Category Archives: multi-tasking

Conscious Computing

Our focus has been on technologies as prosthetics for the mind, and human-as-machine style productivity. This has led to burn-out, poor health, poor sleep, and what I call email apnea or screen apnea. We wonder where our attention has gone. Turns out, it’s right where we left it — with our ability to breathe fully. What if technology became a prosthetic for our beings? Continue reading

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Filed under attention, breathe, breathing, Conscious Computing, continuous partial attention, distraction, email apnea, engaged, health, multi-tasking, overwhelmed, screen apnea, technology, Uncategorized

This is What the Future Looks Like

Over the last few weeks, I’ve been noticing that about a third of people walking, crossing streets, or standing on the sidewalk, are ON their cell phones. In most cases, they are not just talking; they are texting or emailing — attention fully focused on the little screen in front of them. Tsunami warning? They’d miss it. Continue reading

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Filed under attention, continuous partial attention, distraction, information overload, multi-tasking, overwhelmed, 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

Beyond Simple Multi-Tasking: Continuous Partial Attention

What I call continuous partial attention is referred to as complex multi-tasking in cognitive science.  Most of us don’t walk around distinguishing between simple and complex multi-tasking when we talk about our day:  “I multi-tasked all afternoon and I’m exhausted.”  … Continue reading

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Filed under continuous continuous partial attention, continuous partial attention, multi-tasking, stress