Good info!

I guess it depends on the kind of work you do. If it’s your job to create something, I think it is reasonable to have others interrupt you only during scheduled times, or for you to reply to emails only during specified times of the day.

First of all thank you. Thank you for writing what I try to tell people in a clear and convincing one-pager (it typically takes me a lot longer and then I fail ;)

To me this one close to wraps it up. I also love a Dutch short write up on setting goals way easier than the classic systems do, unfortunately I can not refer to it unless you speak Dutch.

But as to Zen your productivity I would like to point out one article from a Dutch productivity coach who goes the mile on this topic. I have learnt a lot from it and use it to train people to shut their phones up. Do check out http://timemanagement.nl/give-your-smartphone-some-zen-time/ .

I am currently trying to get corporates to turn OFF new email notifications by default, so you don’t get them unless you change it. Work in progress but if you know of any success stories here I would much appreciate it.

Kind regards, Richard

Owner Email Handyman and creator Braintoss
http://workshop.emailhandyman.com
http://www.braintoss.com

You’ve made some good points.

Ad: #1 and #3:

Of course, not every professional can check email just twice per day

The main point here is to have a schedule (plan) for checking the email, whether it’s 2 times per day, or 10 times per day. The main idea is that you shouldn’t check it compulsively/obsessively – that’s detrimental to productivity.

Likewise, real-time popups break focus.

One of the reasons I advocate for working in long, un-interrupted blocks of focused time is that being reactive to real-time notifications, mutli-tasking and context switching can have long-term negative impact on mental skills – these things are essentially the opposite of meditation. They train you to have short attention span.

For example:

- Ms. Morgenstern’s analysis showing 6-7 interruptions per hour adding up to 8 hours per day has too many assumptions and holes. What is an interruption? How many interruptions are casual versus the nature of your business? What roles did the sample play in this claim?

I agree distractions are distracting – this claim reduces my confidence in her assertion.

You follow-up with 5 things we can do to mitigate.

#1: Disabling non-essential notifications, such as Facebook friending, makes sense. But disabling text messages or email notifications from your co-workers or boss are probably not good moves.

#2: I can go with your comment here…

#3: Limited yourself to 2 checks of email a day is not practical for many professional positions. Like it or not, email is the predominant way of communicating in professional, distributed, or large organizations. It can be a career-limiting move to wait until the end of the day to check on the urgent-stamped message the boss sends you in the morning.

#4: Also agree here.

#5: I very much agree here.

Definitely thought-provoking. I personally would steer away from putting the onus on the reader that he/she is the one allowing distractions. I get what you’re trying to say, though, and I would agree that the individual can do more to set better “rules of engagement” when it comes to productivity.

>>>> Dan