River: Managing attention
Fascinating post in O'Reilly Radar yesterday titled: Is it Time to Retire the Never-Ending List?
One afternoon, earlier this year, as I was scanning a long list that I was adding to endlessly, I realized, I'll never get it all done. That's probably just fine. But this endless list and this feeling of being completely scheduled's not working right now.
I met some friends for dinner and put the question out: Do you have a never-ending list? Do you manage your time? Do you manage minutes, tasks, and lists? Do you start each day with a list that has more on it at the end of the day than it did at the beginning of the day, in spite of how many items are completed and crossed off?
Or do you manage your attention? Do you manage emotions, intention, and make choices about what will and will not get done? What are your favorite ways to do this?
There were a couple of good suggestions, too. Worth a read.
I understand this. I, too, have an endless to-do list. I leave IM turned on and waste attention wondering whether I should ping someone, or wondering whether they'll ping me. I have a browser window up all the time with an easy, tempting bookmark for LJ. At home, LJ is always on a tab, along with a couple of posts where I want to follow comments! I have an editor window, sharing a ctwm tab with the browser, that's constantly viewing either email or my to-do list. It's too easy to get distracted.
Lately it's been changing a little. The list is still there, but there's a section with today's date. Whenever something comes up that needs to be done tomorrow or on the weekend, it goes there. Every day I can see both what I did, and what I didn't do. The rest of the endless list, organized by topic, is still mostly there, but it's not on the first page and I rarely look at it. Some things are going to get forgotten. Sorry about that.
I've dialed IM down a couple of notches; I should pull it down even more, I guess, and put the buddy list down where I can't see it. I should limit LJ even more, too, and not even look at it at work except at lunchtime.
Not all my river posts are about relationships. Sometimes it's just my relationship to the space-time continuum. Deal.