ADD

All this social networking stuff - is it making us ADD?

A nice article about the downfalls of having too many input (and reply requested) streams.... by Tom Steinert-Threlkeld

Here are some of Dr. Goodman’s recommended techniques:

Screen your screens. Turn off all your screens, when you have work to do.

Grey out the Blackberry. You may not be able to turn it off, but figure out how to set the vibrator to only go off when your boss is trying to reach you.

Slot your communication time. Set an alert to check your Twitter stream just once an hour. Establish a practice of checking your email twice a day, at set times, such as 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. Check everything else on your own time.

Slot your ‘to do’ time. This is the hard one. The natural tendency is to just let the ‘To Do’ list build up and then tackle each item, when there’s time. Make time. Assign an hour to each item, just like it was a meeting or event. Close the door. Do it.

If your day and your focus is still breaking down, you’re going to have to even set some time up for figuring out what your priorities really are (and why) as well as setting (then hitting) deadlines.

All this may mean you’ll have to resist the ethos of the social media and electronic communications that almost has come to be:

I twitter, therefore I am.