Both David Giacalone and Greatest American Lawyer offers some suggestions here and here for minimizing the technology distractions that impede our productivity, which I posted on earlier here. GAL suggests techniques like blocking off time for working on briefs, taking a break from the computer screen and customizing cell phone messages so that we don’t feel compelled to always interrupt ourselves with returning phone calls. David meanwhile emphasizes that we may need to apply some good old fashioned discipline to deal with information overload so that it doesn’t get the best of us.
Even before reading the Life Hackers article, I had already taken measures to eliminate one time sink from my day: blogging. Used to be that I would start a post during downtime, only to find that my post was leaking over into time that I should have been working. Now, I limit my blogging and my feed reading (which is also addictive) to evenings, weekends and that sort of in between time when my daughters are home from school, where I don’t have enough non interrupted time to work, but where blogging fits in nicely.
Carolyn, I have always been impressed with your ability to put off weblog work during your “workday”. If I were still in practice or on somebody’s payroll, I would have a very difficult time being that disciplined, and would find all of the “just a quick post” lies to myself snowballing into large embezzlers of my time.