Focusing on what's important
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:date: 16-03-2012
:tags: focus, time-management
:status: draft

I do have a problem with information.

Information overload.

This thing that makes me check my emails, irc, twitter, my feed reader etc. 
This thing that makes me feel uncomfortable at the end of the day, because I 
feel that I missed something. That I missed some good time, away from news and
agitation.

What do I need? I tried to change my tools, it helped a bit, Still, I'm not
focused like I would like to be. I've tried the pomodoro technique but… I'm not
yet convinced, mostly because this means me being interrupted every 20 minutes.

Maybe that's just me who needs some more persuasion over myself, but the best
way I found to work is to unplug the cable. Literally. At work, I'm using a
RJ45 cable to connect to the internet. When I want to work on something,
I just unplug this cable.

And that's amazing how you find yourself in the process to "check"
something on the web. Mails, irc… well, you got the idea.

Of course, that web isn't filled only with lolcats and twitter messages
(even if I would **love** to see a pie chart with the repartition of lolcats
VS the rest of the web's content), so sometimes you need some precious bit of
information that's there. Fair enough. plug the cable, do what you **need** to
do, and unplug. Alexis, unplug!

I'm feeling adventurous, so I'll try something new starting tomorrow, and I'll
report back in here my findings. Here's the challenge:

* **Check emails only twice a day**. Do not do it in the morning, before
  working, to keep my mind clear. I would say at 2pm (after lunch) and at 8pm.
  (This doesn't mean I will not send mails tho)
* Stay away from the internet during the morning. I'll not connect if I don't
  need to.

I still need to find a way to be reachable during these off-line periods,
because that could be very painful for the folks on my team otherwise. (the
good thing is that my morning is their nights).
