Attention literacy : Howard Rheingold : City Brights. I opened my first class session this semester by projecting the word ATTENTION on a screen and telling my students that class begins when they turn off their telephones, close their laptops, and shut their eyes for sixty seconds. I asked them to observe for one minute where their minds leap without any external distractions from their top friends on MySpace or their World of Warcraft guild. From the beginning, I remind these young people that the purpose of my attention probes are to plant seeds of mindfulness about how we all use our attention, especially in the presence of seductive distractions from email to Facebook to IMing. I wasn’t trying to control them.
I was trying to draw their attention to how little control any of us seem to have over where we let the screens on our laps and in our pockets lead our thoughts. I was surprised to discover that my students welcomed my occasional orders to turn off their laptops in class. The Pomodoro Technique™ What is The Pomodoro Technique? EASY for anyone to use! Improves productivity IMMEDIATELY! FUN to do! Why Pomodoro? The Pomodoro Technique isn’t like any other time-management method on the market today. For many people, time is an enemy. Essential to the Pomodoro Technique is the notion that taking short, scheduled breaks while working eliminates the “running on fumes” feeling you get when you’ve pushed yourself too hard. Whether it’s a call, a Facebook message, or suddenly realizing you need to change the oil in your car, many distracting thoughts and events come up when you’re at work.
Most of us are intimately acquainted with the guilt that comes from procrastinating. Who does the technique work for? These are all ways real folks use the Pomodoro Technique: Motivate yourself to write.Limit distractions.Keep track of how long you’re spending brainstorming / writing / revising.Reduce back and neck pain by walking around during Pomodoro breaks.Draft a book in three weeks. How It works. My Library tagged workflow. TEDx Brighton notes on my talk | Open (minds, finds, conversations)... * * Updated: I have posted the video at the foot of this post * * These are the notes and links to accompany the talk I gave just now at TEDxBrighton (I will add the video to this post once it is available).The opportunity to give this kind of a talk was one I was really excited about, because it gave me the excuse to focus on a subject I’d been thinking about for a while and develop some ideas.When we talk about the web as a distraction, about information overload, about fears and doubts we are not alone.
But rather than blame the web, or tools like Facebook, Google or Twitter, we should think about how we can learn the skills, habits and self-discipline required to tap into the web? S power to help us to do things faster, better and with greater impact. To gain the most from using the web we need to think about how it is best used. This applies to everyday life, especially to knowledge work, or the knowledge-based elements of our working lives. Background That Facebook map…