalent, more insidious and ultimately more damaging notion of being underextended?
The factory-mindset encourages every worker to ...(more here) "
That's my thought for today
Richard
5/08/2011
How To Use Affirmations Properly
Why do people need affirmation? Why does "just being" need to be affirmed?
Is existence relative to one’s affirmation?“I am, therefore I exist,” is a phrase affirming one’s existence as a (human) being. It's just a simple phrase, but it says everything about the being saying them. It indicates a confidence not commonly found among other beings.
Affirmation is merely an assertion made by a person, about something or about a state of being. A person can affirm those what he chooses to attain, like “I now have a good life.” Being healthy in mind, body, and spirit can also be made possible through affirmation.
Affirmation is a very powerful technique to empower one’s subconscious. Through affirmation, beings are empowered to do, to work, and to strive for more things. Affirmation allows people to believe in themselves and to put their thoughts into action.
Affirmation is a combination of verbal and visual techniques of a preferred state of mind of a person. Strong affirmations can be very powerful, and can be used by almost anyone to achieve goals and fulfill desires. However, the power of an affirmation depends on its strength.
A strong affirmation should be stated in the present tense to be more effective. An affirmation of “I am now a happy being” is more effective than an affirmation saying, “I am going to become a happy being.” Affirmation should always be in positive terms because it is supposed to work for you and not against you. Instead of saying, “I am not sad,” why not make an affirmation saying, “I am happy.”
An affirmation should be made up of simple but concise words, and it should be short to be more effective. A short affirmation can be easily spoken and repeated by a person. It can serve as a mantra that can be repeated over and over again.
To be effective, an affirmation must be repeated. Repetition works and influences the subconscious, which in turn motivates the person into acting out his affirmation. Writing words that one believes in can be very powerful, and this can be put to good use when creating an affirmation.
However, creating an affirmation alone and repeating them a million times would not make the affirmation a state of mind. The important thing is to live one’s affirmation and to be open-minded enough to do the things that would help the affirmation become a reality. Feeling the affirmation and applying it in one’s life will help in making the affirmation a reality.
While an affirmation is generally used to make an individual better, it can also be used to boost or confirm another person’s value. By affirming another person‘s existence, you are helping him improve his self-worth.
Affirmation is a very simple thing that can make a very big difference in a person‘s life. It can be a great motivator and can make things happen.
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