diff --git a/content/incubation/2012.03.focus.rst b/content/incubation/2012.03.focus.rst index 8f25e19..e2776c7 100644 --- a/content/incubation/2012.03.focus.rst +++ b/content/incubation/2012.03.focus.rst @@ -1,46 +1,48 @@ -Focusing on what's important -############################ +Focusing on what matters +######################## -:date: 16-03-2012 +:headline: How to avoid the information overload? +:date: 2016-03-17 :tags: focus, time-management -:status: draft I do have a problem with information. -Information overload. +You know. I **have** to check my emails, irc, twitter, my feed reader etc. +I need to. -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 +And this thing 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. +focused like I would like to be. I've tried the pomodoro technique but… after +some *pomodoros* I stopped using it, not sure why. 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. +way I found to work is to unplug the cable. Literally. At work, at some point I +was using a RJ45 cable to connect to the Internet. When I wanted to work on +something, I could 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. +something on the web. Mails, irc… well, you got the idea. You're litterally, +without even noticing, switching to your browser an opening a new tab… -Of course, that web isn't filled only with lolcats and twitter messages +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! +It also helps to have some fair bit of documentation available directly on my +machine (I used to have the python docs, I should get it back!) + 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. +* **Check emails only once a day**. Do **not** do it in the morning, before + working, to keep my mind clear. I would say at 2pm (after lunch). (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 +* 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). +Let's see how it goes :)