Information Overboard

At this very moment, I have a Word document, a PowerPoint
presentation, Outlook email, four…whoops make that five…browser
windows and two instant messenging/internet phone platforms open on my
desktop. And I am making progress on just about nothing. It has taken
me 30 minutes to type these few lines because the little envelope that
tells me I have a new Outlook message keeps popping up, so I check to
see what it is, and then someone walks in to chat and then someone IMs
me…


I’m sorry, what was I saying again? Seriously. Information overload is
killing my brain cells. I swear I am less able to focus, concentrate
and remember than I was even 5 years ago. And I refuse to believe all
of that is due to my age.


These days it seems like instant gratification has gone completely
haywire. I have people email me, then call me to see if I got their
email before I’ve even had a chance to register that there is a
message in my inbox. Heaven forbid, I am actually WORKING ON SOMETHING
or in a meeting or on the phone or – gasp – deigning to think about
something before responding…I mean reacting.


That’s what it’s come to. We are perpetually reacting and it feels
like there’s no substance to most of it. No purpose. All I want to do
sometimes is unplug, and yet I go home and turn on the boob tube AND
fire up my laptop…I feel so fragmented and pulled in 7 directions most
of the time. Can I choose to unplug?


I tried that yesterday. I left the office with a ream of articles in
hand to review for our upcoming magazine. I went to a local cafe,
ordered a glass of wine, took a breath and started to read the
articles. I couldn’t concentrate. I kept feeling like I should be
checking something, doing something more…doing more than one thing at
once while at the same time not getting anything done… This
uni-tasking felt so foreign. I find I am like that at home too.
Constantly buzzing with energy and feeling either completely
overstimulated or completely understimulated. Is our culture
programming us for ADD??? Is there a happy medium?


While I was writing this (okay not while I was, but during one of my
25 breaks in writing this), I looked for some articles on this issue.
I found this one that I think might be good…except I haven’t gotten
around to reading it yet because I am too busy trying to finish this
post, edit a document, answer 5 emails and update my Facebook status…


It all feels so urgent. I need information detox. Girl overboard!!