Leaving Distractions Behind

To be fully productive means to have found a zone of creativity, free (or minimized) of external noise and chatter. Like trying to read a book when the television is shouting interesting things at you, or attempting to write code in the middle of a busy cafe, there are certain levels of chaos that can radically alter how well we set our minds to particular tasks.

I find myself to be a very easily distracted person. So, when I do things that require my full attention, such as reading a book or writing code, or drawing an illustration - the higher the distraction level is, the higher the odds are that I'm going to slow down, make mistakes (or worse: both).

At home, I keep my office as part of a family room, with a large screen that my son loves to play games on. I've been able to work around it (mostly) by keeping my work hours when the space is unoccupied, and the television is turned off. Eventually, I plan on getting a more dedicated home office that has a greater level of privacy, but that's not an option right now. So, in the meantime one thing I found was to let my son use a set of wireless bluetooth headphones when he plays, so that I can't hear how much action is going on (and keeping me from turning around and cheering him on). So far it seems to be making a big difference.

At work, there are plenty of other people that have the potential for distraction, but they are mostly quiet and seem to be doing their own things, which isn't too bad. Headphones are a great help at blocking unwanted noise. I listen to different types of music, depending on what I intend on getting done at the time, which can really help find the zone of productivity. Occassionally I listen to podcasts, but find myself actually stopping to listen to what the narrator is talking about. Audiobooks are out of the question - I tried that once, and just couldn't run it parallel to my own thoughts. Perhaps it's all in how I think. I feel like when I'm working something out, I'm nearly talking to myself in my own head (like now, in writing this, I hear a voice echoing the words I type. "Hello, voice-in-my-head!").

There's also instant messaging, rss feeds, and email to consider. So far, these don't see to be much of a problem, though I do tend to turn off the IM when I really need to get my head wrapped around something (I also worry about the reverse effect, when I want to chat with a buddy, and am not sure if I'm being a distraction to them). Reading feeds is something I need to figure out how to make time for, and perhaps part of that problem is just to reduce the number of sites that I currently subscribe to. Email isn't an issue at all (bonus points for mailing lists).

But I've noticed something in the past year or so. Social networking has really changed how we connect with other people. Services like Twitter, Pownce, Brightkite, Facebook, Flickr, Behance, LinkedIn and numerous others send us a barrage of status updates and announcements of what our remote friends are up to at any given moment. These services are an excellent way to make announcements and keep in touch with any of your tech-savvy buddies.

Feel the power of the dark side!

But social networking has it's dark side as well. For someone as borderline ADD as I am, these tools begin to eat into that concentration barrier a little too strongly. The pros and cons begin to take on a very skewed angle of extreme connection overload. For all it's advantages, there has to be the final question "is it all worth the time that you sacrifice?". Because face it, you are using valuable time to maintain these services. A few minutes here and there can add up into valuable lost time. Broken concentration can be the death of a great idea you've been working on. Getting back up to a decent speed of creativity? Nearly impossible.

To be a social networking pro, you have to understand not only how to manage your time around it, but also how to quickly shift your train of thought from one distraction to another and back into work without losing any speed. Speaking for myself, I find these things a little too difficult to do very efficiently. My time is a careful balance of work and family, so when I'm on the computer, I have to keep a very tight schedule, else I lose any of the advantage of being a good designer.

You can't reach me there, but you can still reach me here!

With this in mind, I'm making some adjustments. I've completely closed my Twitter and Pownce accounts, because in my particular case, the pros do not outweigh the cons. All that these two have been for me is a way of keeping in touch with others, but not much more than that. I really can't have the distraction. So why not just keep the applications closed for part of the day? Because I want to maximize all the time that I spend on the computer, which means I don't need to spend thirty minutes going through replies and status updates that have little relevance to my being productive.

I have however, kept the following: Facebook, because there are a few old schoolmates that I have only this means of reaching them (though I did remove all the noisy applications). Brightkite, because I see this as being useful for when I travel. LinkedIn, for job and work-related opportunities. Flickr, for the photos (though I'm making an effort to not post any non-photo type of imagery from this point forward). Virb... I'm just not sure what to do with (yet). These are things that I can manage effectively.

So how has social networking affected you?