Interruptive media versus multitasking
My latest Thinkernet column is live: "The Pleasures of Uninterrupted Communication," about the difference between technologies that let us do a lot of things at once and those that interrupt us over and over again:
The mature information worker is someone who can manage his queues effectively, prioritizing and re-prioritizing as new items crop up, doing the fast-context-switching necessary to respond to an email while waiting for a file to download or a backup to complete. It's a little like spinning plates, and when you get the rhythm of it, it can be glorious. There's a zone you slip into, a zone where everything gets done, one thing after another clicking into place.LinkBut once you add an interruptive medium like IM, unscheduled calls, or pop-up notifiers of mail, flow turns into chop. The buzz, blip, and snap of a thousand alerts turn plate-spinning into hell, as random firecrackers detonate over and over again, on every side of you, always there in your peripheral vision, blowing your capacity to manage your own queue as they rudely insert themselves into your attention.
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This is why I hate telephones. Its like having a little man in a room screaming TALK TO ME! TALK TO ME! DROP WHAT YOU'RE DOING AND TALK TO ME! every time it rings. Terribly rude, that.
Good article, Cory. I know a lot of people use email as their personal database these days. What email program do you use? Are there add-ons/plugins that you use with it that you couldn't live without?
Yes, but how can I possibly resist my own potent urge to interrupt my work with forays into the delightful world of the Internets?
Wow. I think I need to link to this every time some kid gives me grief for not having an IM client and not liking text messages. Well done.
While these interruptions (IMs, phone calls) are often irksome, they pale in comparison to the duress caused by the latter-day Puritan coworkers who shun IMs and phone calls and opt, in stead for more invasive interruption tactics like; the "casual swing by" or worse yet the "urgent favor request". They likely views their abstinence from more convenient methods of communication as "refreshing" and "outside the box", while most of us struggle to resist using the wooden mallet in the top desk drawer. The glorious thing about phone calls is you can not answer them and im's can be ignored. It takes more tact and discipline to ignore an in-your-space individual who thinks they should be at the top of your queue.
I think this touches on something really important about the way humans organize their time. You talk about flow, which is a pretty important concept(/buzzword) nowadays in game design, as in the sensation of being immersed in your process. I like the idea of "chop" as a counter-concept, as in something that jolts you suddenly out of your process. I wonder if it would be possible to programatically arrange your work environment to present your work to you as a game, orchestrating your experience so that you're constantly kept "in flow."
Is it chop if you can anticipate it? What if your IMs and E-mails only pinged at specific, prearranged intervals? Would they still annoy you, or would you learn their rhythms and work with them?
Some businesses place a high value on multi-tasking - glorify it, in fact. Apparently I multi-task well. I think it's very over-rated. If all my co-workers go to lunch and my email, IM, cell and regular phone line are quiet, I'll be more productive than in the first 5 hours of the day. Multi-tasking feels more like fragmentation. Some author called it exactly that. I'll remember once I get home and can focus on doing only one thing...
I rarely answer my phone or even my doorbell unless I'm expecting someone. Set IM to permanent away and people will eventually learn to leave a message.
The problem is, the same people most likely to have IM, cell, email, Twitter, Skype, etc., are also more likely to be the same people that are starving for human contact, even remote contact.
I thought that multi-tasking had been completely deprecated. Your brain takes a minute or two to adjust to a new task. When you jump from one task to another, you're always working at minimal efficiency. Top producers in most industries let their e-mails and phone messages pile up while they focus on a single task for a one or two hour block. Multi-tasking is counter to basic brain science.
I'm much happier with the "casual swing by" than I ever am with phone-calls. Since it actually requires a lot more effort than using the phone or IM, you're more likely to wait until it's sufficiently important... and you're less likely to keep doing it every 5 minutes.
Additionally, you can make your presence known and wait until the other person is ready to reply, instead of standing there screaming "DROP EVERYTHING AND TALK TO ME RIGHT NOW RIGHT NOW RIGHT NOW RIGHT NOW RIGHT NOW" like a phone ring does.
@6 that's a great idea! You should patent it. No, seriously, I think you could be onto something.
Good comment Doug Nelson.
I know that there are those, limited by age or formation, have a certain thirst for "human contact" by means of using the most ancient interfaces for comunication (being spoken word a first choice).
Special exception for all afective relations, of course ;)
What’s most challenging for me is that in my workplace, email is the primary tool that is used to make requests and notify people of problems that need to be addressed. So, the critical communication is mixed right in there with all the other stuff. “Interruptive mode” is the normal mode of operation in this environment. Also, we are encouraged to keep our IM tool on so we can be reached at any given moment (more “interruptive mode”).
I have also noticed that teens and young adults are accustomed to being in this mode with text messaging and IMing and I often wonder if this will result in them developing a different style where they don’t need (or ever have) uninterrupted time to concentrate on anything. They seem to be coping.