Late one night last week, as I was managing 25 open windows, three Twitter accounts, the neverending stream of email and somehow deluding myself into thinking I was "working," my friend Chris Brogan's latest tweet popped up. It read something like "we live in an interruption-based society." Somewhat ironic, given that the tweet itself is the very type of interruption of which he was speaking (but only because I have my TweetDeck set to “interrupt” me with messages like that—essentially, my own damn fault!). But I’ve been pondering his comment for the past several days.
While those of us in the communications business have a professional obligation to stay connected to the virtual world, I think we are guilty of being more "busy" than truly engaged. When does our compulsion to multi-task, to be constantly connected, for immediacy and instant gratification just become a fruitless exercise in unfocused activity and excess noise?
I'm currently jotting down this blog on a scrap of magazine paper using a borrowed pen, on a plane en route to Atlanta. AFTER I finally finished the website copy and company boilerplate I've struggled to write for months. It seems all I needed was a two hour plane ride with—you guessed it—no interruptions.
So, I’m vowing this week to take control of my schedule. I’m committed to spending one hour per day without interruptions. No television, no iPod, no cell phone, no Twitter, no Facebook, no email and no IM. Just me and the task at hand. Care to join me?
