This image does a great job of summing up the insane amount of stimulus we all have and how hard it is to actually get things done. I originally came across it on Ed's blog months ago and it really stuck with me.
Then last month at sxswi, it came up again. I was standing in line for a nonprofit social media thing at Stubbs next to this girl with really cool boots - Janette, from Kansas City, author of this awesome eco-fashion blog. Anyhow, the nonprofit thing filled up, we decided to grab lunch, and she brought up this post and how hard it is to focus lately. This tells me that 1) a lot of people read Ed's blog, and 2) we see ourselves in this whiteboard. Two strangers, one random photo, complete recognition of life overload.
This is a great visual! My personal advice: limit Facebook to twice a day as a reward for doing something else (offline).
Posted by: Susan | April 17, 2009 at 12:14 PM
I think this whiteboard reinforces the fact that creative people have difficulty not so much with time management (we're very productive) but with attention management (our productivity is often misdirected).
I found this presentation the other day: http://bit.ly/VoJHr and liked it a lot.
Posted by: Kelly Eidson | April 18, 2009 at 08:28 AM
Hey stranger-slash-friend! What a fun surprise to see my name come up as I was catching up on your blog... thanks for the shout out!
Per our conversation about the whiteboard, here's some new personal experience to share:
1) I have begun single-tasking as much as possible, planning out my time on a per-week basis. I'm currently working on several ongoing projects that I've assigned a weekly number of hours to, and I designate each day or half-day to a given project. If Project A will take up the latter part of my week, I make sure to finish tangible to-dos with Project B by Wednesday. It's worked excellently for me... though I sure wish I were better at cutting myself off at the end of the day. :)
2) As for scheduling throughout the day -- surprisingly, I've found that attempting to check email/Twitter/etc. at set times of day actually made them MORE distracting. I'd wonder more about what I was missing than actually focus on the task at hand. Now, I've continued to check them regularly, but only respond when I have time. I watch the keywords I need to, but I simply don't read every tweet.
How about you? Any magical solutions?
P.S. When we met, Libby was wearing an awesome shirt, which was how we first struck up conversation. Yay for personal expression in what we wear! :)
Posted by: Janette | May 18, 2009 at 11:14 AM