Category Archives: attention management

A Badass Musician & a Sixth Degree Aikido Black Belt Advise on Email Apnea

Watching Cameron Carpenter play the organ is a transcendant experience. It’s as if he’s “lit.” The organ just sits there, and Carpenter’s body exudes a powerful energy. Most of us, when we interact with digital technologies, “merge” our energies with the device, exhausting ourselves. Experienced musicians don’t do this. In the evolution of our relationship with digital devices, we have a lot to learn from experienced musicians. Continue reading

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Filed under attention, attention management, breathe, breathing, Conscious Computing, continuous partial attention, distraction, email apnea, engaged, health, information overload, iPhone, overwhelmed, screen apnea, technology

The Hair Dryer that Got Away

For many of us, our evolving relationship with technology in a 24/7, mobile, always-connected world, traps us in a hyper-focus on the screen, and a blindness to the rich world around us. Continue reading

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Filed under attention, attention management, continuous partial attention, distraction, information overload, technology

Perpetual Inattentional Blindness

Our relationships with our SmartPhones, and this wicked habit that many of us, of walking or driving while texting or talking, hold us in a state of perpetual inattentional blindness. Continue reading

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Filed under attention, attention management, distraction, multi-tasking, technology

The Look & Feel of Conscious Computing

With a musical instrument, it’s awkward at first. All thumbs. Uncomfortable. Noise. With practice, musician becomes self-contained vs. consumed by the instrument; co-creating music. So it will be with personal technology. Now, a prosthetic of mind, it will become a prosthetic of being. A violinist with a violin. Us with our gadgets, embodied, attending as we choose. Continue reading

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Filed under attention, attention management, Conscious Computing, engaged

Dee Hock’s 1996 Quote…

Today, we are Knowledge Workers evolving into Understanding Workers. Understanding Workers use technology to anticipate, judge and act. Think about it. This is what we’re doing with FitBit, Quantified Self, 23andMe.com, Facebook, and so many other technologies of this era. Continue reading

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Filed under attention, attention management, dominant mass consciousness attention paradigm, engaged, information overload, innovation, O'Reilly Radar, technology, trends

Conscious Computing

Personal technologies today are prosthetics for our minds. Our opportunity is to create personal technologies that are prosthetics for our beings. Conscious computing is post-productivity, post-communication era computing. Personal technologies that enhance our lives. Personal technologies that are prosthetics of our full human potential. Continue reading

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Filed under attention, attention management, breathe, breathing, continuous partial attention, distraction, email apnea, health, O'Reilly Radar, O'Reilly Media, screen apnea, stress, technology

More on Intentions and Goals

Intention happens in the present. Goals are about the future. Where does behavior change? In the present. Continue reading

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Filed under attention, attention management, engaged

Screens R Us: When to Take a Break

The challenge is, most of us, especially the brainy future thinking high tech types, tend to favor the inclinations of the mind. The mind, for many of us, is often tyrannical towards the body. “Just stay up 3 more hours. One more all-nighter. A Red Bull or two and I’ll meet this deadline! No walk until this paper is done…” Continue reading

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Filed under attention management, email apnea, health, Huffington Post, reflection, screen apnea, stress, technology, Uncategorized

When Distraction is Good

Distraction and procrastination come in a variety of flavors.  I’ve noticed that when I’m “distracted,” and I walk over and stare out the window, it’s a very different experience than when I feed the distraction by cramming in a few … Continue reading

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Filed under attention, attention management, continuous partial attention, distraction, reflection