Maybe music will help

In the Lifehacker.com article I mentioned yesterday, Clay Johnson talks about using noise-reducing headphones to listen to lyric-free music in order to help him stay focused on his work. It may be possible to achieve even more, just by picking the right music. An article on Discovery Health (helpfully tweeted by @HowStuffWorks, and you should follow them, BTW) gives some excellent information about the link between music and mood. Apparently it's hardwired in our brains, and can be put to good use.

Getting things done

I'm really good at multitasking. Really, I am. Um, but sometimes I also have a little trouble getting things done. Wonder if the two are related....

There's a lot of information out there that indicates multitasking is pretty much a myth. According to San Diego Union-Tribune, our brains appear to have a finite amount of space for tasks requiring attention, and when we try to perform two demanding tasks simultaneously, we do neither one as well as we do each one alone. And if we take on three tasks, one of them gets dropped. Furthermore, Seattle Times says,

Scientists say juggling e-mail, phone calls and other incoming information can change how people think and behave. They say our ability to focus is being undermined by bursts of information.

These play to a primitive impulse to respond to immediate opportunities and threats. The stimulation provokes excitement — a dopamine squirt — that researchers say can be addictive. In its absence, people feel bored.

While many people say multitasking makes them more productive, research shows otherwise. Heavy multitaskers actually have more trouble focusing and shutting out irrelevant information, scientists say, and they experience more stress.

Stress. Yup.

There is hope, though. According to an excellent article on Lifehacker, it is possible to rebuild our attention span and re-learn to focus. The first step, apparently, is to have fewer of those bursts of information. Well…okay, I do have a business coach/speaker/effectiveness expert friend who insists his students turn off the "you've got mail" alert sound while they're working, and he himself actually only listens to voice mails and returns phone calls twice a day! And, yes, I've learned that I have to quit out of my email client altogether if I have a big deadline. I can't leave it running in the background because I'll check it. Regularly. And often.

So if my choices are to know instantly when LinkedIn has some updates I might be interested in, or to actually finish that 500-word article in under three days, I guess I'll choose the productive route. Just don't be too shocked if I'm not particularly cheerful about it, okay?

I'll keep you informed on how well it's paying off!

Tonight (different night)

Tonight is the Joint Chamber Mixer at the Hilton Southlake. It's members of the Southlake, Colleyville, Keller, Grapevine, HEB and Northwest Metroport Chambers all getting together and mingling. Should be fun!

I understand there are a very few tickets left. Call one of the Chambers if you're interested.

Tonight

Southlake Chamber of Commerce is holding its Annual Awards Banquet tonight. I missed last year's event because I was at a Stars' game. (Hey, I had my priorities. And pre-paid tickets.)

If anyone wants to join us, be at the Hilton in Southlake Town Square tonight!

Quote of the Day

His mother had often said when you choose an action, you choose the consequences of that action. She had emphasized the corollary of this axiom even more vehemently: when you desired a consequence you had damned well better take the action that would create it.

— Lois McMaster Bujold, writer (1949- )

Words to live (and work) by!

Twitter

Sometimes it's hard to explain why I find so much value in Twitter. Most people who don't participate (and some who do) think it's nothing but short messages about pointless things, like what you're eating for lunch or the exact task you're working on at that second. It isn't, and David Carr, in the 1/1/10 New York Times, explains it really well. A few highlights:

By carefully curating the people you follow, Twitter becomes an always-on data stream from really bright people in their respective fields, whose tweets are often full of links to incredibly vital, timely information.

The service has obvious utility for a journalist, but no matter what business you are in, imagine knowing what the thought leaders in your industry were reading and considering.

Nearly a year in, I’ve come to understand that the real value of the service is listening to a wired collective voice.

At first, Twitter can be overwhelming, but think of it as a river of data rushing past that I dip a cup into every once in a while.

The best people on Twitter communicate with economy and precision, with each element — links, hash tags and comments — freighted with meaning. Professional acquaintances whom I find insufferable on every other platform suddenly become interesting within the confines of Twitter.

Twitter helps define what is important by what Mr. Shirky has called “algorithmic authority,” meaning that if all kinds of people are pointing at the same thing at the same instant, it must be a pretty big deal.

There was some news event a few months back (I think it was the helicopter and small plane colliding over the Hudson River) that I read about on Twitter and I naively assumed that it had happened the day before, maybe, or at least a few hours earlier. In reality I had heard about it within minutes of it happening. That's the whole atmosphere of Twitter. It's immediate, and it's fast.

You understand, this is completely separate and distinct from the value of Facebook, which I've heard described quite accurately as 'talking to the neighbors over the back fence.' (Or—a little Facebook reference here—hearing about how the neighbors played Farmville or Mafia Wars, and refusing—over and over and over—invitations to join them.)

And just from the perspective of posting my own Tweets, Twitter does very good things for me. As Carr points out, every word has to do a lot. It forces me to keep copy tight, no empty rhetoric, no fluff. 140 characters to get the idea across, and that's it. It also helps keep ideas tight. Pick your slant and get it out there, no hedging, no waffling. And that's a good thing, too.

So a big 'thank you' to David Carr and the NY Times. Your article will help explain to Twitter muggles why I keep checking my phone.

Funny stories

Author Anita Brock will be speaking at the North Richland Hills Library this evening, telling stories from her two travel books, Out, About and Around, and Mileage, Memories and Mishaps, plus some never published.

There are many anecdotes in her books to which I can relate, especially one about losing her "good" tweezers in her car. In her steering column, to be exact, after using them at a stop light (I can also relate to that). She tried to jar them free by speeding up and slamming on the brakes. That is so something I would try.

I have to admit, though, that having experienced 'squatty potties' in China, one of my favorite sections is her commentary on toilets around the world. In particular, she describes a situation in a hotel in Ephesus, Turkey. The toilet in their room was obviously intended to have a seat, but it was missing. She had to explain to the desk clerk, who spoke no English:

"I stood at the desk flapping my arms imitating a toilet seat going up and down…and watched the clerk's eyes glaze over in incomprehension. I know what he was probably thinking.

"This woman is chattering ninety miles a minute and the only word I understand is 'toilet.' She is gesturing like the men in orange vests on an airport runway. Is she telling me she wants to fly away and take the toilet?"

He followed me to the room. I showed him the toilet sans seat. He sighs. The glaze leaves his eyes and he chatters. I only understood the word 'toilet.' I think, as it turned out, he was telling me, "You ladies need a toilet seat. While you are at dinner I will have one attached."

He may have been saying, "I will have someone escort you to the airport."

Seriously. Funny stories.

Tonight, 7 – 8:30, at the North Richland Hills Library, 9015 Grand Avenue, North Richland Hills, TX, 76180-7901. Free admission and refreshments.

I promise you'll laugh.