My Own Pirate Radio

I remember bragging to my mother in highschool about being able to do homework while listening to TV and the radio, eating dinner, and talking on the phone, all at once. And I really could! The Amazingly Undistractable Boy Wonder! These days, though, I have to purge all clutter around me — audio, visual, whatever — in order to focus. I rarely pick up the phone, I never watch TV. It is almost an allergic reaction.

Paul Ford wrote an essay on this same topic entitled “Followup/Distraction”. (Found via MamaMusings… thanks Liz.) It’s worth a read. He describes the Internet as “…sort of the mental equivalent of the snack aisle at a convenience store, filled with satisfying fatty chips and tasty cream-filled cakes. God knows I’ve spent enough time with both the Internet and cream-filled cakes to see the similarities. And I now know that what I want, mentally, is a well-cooked meal. ” Like a book, for instance.

I agree.

Try this experiment: the next time your phone rings in the middle of a face-to-face discussion with someone, don’t answer. Then, whilst you studiously ignore the phone, watch your companion’s face for signs of anxiety. It’s amazing how much an unanswered phone disturbs most people. Why do we think phone calls should take precedence over in-person conversations? How strange.

Email, in particular, is mind-damaging stuff. It corrodes your attention span. For a while I had quite a nasty little habit at work of checking email about 10 times an hour, while in the midst of trying to do something else… writing a document, say, or participating (sort of) in a meeting. Not only was it rude, it totally destroyed efficiency. It took me years to build the discipline of turning off the distractions (yes, it’s possible, you can turn email OFF), and focusing linearly on the task at hand. Even so, it is a real battle: TV, phone calls, email, pop-up ads, text messages, messenger. And now increasingly ubiquitous connectivity brings it all to you anyplace, and calendars slice your day into 15 minute intervals so that you can be distracted anytime.

Sometimes you have to regress to progress.